Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joshua Sohn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joshua, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As corny as it may sound, I feel that music chose me as opposed to the other way around. It wasn’t really my choice to become a composer. However, that realization came to me after going through a bit of a journey.

Early on as a kid, I thought how cool it would be to make music for film and games! However, that felt like a pipe dream as I barely knew how to read and write music. Those skill sets didn’t develop until I was drumming in a rock band and studied music in college. They were further developed when I became a school teacher and taught music in a band/orchestra environment. Over the summer breaks as a teacher, I found myself learning how to use music software, reading orchestration textbooks, and practicing film score. This is where I felt like I was in heaven, losing all sense of time which in reality ended up being about 8-10 hours a day. Then when school would start back up for the fall, I would get a little depressed. A moment of clarity doesn’t come around often but when it does you have to jump on it! So, at the end of my third year of teaching, I changed over to composing.

My first real gig was to score an Air Force Reserve commercial for a local Utah film director named Mike Lee. To this day, I’m very grateful for the opportunity that he gave me as it helped jumpstart my career and gave me the confidence to keep going.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello, my name is Joshua Sohn. I’m a first generation Korean-American composer that works with filmmakers, game developers, and music publishers for custom music. For the last ten years, I’ve had the pleasure to work with people from all over the world to help make movies, commercials, TV shows, musicals, and even songs for kids.

As a composer, my job is to find out what my client needs for music and then do my best to compose something that elevates their story. Every medium is slightly different. For instance, when I get hired to write for a film, I am making creative decisions for every scene, depending on what’s happening. When a character says something funny, I may write something playful underneath the dialogue. Or, maybe I do the opposite and cut the music to emphasize the awkward silence. Games are different as the music generally lays down a loop-able texture that the gamer can experience and control to some degree through the actions they make in the game. Developing the instincts for when music should be employed and creative choices for style of music takes years of trial and error to get right. I still learn new ways of improving the story telling and sharpening my skills every day.

If someone were to describe my style of music, it would be all over the place. Some music is more orchestral while others are more synthetic or electronic. However, what matters most is that my music gives impact to the story and leaves an impression on the listener. I would hope that my melodies are memorable and easy to hum along to.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is to do this every day for the rest of my life. There are those who retire at a certain age and there are those like John Williams who is currently 91 years old and still composes for film. I’m not saying that it’s wrong or right to do either… I just see myself in the latter camp where I’d be making music until the day I die (sorry for the morbid language). However, making a living on music isn’t easy. Besides being talented at composing, it also requires a bit of luck as well as finding the right people to work with to sustain this career. That’s why it is important to work on every project like it’s my last and to remind myself how lucky I am to be able to do this for a living.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My main social media presence is through Youtube. The channel is dedicated to music production tips and giving a glimpse into how music is made. I started making videos a few years ago after attending a Youtube workshop. So far, I have over 6,000 subscribers. The channel has proven to help my career and gain some public visibility. I’ve gotten people reaching out to me for consultations and requesting custom music after they watched my videos. In fact, I have to credit the Youtube channel for helping me get my first job as a composer’s assistant. At the time, my boss told me that he was impressed with the amount of knowledge that I shared and wanted to hire me.

For those who would like to build a social media presence specifically for Youtube, I would say to start by selecting a topic that you are passionate about and then practice speaking on a camera. Speaking on a camera doesn’t come natural to me (or a lot of people), so practice your presentation skills and come up with a script or an outline to stay on track for each video. Once you go through the process of releasing new videos to your channel and promoting them, you’ll naturally get better and better. If you’re committed to growing your channel, then you will eventually become proficient in various skills such as video editing, graphic design, writing, lighting, teaching and more. It’s much easier when you adopt the mindset that it’s fun to learn new skills. Of course, you should have a strategy like target audience and content focus, but making videos is hard work… so enjoy the process while you’re at it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sohncompositions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohncompositions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohncompositions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohncompositions
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoshuaSohn4
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sohncompositions
• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8734234/