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

Hi Drew, thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

It was pretty surreal how quickly it happened. It had been a little less than a year since I quit my fast-food job in an effort to pursue a musical career more intentionally. A church friend of mine recommended I create an account on soundbetter.com so I could find work as a mixing or mastering engineer. Not my ideal career path – I’ve always preferred the art of composing – but it was potentially something to help pay the bills. Less than 24 hours after creating my account, I got contacted by a guy named Rob Hawkins who’s been working in the industry for quite some time, and even had some songwriting credits for some pretty big acts like Three Days Grace and Boys Like Girls. He had heard the preview track on my account – an orchestral video game piece I made called “Created for Evil” – and reached out to me to create another symphonic tune for him, I think as kind of a test drive. I did that, got paid, and long story short, Rob recruited me to be a music producer for Audio Arsenal, his business that sells stock music. I had been composing for a few small indie projects without getting paid a dime, so the feeling of actually getting compensated for my work was quite surreal. Even though making art isn’t thought of as the most society-benefitting career one can have – and it’s not, admittedly – it takes tons of effort and emotional energy to do. To spend hours intricately designing a piece of art that enhances peoples’ lives, only to not be meaningfully rewarded for it is quite draining. For much of my life, my only reward for putting in hours of work to craft music was a measly 10-15 views on YouTube and compliments from a few friends and family members. That prevalent urge to go out and find a “real job” was always on my mind. Suddenly earning my first few dollars from composing music was a paradigm shift for me, and one that I still struggle to process. On one hand, the world is falling apart with financial crises, natural disasters, and rising hostilities, yet here I am asking people to give me money for creating music. On the other hand, it’s not right for me and other creatives to pour their soul out making stuff that gives people hope and a reason to keep grinding away at life, but not be compensated for it. Anyway, those are some of the feelings brought about from earning my first paycheck as a creative.

Drew, 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’m Drew Nyquist, I’m a Christian, husband, cat dad, composer, and music producer from Michigan. I was inspired to get into music at a young age when I started playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as well as going to jam sessions with my relatives. I was also heavily involved in choir from 5th grade all the way up until I graduated from college, which was profoundly influential on my musical journey. I started playing drums when I was 8 or 9 years old, and though my career goals have shifted since then, I’ve knew from a young age that I would love to work as a musician of some sort when I grew up. I played drums in a death metal band called Recorruptor in my early teens, and more recently in the grunge-rock band Gray Rapidian until about a year ago. Though live music is fun, I found it far more exhausting and considerably less fulfilling than composing and producing my own music. I have also since picked up other instruments and can now sing and play any instrument in a typical rock ensemble (drums, bass, guitar, and keys) to varying degrees of skill. I had been dabbling with music production since my teenage years, but never seriously pursued it until just a few years ago. I chose music as one of my two majors in college, and as part of that, I did an independent study on music composition, where my instructor showed me how to use Ableton Live, which is still my main workstation when creating music.

I specialize in creating Hollywood-inspired (both classic and modern) orchestral pieces that can be used to complement and enhance the tone of whatever media project it is set to. I am also proficient at producing electronic, rock, and hybrid pieces of music. In addition, I have been commissioned to create jingles for TV and radio commercials. I firmly believe that music is a medium which can evoke feelings that no other art form can, and that the very act of listening to music can be a deeply intimate and emotional experience. This is always at the forefront of my mind when I create music, and I’m constantly thinking of ways I can make audience go on a journey, whether using a flashy ostinato to really catch the listeners by surprise, or subtly sneaking in a repeated motif to engage people’s subconscious. One piece I am proud of is “We Won’t Go Quietly,” an epic orchestral piece that will be a part of a fantasy-inspired symphonic album that I am working on. https://drive.google.com/file/d/183SGXBXhwV5oMFGgCJL2Ykfa_j5O57RU/view?usp=drive_link I am perhaps most proud of my rescoring of the short animated film “Wing It!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt4T2UEWc_8 Though I have not had much experience directly scoring to a film and making cues with specific timings, I am quite happy with how it turned out and feel that I was able to inject a vibrant and adventurous spirit into the film without being too distracting. Any client that hires my services can rest easy knowing that they will have someone who is incredibly intentional about emotionally engaging audiences and enhancing whatever tone they are going for.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, it’s that feeling at night when I’m bummed that I have to go to sleep instead of working more, and the feeling in the morning when I wake up and get excited to do the thing that I love. Obviously, having a healthy work-life balance is crucial and making music is still work, but actually looking forward to doing that work is something I had never felt before. When I worked in fast food, my attitude before clocking in was always “let’s go make some dough,” but now it’s something closer to “let’s go do the thing that I love! And hopefully make some dough, too!” Before, my creative energy was all but exhausted by my old job and being a college student, but now I have so much more freedom to actually utilize it in a way that is refreshing and fun. With very few exceptions, I get to wake up and be excited to go about my day, and that’s probably my favorite part of being a creative.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Don’t cheap out on us, please! If your day has consistently gotten better anytime you’ve enjoyed a piece of art (regardless of medium) and you have some change to spare, why not show your gratitude monetarily? It allows us to continue enhancing your life and the lives of countless others. Most of us artists are fully aware that making music or drawing isn’t the most vital thing for the masses. It does not directly contribute to helping people survive or have their needs met. But it does often provide something to live for, does it not? If you’ve ever watched a good movie, listened to a song that helped ease your nerves, or finished a TV show that stuck with you for a long while, then you can attest to this reality.

But of course, times are tough, and not everyone can afford to monetarily support their favorite creators. I’d say that another way to show support to creatives is to offer encouragement in the form of pointing out specific things you appreciate about their work. For example, complimenting a painter’s choice of color scheme in one of their portraits, or telling a composer that you like that part of the song when the trumpets come in. Pointing out these specific details shows us creatives that you not only experienced a work of art and liked it, but that you cared for it enough to pay attention to the finer details. For me, such a compliment is incredibly meaningful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drewanthonynyquist.wixsite.com/drew-anthony-nyquist
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrewComposesStuff
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@drewanthonynyquistcomposer/videos