We recently connected with Brooks Leibee and have shared our conversation below.
Brooks, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
Most of the time it all comes down to what YOU can offer – and what other people in your field cannot. Whether or not that services or product or both. Have I found exactly what that for me as ‘Brooks the composer’? I have no idea – but in the time that I have put into this field, I’ve discovered that there are a few other facets that lend an advantage.
One being loyalty. If you find yourself working in a group/ with an individual that you can tell appreciates your time and respects your discipline and background… keep close and networking off of this group/ individual will usually lead to more reliable opportunities. This isn’t in a parasitic way, but in the sense of sticking in the same friend group. It almost goes hand in hand, as my favorite ideology in the industry of film and media production is “make cool stuff with great friends”.
Another is just being a good person yourself. I suppose this is a bit narcissistic or self centered – but if you remind yourself to show grace to others and yourself, while also staying true to yourself and your values – you’ll set a good image for you and your business. It’s almost a no-brainer, but there are often times when I see people getting lost in the mix or losing their sense of self or losing their values. Sometimes this change is for the better, but when it comes to business and especially the business of art – it’s almost effortless to fall into the wrong place.
So being good, to yourself and others, and making friends – who are also your collaborators and creative equals – are two huge proponents towards modern profitability in the industry of media music. Especially within the current climate of the world of film and TV. You gotta know who you can count on and who you can stick with when times get tough.
Brooks, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hello! My name is Brooks and I’m a media composer.
Film and music were both early inspirations of mine — all thanks to little movies like Jurassic Park, Godzilla (1954), and King Kong (1933). After being introduced to live performance and orchestral concerts in middle school, I quickly signed up for my school’s orchestra performance class and (after thinking long and hard about what instrument to play) made the logical choice of Viola.
My entry into the world of film music was seemingly out of necessity (and ultimately inevitable). I was a filmmaker first, always behind a camera or the keyboard of an editing bay. It wasn’t until a short film in 2017 (that took me and a group of friends from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Burbank, California) that initially had two composers slated to create the short’s OST. While they had some material already done for the project, they ultimately couldn’t continue working on the project due to schedule conflicts. The crew and I had many conversations about who we could ask for help, until I had the epiphany of finishing the music myself. It would be an easy addition to my current tasks as I was already editing the project. So I took the music that we were already delivered, edited the multiple tracks together, spotting them to different scenes, and laying in my own material to make it all fit together.
I fell deeply in love with the process.
Flash forward to now, with over twenty-three projects (eight in 2023 alone) under my belt as a composer. Throughout the years I’ve had many amazing opportunities — scoring the feature documentary film “DeRosa: Life, Love & Art in Transition”, writing original music for brands like Alienware, and performing live music for awards shows like GameRadar’s 2021 Golden Joystick Awards. Funnily enough, I’ve almost come full circle as I write this — now having scored a fan-made audio drama inspired by the Jurassic World franchise.
As I continue on this path of film music, I’m hopeful for change, progression and expanding my knowledge and techniques to implement into my music. Especially for what I would like to tangibly offer for other filmmakers. As with any composer, the biggest honor is to have your music performed by musicians — presenting your music at it’s fullest potential. The only project to allow such a privilege was the film “DeRosa” directed by Angelo Thomas. Having the chance to hear my music performed by 12 or so musicians was magical, and I think it lifted the music to new heights for a story that really deserved it. On the creative side it’s very much rewarding. Logistically it all comes down to budget and time – which isn’t always on our side.
Moving forward I aim to make the effort of having a portion of my music performed (either by myself in my home studio, or by a musician elsewhere) taking it that much further. Having already implemented this method into the finale score for the previously mentioned Jurassic World-inspired audio drama, I received an influx of positive reception for the sound and quality of the music. People could really hear the difference and praised the elevation.
Adding that human touch to a realistic virtual orchestra — fitting into almost any budget and concept, large or small — is my current outlook into making my music stand out in the always evolving industry of film music.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
Throughout most of my career as a composer *so far I’ve had to be extremely economic with the time that I use for music. I’ve had to also hold up a steady “day-job” to keep afloat and to afford to create music in the first place, because of the monetary irregularities in this freelance market.
Loosely connected — there was one occasion where I absolutely dropped the ball on a project, and all of the problems that were prevalent could have been corrected if I simply didn’t go to sleep to get some hours in before my next shift at my then full-time job. The next morning I woke to nothing but disappointment. Time ran out, and I was absolutely crushed. Not only because I dropped the ball, but because I also failed a client that I built great rapport with for almost a year and ending up causing the chance of squandering their image for financiers.
To add to the fire, I seemingly overcharged this client because of the higher available budget – while charging a much smaller fee for another project of similar length – but an overall smaller budget. What I charged was comparable to industry standards, but I was unknowingly the highest paid person on this project. Once I found this out I felt immediate regret. Now, some of the music budget of that project did go to a few live musicians. Either way, having that conversation was gut wrenching and I’ll never forget hearing someone who trusted me, saying they felt they were being taken advantage of.
This was a big lesson that I still hold close. Maintaining a reasonable and manageable rate – whether itemized or flat, each being comparable to each-other in some capacity and exponential in increments.
I walked away feeling absolutely defeated. I’m happy that I had those opportunities, and I use these experiences to improve myself and my methods moving forward. Throughout the years I would like to think that I’ve become a better service, and person, because of it.
I currently still work a full-time job around my music services – all to make ends meet and to keep my passion alive – but I maintain new values in my music services and even work pro-bono on special occasions.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
It almost feels weird to say, but I feel that my improvement in product and marketing throughout the years has steadily increased by reputation *mostly online.
Initially my networking and community outreach was entirely on Twitter. Now I’ve expanded my footprint to three main sources of information
The first is my own official website for observers and potential clients to have quick access to previous material, biographical material, credits, and a way to directly contact me for work!
Secondly is my Soundcloud page – where people can find a more expansive collection of my previous music!
And third — my Twitter page remains in full swing. I like keeping in touch with people I’ve met throughout the years, especially those who gave me some of my biggest opportunities in the past. I have that website to thank for helping me connect with such a community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brooksleibee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brooksleibee/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brooks_leibee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZrl2jesNeABv4fz-2Qskg