We recently connected with Jonathan Munoz and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started studying music at 8 years old at an academy that no longer is around called ASM. My primary instrument is guitar and that is where I started to develop my chops as a musician/artist. For many years, I attended the academy and through my training, mainly in rock & blues, I started honing my craft even more. By the time I was 11, I was playing at incredibly high levels and I chose to experiment and started to learn how to play the trumpet in middle school. While simultaneously doing both, I auditioned to New World School of the Arts high school in Miami, FL and got accepted on trumpet. During my high school years, I had the opportunity to play with young very talented musicians in a wind ensemble, musical theatre, and orchestral setting. This started to broaden my musical senses and expanded my knowledge of music by learning classical music theory and music history. After graduating high school, I decided that I needed more knowledge in the business side of things. I noticed that I had all the tools needed at the moment to create memorable themes and melodies, but did not understand contracts, royalties, and other very important business knowledge needed to make a living. I decided to go to my community college, Miami Dade College, and ultimately ended up getting my Associates Degree in Music Business – Creative Production. During my early college years, I learned not only the business side of things, but I learned how to use industry standard technology that I honestly did not even know how to use at the time. Thankfully I could pack a lunch box and go during lab hours and spend an entire day trying out new equipment, checking out computer specs, learning signal flow and learning what was needed to build a home studio. After saving up enough money from my teaching gigs, I decided to start investing on gear for my home studio and I remember borrowing my sister’s laptop because that was something I could not afford at the moment. I started to really develop my technology chops and saw the importance of being a modern artist and learning how to produce your own music. In just over a year, I created a solo album title “Soundscape” in the progressive metal genre. Although I do not have this available to the public at the moment, I pulled it off the shelf due to production quality, I will hopefully get back to it and get it remixed and mastered to be heard publicly. After the release of this album, I remember getting really sick for almost a week and it was very hard for me to get out of bed to sit up and practice guitar. I ended up purchasing a MIDI keyboard which is essentially just a piano that can trigger sounds from a computer. I started diving into string sounds and created orchestral music for that week. I found myself coming back to this sound and had a change of hearts as to what I wanted to do musically. I ended up listening to modern film scores, composers such as: Brian Tyler, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, to name a few. I started to fall in love with music all over again and decided to pursue film scoring. During my last year in Miami Dade College, I knew I was going to take a year off from school and I focused on developing my film score demo reel. This was a very crucial step in my new career as a film composer, and I knew I needed to get something up and running so that I can promote myself as a composer in a short amount of time. I remember I landed my first film scoring gig a few months later because I had prepared an impressive demo reel showcasing my work and diversity in sounds and genres. This film gig led to another one a year later, but I still was not satisfied with the knowledge I had. I started to read success stories of other film composers, and one person jumped out at me and that was Pinar Toprak. Pinar was a young girl from Turkey with a dream to be a successful film composer and attend the world’s most prestigious college, Berklee College of Music. Along with her incredible story of overcoming many obstacles, my family and fiancé, pushed me and I made the biggest leap of my life. I auditioned to Berklee College of Music and received the world tour scholarship to attend the college. It was the first time I would live on my own with my fiancé and pursue my career. I remember coming to Boston, living in a small basement apartment with little to no money and telling myself this is the most important step in my career. I took advantage of all the resources to me and connected with veterans in the industry, which through my persistence and presentation of my work, my mentor Sean Peter Hagon (Composer/Entrepreneur) took me under his wing and showed me the ropes of the TV/Film business. I performed so well in school and received numerous testimonials my first semester of my work as a student, Berklee had given me a second scholarship called the Thrive Scholarship which officially covered all of my tuition and I now had a full-ride to one of the best music colleges in the world. Throughout my studies, I was working with Sean on numerous hit shows across the biggest networks today: History Channel, ShowTime, HBO, Animal Planet, and many more. Since, working with him I’ve had placements of my music in 9 different episodes on the popular show, American Pickers, on History Channel and the list continues to grow. Throughout my work with Sean, I had the honor to meet Alexander Whalen who is Sean’s business partner at Raging Cloud Studios where I am working as a composer. Alex is another person I am grateful to call a mentor in this business, he is a successful composer/music supervisor. Now in present time, I am on track to graduate from Berklee in May 2022 and will continue to pursue my film scoring career in Los Angeles, California. I currently have two feature films pending after graduation and I will continue to further my knowledge in this business by working in the field and continuing to meet industry experts along the way.

