We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Barry J Neely a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Barry J, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

My path in film music composition started fairly early on. I would sit for hours at my piano way back in middle school and come up with these long song arrangements that in my mind, told stories about my life. I even played a few of the pieces for my high school class projects, linking them to characters in books and stories. Oddly enough, I just recently found a note from my Freshman year English teacher thanking me for bringing that music to class, so I guess it worked!

Though I actually took “Mommy and Me” piano classes with my mother when I was really young, in my adolescent years I took lessons in piano, drums, and electric bass, played in bands and ensembles, but I never had formal training in music composition. That last part never set me back, I just started composing and kept on doing it. Even in bands, I would try and make fun, new arrangements. But getting bandmates to play 10-minute long songs didn’t always go over so well. Doing that, however, taught me how to work well with other musicians, and with people in general.

Eventually, I went to film-focused Emerson College, and that’s where I met filmmakers that needed music: it seemed like something I could actually do professionally.

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?

I write music for films: original compositions that go along with the picture and help tell the story. And I started doing that by meeting filmmakers.

Every filmmaker I meet generally knows what they like and what they don’t like musically. I usually use the term “filmmaker” because though often it’s the director, sometimes it’s the producer that has the full vision for the film. Whomever the filmmaker is, they know what their movie should be: the genre, the characters, the story, and maybe they even have another film score in mind that has a similar feel to their film. But many times they’re worried that they don’t know “proper” musical terminology, or they think that their ideas are too vague. And that’s where I come in.

I read the script, watch a rough cut of the film, but the most important thing that I want to know is what the filmmaker wants the audience to FEEL. So, I ask them that directly. And generally I write down every word they say, because you never know what’s going to be important later on.

My job actually writing music then begins.

Like when I was a kid, I begin by sitting at my piano. I don’t need to have anything in mind, I just sit. It feels like I’m re-discovering music in a way. I don’t have any pre-conceived notions, I don’t listen to any other soundtracks, I just…go. And maybe after an hour, I’ve come up with something, maybe just a sketch. But usually – and I suspect a lot of creatives experience this – my fully realized idea comes when I’m in bed and just about to fall asleep. Then it becomes a battle of whether or not I’m going to get up and either write it down in some non-musical, elementary way, or if I sing it into my voice memo app. Either way, it’s a toss up as to whether I will understand it in the morning or not!

It’s my job not only to write music that best serves the story, but to bring to the table compositions that will excite the filmmaker. Maybe that’s through ideas that they never thought of, or instruments that they would never think to use: anything and everything that makes for an exciting score and therefore, an exciting movie. And to be clear, “exciting” can cover even the slowest, saddest scenes and movies. I’m talking about “emotionally” exciting, whatever that might be.

I’ve banged on random kitchen objects, torn velcro on combat boots, hit things, hit myself, had friends scream into their tiny little iPhone mics and created scores with those distorted sounds. For the new IMAX logo, for which I did the music and sound design, I handled broken glass, shuffled cards, whatever came to mind. And of course, I’ve also orchestrated lush string arrangements, written incredibly sad, echoey piano parts, arranged swinging horn sections: anything and everything to create an original score for someone’s film.

I would say that my “brand” tends to lean more melancholy, with rhythmic elements and darker melodies. But I always appreciate the change of pace when I’m working on a comedy or something light-hearted. No genre is off limits.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Writing music for independent film doesn’t always make money. In fact, I would advise most composers to have other jobs to free themselves to do those projects that might be beneficial artistically, but maybe not financially. I knew going in that my goal was to write music that excited me, so I was okay with that.

Yes, the goal is to write music full-time, but you never know where or how your next musical project will come from. The fact of the matter is, I can even connect my latest feature film to a Craigslist ad all the way back in 2005.

I’ll try and tell that story briefly: I answered a Craigslist ad for a boom operator, then got on a different set doing the same job. I don’t push myself as a composer if I’m doing another job, but my composing naturally came up on that set. Eventually, I scored that entire movie, called “Escape From Darwin”. Then a few years later, the director of “Escape From Darwin” was producing a different film when he heard that THAT director was contemplating composers. I quickly wrote 4 pieces based on what I knew about the story, which was called “Somewhere Slow” (Tubi, Freevee) and the new director, Jeremy O’Keefe, absolutely loved one of the pieces. It was a while later when Jeremy recommended me to another fantastic director, Jeremiah Kipp, And after scoring “Slapface” (Shudder), a dark horror/thriller dealing with themes of child abuse and parental loss, the director for my latest feature, “Demon Detective,” TC De Witt, had me on his radar.

There are so many stories and random connections that prove that there is no one answer to “how did you get into film scoring?”

But I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention the story of a comedy series that I just finished called “Dick Bunny.” It just premiered at the Austin Film Festival. That job is a story of a life-long friend, writer Claire Gerety-Mott, and working with her writing partner Katie Locke O’Brien on this new comedy series. Katie had a very successful short film called “Have It All,” and on that one I used my body as percussion for the entire score, which was a lot of fun for me.

And because one project always comes from another, there was another movie that came from a friend of Katie’s, director Bonnie Discepolo, called “Give Me an A” (Amazon Prime). That was born from the rage of the overturning of Roe v Wade, where 17 female filmmakers made 17 short films in 3 months, and I scored one of the shorts as well as wrote 2 songs for the credits.

These stories all come down to relationships, and patience. And sometimes you just have to wait. But I’m always writing music even when I’m between features, whether it’s performing in live shows, producing friend’s albums, writing music for dance pieces, or scoring short films, I’m always actively writing music.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There isn’t much that is linear in a creative field. There’s rarely a “do this, then do this, and then this will happen.” Plus, there are many layers of success. Composing isn’t all big-budget movies. There are films and series on a million streaming services, and people making their own films, that all need music.

Nothing is guaranteed. Just be nice, be relatively good at your job, and stay in the game as long as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: barryjneely.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barryjneely
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/barryjneely
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/barryjneely
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@barryjneely

Image Credits
Pretty Bold Photos Olivia McCrary