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

Dario, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

In this day and age I feel like there is no one way to learn your craft. Information is so accessible that sometimes it can be overwhelming: you can learn from an academy or university, from another mentor or colleague, or straight from the internet with all those million courses and videos. I had extensive experience with all these three ways, and they are all great to help you acquire the necessary knowledge. In my experience, I had different phases in my life where in each I preferred to learn one way or another. The most important thing though, is to always be self-driven and wanting to absorb and get better each day. Sometimes you need to follow a beaten path, sometimes you need to “fall in love” with a mentor and how they do things and absorb their techniques and ways of crafting nuances, sometimes you need to learn on your own speed and get exposed to a world full of shared knowledge.
I personally started with the academic route, then rejected all schools and wanted to learn from actually working and “making” things, taking also advantages of the myriad of YouTube videos and specialized blogs/articles. Then I went back to school, and now I am still jumping back on the Internet whenever I need to expand my knowledge. No matter how, learning the craft is a never-ending process that requires a lot of passion and dedication, open-mindedness, time, and a dash of sane obsession.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started as a touring musician, playing gigs and touring in Italy first – my home country – and in the US later once I moved to Los Angeles. I always loved recording and producing artists, and that led to pick up more and more work in Film and TV whenever I wasn’t on the road. Ultimately, I realized that this was what I really loved doing, especially when it came to writing music to picture – no matter if it is a film, a TV show, a video game, or a commercial. There is something magical about pairing visuals with sound, and every time for me is like the first time. It has been a few years now since I fully transitioned from guitarist to composer and music producer, and when I look back I am proud of my path – full of the right combination of mistakes and success. I mainly specialize in composing score – which is the instrumental music – for films and TV shows, but some times I also get hired to write songs for visuals with a focus on storytelling.
I mainly work with filmmakers and I always try to see myself as one too – my point of view is to enhance story and characters with music (and the use of silence too!). I really love the collaborative side of filmmaking, especially when you find the right chemistry with your collaborators and achieve something unique and effective. I always try to understand the filmmakers I am working with on any given project, absorb the story, and bring in my musical sensibility to help bring out the underlying emotions in a scene.
I guess what sets me apart from the others is my story. Everything I have been through in my life as a musician and person I try to bring to the table. That is my “artistic filter”. It is about emotions, taste, and sensibility. Everybody has their own, and I have mine. I also love experimenting and recording sounds that are unique yet connect with people, and try to have a boutique-like approach to creating music, rather than a more generic Hollywood sound that can be interchangeable. All my favorite composers and musicians are distinctive in the way they do things and I always strive to achieve that for each project I work on.
Being versatile is definitely one of my strengths, even though I spend a lot of time and research in being unique in the way I write and produce. I had the opportunity to work on many different projects – from the best selling videogame “Rocksmith” produced by Ubisoft and a variety of independent films, to a multitude of TV shows, the upcoming Hulu Original documentary “We Live Here: The Midwest” coming out in late 2023 and the music themes for Fox Sports, as well as Ambie-nominated podcast “Bunga Bunga” by Wonder Media.
I feel very lucky to be able to work on many different media and genres, it is what keeps me always stimulated and engaged artistically. For example, I just finished scoring a thriller/horror feature film called “The Box” and I am currently writing some new adrenaline-filled music for Fox Sports. Two projects with completely different approaches, but equal amount of fun and attention to detail.

Last year I also released an EP of cinematic experimental music called “Anomalie” which you can stream on Spotify and all streaming platforms. With this album I really wanted to experiment and push the boundaries of sound and music: the idea was to create a unique blend of organic vocabulary mixed with elements borrowed from the syntaxes of world, cinematic, and electronic music. My goal was to create something that I haven’t heard quite yet: a blend of grainy and warm textures with traditional instruments that are produced and reinterpreted in a ‘modernly primordial’ way, minimalist yet uncommon melodies with sounds that range from hypnotic to visceral, from dissonant and punchy to sophisticated and deep. I am really proud of this album also because it received 2 nominations at the Hollywood Music In media Awards in 2022. I really hope to write more of that kind of music in the future, since it really connected with a deeper part of myself.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is collaborating with other creatives and build together something that audiences hopefully connect with on an emotional level. Making music by myself and for myself is an important process and I like doing it, but there is nothing like working with like-minded artists. Filmmaking is such a collaborative art form – I think the most complex one because it includes various disciplines – from acting, to design (costume, scenography, make-up), writing, photography, visual effects, sound, music, editing. It truly takes a village to create something, so I am always amazed by how complex it is to put together a film, let alone a good film where everything clicks. And when it does, it is really special and it fulfills my deepest need.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There is a book I read in the particular moment in my life when I was traveling a lot around the US touring with an artist but felt like I was ready to move on to the next phase in my life – composing for film. The book has nothing to do with music or business, but it really changed how I started looking at what I did every day. It is called “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect” by John C. Maxwell. The book and its teachings really resonated with me also because at the end of the day music is a language and you need to communicate effectively with it. Even more so if you’re using it to tell a story in all its nuances.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.darioforzatomusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darioforzatomusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darioforzatomusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-forzato-20336b36/
• Other: www.EvoqMusic.com (company’s website)

Image Credits
Studio pictures by Axia