We were lucky to catch up with Can Canel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Can, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a career artistically was actually when I was just a kid. I come from a generation who had the chance to watch some of the iconic movie series in film history, such as The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix. and many others at the movie theaters. Since there were no online movie streaming platforms like Netflix in my childhood, I used to collect CDs of these movies at home and watch them over and over again. Sometimes I only watched the movies to listen to their music. That’s when I knew. Once I have decided to follow my path as a professional artist, my family has always been very supportive of me in this regard. I couldn’t have done this without their support.

Can, 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?

I am a film and TV composer from Istanbul, Turkey. My father is a musician and one of Turkey’s first private radio broadcasters. My family encouraged me to study music from a young age. Since I was six years old, I have been studying piano, guitar, and percussion while going to school.

My interest in film music started when I paid attention to the soundtracks of the movies I loved very much when I was a kid. I had the chance to watch some of the iconic movie series in film history at the movie theaters.

Since there were no online/digital movie streaming platforms like Netflix etc. in my childhood, I used to collect CDs of these movies at home and watch them over and over again. Sometimes I only watched the movies to listen to their music.

So we can say my house and my childhood were surrounded by supportive, creative, and artful family members who helped me to boost my creativity almost all the time!

At the age of 17, I was accepted on a scholarship from Berklee College of Music and moved to Boston to double major in Film Scoring and Composition. I took part in various opportunities that Berklee offered while I was studying. I composed music and collaborated with the Boston Conservatory dancers to create a live dance show that we performed with a live ensemble and dancers.

In 2020, I was chosen as one of the 6 students to attend the Advanced Dramatic Orchestration and Recording Techniques class to record some of my film cues with the live orchestra in one of Berklee’s finest studios every week (unfortunately due to covid they had to cancel this class). All the opportunities that I was involved in during my college year in Boston helped me to prepare for my professional career.

After graduation, I moved to Los Angeles where I had my first business ideas, failures, and successes in my early 20’s!

Some of my most notable recent projects were composing additional music for movies that streamed on platforms like Lifetime Movie Network, Amazon Prime, Passionflix, and Apple TV!

One of my recent achievements was composing the original theme music for one of the biggest and leading companies in the Turkish automotive industry Ford Otosan. I composed music for the company to use for its TV and website commercials, events, and premiers.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Bringing a new, small idea to life and finalizing it as an utterly done project to share with people is the most rewarding aspect of my work. What keeps me motivated the most when I start to compose a new musical idea is to imagine how people will react to the final version when they hear it. That’s where my biggest reward in creating art comes when someone has a genuine emotional response to my work!

It’s a thrill when random people who have heard my music on digital platforms or TV message/email me to share their sincere compliments about my work. That’s what keeps me going as an artist. It is so pleasant to see a piece come to completion and interact with the people the way I had envisioned.

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

My ultimate artistic goal in my music journey is to reach out to people to evoke deep emotions with my music! From my childhood, my goals were never business related as I have always dreamed of growing as a film composer & music producer to share my art on as many platforms as possible. I feel like especially nowadays, most artists get caught up on how much money/fame they will make rather than having a quality interaction with their audience to create something that will leave an impact.

Without a doubt, the one film series that I have viewed more than any others throughout my lifetime is The Lord of the Rings. I was a kid when I saw it for the very first time in the movie theater, and it’s stayed with me ever since. Lotr’s iconic music is packed with memorable, heart-wrenching melodies to make it any music-lover’s favorite. That’s the type of impression I want to accomplish to contribute to that goal. To have my signature on something unforgettable that the audience will appreciate it even after many years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cancanel.music/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6w6sSJdiedVj005yXMrJPR?si=t6vs3p87QOi_UIiKJkYCGw