We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brandon Dalo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I was raised by a single father, and music played a pivotal role in my life from the very beginning. One of the things he excelled at was meeting me where I was at when I first started learning.

While my father has always been deeply passionate about music theory, I initially found it to be a bit like math, constraining and unappealing. Together, we discovered an approach that worked wonders for me – focusing on learning songs I loved on the guitar. By doing so, I was learning what I wanted to play, and as a side effect, I absorbed various theoretical concepts without the monotony of a traditional theory lesson. Over time, I developed a genuine love and appreciation for music theory, which may not have blossomed if my father hadn’t allowed me to begin with what captivated me the most at the time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hey! I’m Brandon Dalo and I’m a composer based in Los Angeles. I came up in a musical family, played in bands in my early years, and then transitioned to composing. Once I became aware of music in media, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I was attracted not only by the storytelling aspect of it but also that every project was a different story, with a different team, with different instrumentation and styles, which would allow me to always write different kinds of music which kept things interesting and ever changing.

I met a director locally who was doing their first film and I scored that for my first project. That film got way more attention than we ever imagined, so we did another which was bigger, and soon the films we were doing were getting millions of views. The success gave me the confidence to really pursue composing as a career and so I moved to Los Angeles to pursue it full time. I got a bachelors in Music Composition (specializing in scoring for visual media) at the Musicians Institute and was working on projects outside of school the whole time and building my network.

After graduation, I have been fortunate to have had a whirlwind of projects and momentum that has been growing exponentially every year. From freelance composing for films and television, to assisting other composers, to music library work, to working in the music department on awesome projects, and working for sample library companies like Cinesamples. You can find out more about all these projects and more at my website: www.brandondalo.com or by finding me on IMDb.

I set a financial goal when I graduated college and had never hit it until this year for the first time, which was a big milestone for me. Now my attention is on the future and continuing to build and grow from here!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative professional is being able to do something I love and am passionate about for a living, while also having the ability to create my own path. My successes are mine and my failures are mine and I’m not working for someone else’s dream. There’s nothing like genuinely putting everything you have into what you do and seeing it pay off and get bigger every year.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This might sound obvious, but one thing I wish I knew about earlier in my career is how important relationships with other human beings are to not just your own personal mental health and well being, but also to a career like this as well. And not just on the surface acquaintances that you meet once and never really talk to again. But how important the conscious act of maintaining relationships over long periods of time is to any sort of freelance career like this. The other side of that though is to treat people like actual human beings, to be interested in who they really are and what they have to say, to create real friendships with people and not just see them as a dollar sign or a way for you to advance. To help other people out without expecting anything in return.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brandondalo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandondalo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089350187537
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandondalo/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandon_dalo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Iambrandondalo/videos