We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jake Sanderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jake, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
Through my music, I hope to leave a legacy that I helped change this world for the better and helped those helped those in need. As someone who is very passionate with music, I do believe that music has the ability to help our minds; helping us escape from our problems in this world. If there is one thing I could hope for with my music, it would be that it helped at least one person exit out of a dark place and know that it will get better. Music helped me greatly in my life and I am sure many others as well, so I hope to help contribute to this myself.
Jake, 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 first fell in love with music at a very young age but it wasn’t until I was 13 when I started to lean into composition, specifically film scoring. The first soundtrack I listened to that helped me realize I wanted to make a career in this area was James Horner’s score to “Braveheart”. There was something so beautiful with this score, especially listening to it outside of the film. I began looking at film scenes without music and tried to write music over these scenes for practice and as you could guess, they weren’t the greatest but we all have to start somewhere right?
My music has metaphorized over the years starting with traditional orchestral music and I then began writing in a style similar to Philip Glass, Thomas Newman and then Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Today, my style doesn’t really fit into one category. Depending on the film scene, I can write something that sounds like a Newman piece or go a more experimental route like Reznor & Ross. I enjoy writing for full orchestra but I also enjoy smaller, intimate pieces with strings, electronics, & Piano as well as creating my own sounds to sample as well. Using ethnic instruments like the Shakuhachi is something I quite enjoy as well to add a little color or flavor to the music.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect for me is the feeling of completing a piece of music, being proud of it and seeing others enjoy it. I love posting a piece and getting a comment or email from someone letting me know how much they enjoyed the piece. Going back to the original question of my legacy, this is what keeps me going and realize that what I am doing is helping someone.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
In this kind of work, I do believe in person networking is the best strategy to grow. We do have social media now like Facebook and LinkedIn which I use as well and have had some success, but I think you can’t really know someone until you actually meet them in person. I enjoy going to film groups, film festivals, and film screenings where I can meet potential directors/filmmakers for future projects.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jakesandersonfilmcomposer.weebly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakersandersonmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JakeRSandersonOfficial
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-sanderson-51919412/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeRSanderson
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6bKCO8BfT1ASbas7HUsY-w
- BandCamp: https://jakersanderson.bandcamp.com/