Definitely knowing what I know now, I would’ve spent more of my time honing in the technology and business aspects of the film industry. Life has weird ways of working and I completely changed paths in a matter of a week. I feel like at a certain level, those skills of communication, negotiation, contracts, legalities (to a certain extend), as well as being proficient in music software, Mac and PC, networks, external gear, etc. are the real successes in the business. There are many talented people in this world, but a very large percentage don’t grow because they don’t expand on these skills. At the end of the day, we are all creatives in this industry, but we are also human and love to experience connection not just feel like a tool or a resource. Learning how to cultivate relationships is the number one priority to make a successful career in this industry, given you’ve done and learned everything else that comes with the job description.

The one thing that stood in the way from learning more was myself and my experience. Before, I would consult with people outside of the film industry network. I needed to step out my comfort zone and meet people who knew the information because they were living it or had experienced it. I feared reaching out to new people and that was something I really had to work on. After getting over my fears, I am seeing results. Another very important thing about the business people fail to see is location. I knew my career would not thrive in Miami and eventually I would have to search for work opportunities elsewhere.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a film composer and entrepreneur, I got into the industry very young and I knew music was something I wanted to pursue. Like many stories, I had lots of very challenging decisions to make and still have them and through those decisions I carve out the path a little more towards the goals I am trying to reach as a film composer. My music is a very powerful story telling device that allows me to beautifully enhance emotions in film. The music becomes more than just notes, it is the emotional identity of the characters in the film. Learning how to carefully craft thematic material that will draw the audience to the characters always proves to be a challenge in the beginning, even for the more experienced. This is the process that makes it the most fun, because once you finally do find it, pure magic and inspiration is drawn from the soul of the characters.

What people might not know about me, is that I am a YouTuber as well and I am known as Johnmunstudios. This is where I teach music technology, music theory, career strategy, and much more. I feel like through my experience I have enough information to give back to the younger communities trying to do the same. I believe there isn’t enough information on the internet to be able to find your path in the music and film industry. I want to be the guide for people who want to continue providing this free information to pass along to generations to come. I can describe my style of teaching as easy to approach and put into practice. I enjoy giving back and helping others in the way I wish I had as a young artist.

I am definitely most proud of how far I have come and grown as a person. This is not an easy business to go into and you’ll hear it all the time. To me is not about the end goal, it is about the journey and people I meet along the way that make it worthwhile.

I would like everyone to know that what I want to create is a community of creatives and an environment that is positive, uplifting, and knowledgable. To me, it is less about the accolades and more about the beautiful relationships you can create and have throughout your lifetime. Experiences that you can look back at and say, I created this with some of the greatest, creative minds and it never gets old.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is a very interesting tool. It is a tool because for the film business in particular this is your business card. When people think of checking out someones work, you’ll hear “What’s their IG handle”, sometimes even before a website. Making sure you have a nice presence and some demos of your work can determine if you get the gig or not. Some of my gigs have landed because someone saw my work on social media and they reached out.

I am not too big on posting everyday because that is draining and I don’t think that will be a factor in getting hired either. I know people who post everyday and they don’t grow, and I know the complete opposite as well and they are constantly getting hired. It’s mostly about the quality and diversity in your work. The more they see you in a bunch of different situations the more chances you are to getting hired because people know what you are about before even talking with you. Always stay true to your story and don’t do something because someone else did it, it has to resonate with you and when it does then others will be attracted to your energy.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are quite a few books actually that have impacted me: John C. Maxwell’s – How Successful People Think, Tim Ferris – The 4 Hour Workweek, Robert Greene – The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter – Rich Dad Poor Dad, to name a few. Another great resource is the app Gaia, which has a ton of videos, series, and interviews about personal development, self-awareness, and much more. It is definitely worth a shot if you are into developing and expanding your thoughts and the way you perceive the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jonathanmunozmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmunfilm/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmunfilm
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVpuq__DqW5RIRNUyQ05NGw
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/johnmunstudios/

Image Credits
Melissa Pavoni