Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Sohn.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Since I was a kid, I’ve always seen myself doing music in shape or form. At first, I thought it would be in performing, where I was a drummer for a rock band called Stereotype Inc. and a junkyard percussion group SLAPercussion. However, due to the chronic shoulder pain I experienced as a drummer and the hard lifestyle of performing day in and day out, I transitioned over to teaching full-time as a band & percussion director for secondary school at American Preparatory Academy in West Valley. I taught there for 3 years during that time and had a blast working with the youth bands and orchestras. However, I felt that my true calling was in writing music. During the summers when school was out, I would find myself writing music and learning the music tech side of things like DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). I asked myself, “wow, I’m spending the same amount of time every day composing than I would be teaching… If I could get paid to do this, then how would that be?” So, I made the difficult decision to stop teaching after the end of the 2014 school year and pursued this composing journey. It’s been about eight years since then.
Currently, I run a music studio called Sohn Compositions where I focus on films, production music for TV, games and songwriting. Along the way, many people have given me the opportunity to write music for them and sharpen my composition skills. I’m very lucky to be able to do this for a living and am grateful for the chance to make music every day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a bumpy journey along the way but I think it was necessary to go through. First of all, when I started composing professionally, I lived off of my savings and that depleted very quickly! I also went into a little debt. So I ended up having to supplement my composing job with a day job as a supervisor for a debt collection company. During that time, I worked five hours a day talking with people who weren’t very happy with me asking to pay a debt and at least another five hours composing music at my studio. That went on for a long time, until I got the opportunity to make enough income to discontinue my day job and pay off all of my debt.
Another struggle I faced during that time was in my personal life. I was focused so much on building my music business that the relationship I had with my fiancée at the time suffered. We ended up parting ways and that was difficult for me. In fact, I had a film project deadline that needed to be delivered that same week we broke up and I somehow managed to get through it all. I’ve learned a lot about relationships during that time and it is something that many of us composers and other entrepreneurs face. However, now, I work hard to balance my work and personal life. Music is my calling but I need to take care of myself and make sure it is fair for others who are in my circle.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a composer, there are many ways to earn income. I’ve dabbled in a little bit of everything from film, games, production music libraries, Youtube, songwriting, and sheet music transcribing. Currently, I am focused more on scoring films these days. Christian Davis, another composer in Utah hired me to be his assistant and have helped write additional music for many of his films. I’ve worked on about 8 feature film titles with Christian so far. Currently, we finished co-scoring a film together called “The Quest for Tom Sawyer’s Gold” which will be my debut as a composer (not an additional music writer) on a feature film which I am very excited about!
Besides that, I try to write for production music libraries when I have time and have placements on TV across the globe including “Holey Moley,” “The Amazing Race,” “Big Brother,” “Anastasia: Once Upon a Time,” “The Bachelor” and more. One of my tracks was also randomly selected to be in a horror film that was scrapped in the 80s but salvaged and finished last year called “Grizzly 2: Revenge” on Showtime which features George Clooney and Charlie Sheen when they were young budding stars. I often chuckle to myself at the thought of this as it is highly unusual.
I’d love to continue this path as a composer for films and TV. However, with my previous background in a rock band, I also have written music for other mediums such as musical theater. I spent the last year working with a non-profit organization that wrote a rock/pop musical revolving around people with autism. It’s called “Different the Musical,” and we just had our world premiere week of shows here in Utah last month in August. I helped arrange and produce the recordings for the musical which I am very proud of.
I guess what sets me apart from others is my eclectic background performing and composing for the different worlds of rock, jazz, classical and quirky junkyard percussion. I enjoy the variety of work that comes my way and not afraid to experiment with blending these styles.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Every industry (film, games, production music) that I’m a part of works a little differently, but overall, there is a trend to be able to work more remotely due to technology. Music technology has progressed in a way, unlike any other time with one computer being able to do the job of multiple computers in the past decades. Virtual instruments created with samples and complex software make it possible to write entire orchestral film scores all inside of a computer. Things have also become cheaper and more affordable. Having this luxury has been a net positive for people around the globe. There are a lot of talented composers, given the opportunity and the right circumstances can blossom and make a lot of money wherever they are in the world. However, this trend comes with more saturation of the market and so there’s more competition. So for film and games, I feel this can affect the amount of pay for projects. One reason can be due to composers who are willing to take on projects for little to no-pay just to build up their track record. For the production music (for TV and broadcast), there are many music libraries who are basing their business models on subscriptions and blanket license agreements which also affect how much we are earning every year. So in the future, we composers will have to become more specialized in our fields to stand out from the rest or focus on creative, outside-of-the-box ways to earn income.
I, myself, am a Youtube influencer as well, and figuring out ways to become more sustainable in this changing world of social media and competition. I know many peers who run a side hustle business in music education and earn a considerable amount of income doing that along with their primary composing business. We will probably see more and more of this as time goes on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sohncompositions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohncompositions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohncompositions/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sohncompositions
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8734234/
