We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Sears. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Alright, Andrew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I ever took was flying out to LA from Nashville to intern at a studio that I got connected with through a cold email.

Back in 2021, I was asking myself the same questions everyone else was. Do I need a new career? Did COVID effectively kill my opportunity to go into music? I quickly decided that the answer was no but that I needed to put myself out there in a way that scared me. So I started doing the thing everyone says not to do and cold emailing composers in LA asking for a job. I would spend the majority of my days sending email after email of the same thing. “Hi, my name is Andrew Sears and I’m a composer. Do you have an assistant position open?” . As you might expect weeks went by with silence or at best a no from some other assistant on the other end.

Then, one afternoon, I got a hit. A composer emailed me back saying that he didn’t have a position open for me but that I could come over to his studio and just see how he works and learn from him. So, after a quick phone call and introduction, we scheduled a week where I would fly out to LA from Nashville and just hang out at the studio. I had never been to LA before and everything was very intimidating. The week I spent at his studio flew by, as you can imagine, and after that, I asked if I could just keep coming back every other week or so to hang out. He said I was welcome around any time I wanted. So, for the next 6 months, I flew to LA every two weeks to hang out at his studio and network with other composers in LA.

All of that ended up leading to me moving out to LA from Nashville, the only home I ever knew, and pursuing a job as a composer. None of that would have been possible had I not taken the risk of sending those emails and then flying out on a whim, to hang out with a stranger at their studio and then invest in all the subsequent flights and rental cars to go back and forth from LA to Nashville. I am always grateful for the opportunities that came out of one composer replying to a random ass email in his inbox.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Musician, pianist, and composer:

My musical journey started when I was six years old and started to take piano lessons. My mom made it her mission to give me my brothers and my sister the musical education that she always wanted. So rain or shine we were going to lessons every week and playing in recitals every spring, Christmas, and fall.

I didn’t realize that I wanted to keep pursuing music until I was a freshman in high school. Because of financial issues that year we had to pause piano. It was then that I found myself sitting at the piano on my own time and practicing what I could remember as well as learning new songs on my own. This led to me composing pieces of my own and catching the bug for composing. For some reason, classical composition never entered my mind as an option but film scoring did. And it was after that year of self-exploration that I decided I wanted to write music for film and TV.

Looking back on everything, for me, I am most proud of the times that I took risks. Either creatively or professionally. I remember being in high school after that freshman year and signing up for our school’s Arts Night. Friends knew I played piano but nobody knew I wrote music. And when I performed an original composition, everyone was incredibly supportive. I also remember writing a piece in college that was my first atonal work and feeling nervous as hell to show it to my peers. But again they were all very supportive. I was never the top composer in my class or my peer group but it was these two specific moments where I saw that stepping out of my comfort zone was not only creatively stimulating but highly encouraged by everyone around me. This is my favorite aspect of music. You can explore areas of sound and emotion in any way you want. It’s not a great recipe for commercial success but it works wonders for personal happiness.

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

Connecting with people and knowing their stories:

Because music is such a relatable activity it pulls people together who would not normally find themselves in the same space. This gives musicians the opportunity to learn from individuals who are not like-minded. Then through learning about the hardships and triumphs of everyone’s life, you get this beautiful picture of the human experience.

This is what I have begun to make my mission in my music. I just want to connect with everyone on this deeper level. No matter if I am teaching piano to a middle schooler or talking with a director about their new film. There is always something you can connect with people on when it comes to music. Even the middle schooler knows what it’s like to feel betrayed. Sure it might only be on a middle schoolers level but they understand what Shostakovich was wrestling with when he was writing his 5th, 6th, and 7th symphonies. Even if his experience bore 100 times more risk than theirs.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Your curiosity:

Curiosity killed the cat but it sent human beings to the moon. I wish that I had leaned into my own curiosity sooner. It is that which compels you to the unexplored or underexplored corners of your field. That which makes you stay in the studio or office working on that problem or song just a little longer. Just so you can put that idea down on paper so to speak and share it with whoever is willing to listen.

Your curiosity should be used to fight the hesitation you feel when sitting down to a blank musical score or Word document.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hadriannashville/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-sears-260853145/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hadrianmusic4793

Image Credits
Bethany Long Photography