We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dan Gross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dan, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
During my sophomore year of college, Pearl Wible, my first ever director had just graduated from Emerson and landed a gig directing a limited web series for Disney World. I asked to grab lunch with her when she was visiting Boston and proceeded to beg her for a shot at composing some music for her project. She eventually relented and I was able to say that I was writing music for Disney!
Dan, 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?
My name is Dan Gross and I am a composer based in Los Angeles. I’m best known for scoring every episode of Comedy Central’s Drunk History in addition to Michelle Obama’s kids’ show Waffles and Mochi on Netflix.
I started teaching myself piano when I was in preschool and decided to be a film composer the moment I learned the job existed. When I attended Berklee College of Music, I cut my teeth taking on every Emerson College film project I could get my hands on and it wasn’t long before it seemed like I was composing for all of the club films and everyone’s final thesis project. When I moved to Los Angeles after college, I continued to score projects for all of the filmmakers I met in Boston and eventually I started working with director Jeremy Konner who brought me onto Drunk History.
My MO is to create meaningful and emotional music for meaningful and emotional projects. I always aim to get so connected to the material that I feel like I’m inside of it – composing my way out. And I always prefer to work on projects which aim to better society, but I have also scored my fair share of pulp and potty-mouth productions.
My main mission on any project is to take care of the people around me. It can be hard to prioritize human kindness in a high-stress environment like television composing, but it’s important to me. I always do my best to treat a music department with love and respect – creatively and personally. I’ve often described it as sitting at the head of the table, but not needing the first slice of pizza. Everyone who works on my music gets proper credit and anyone who writes any additional material receives residuals.
I also want to be emotionally available to my clients. The composer is the emotional core of a production and it’s a holy responsibility. Directors, producers, and writers can’t trust your music unless they trust you personally so it’s important to let them know that you respect their work, and see them on a human level.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Don’t take advantage of them. Most creatives already have to pay for their own equipment, facilities, and health insurance. An insulting pay rate will encourage them to leave the field.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Digital Snake Oil.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dangrossmusic.com
- Instagram: dangrossmusic