We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leonardo Escárcega . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leonardo below.

Leonardo , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Music has been with me since I was seven years old, as time went by it grew in me. I remember watching all these Hollywood movies with my family. I really fell in love with their soundtrack and the overall sound, then unconsciously I started developing a musical ear. In my younger days I used to listen to all these amazing talented rock bands such as; Linkin Park, Metallica, Evanescence, etc. This somehow shaped me in many ways, so much that even till this day I keep listening to them for inspiration in my music compositions.

One day back in Mexico, a friend of mine and I were watching a neoclassical rock concert airing in Japan, the concert was being performed by the amazing Swedish guitar player Yngwie Malmsteen, along with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Japan. Honestly, I fell in love with this concert and at that very moment something really big inside of me grew; I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life; I wanted to pursue a career in music though I didn’t know how.

When I was thirteen years of age after many chores in the house, my amazing parents bought me my first guitar. I decided to take guitar lessons and learn the instrument; though it was my own guitar teacher who tried to discourage me by saying that I should have started at a younger age, but he didn’t know at that moment he had triggered a fire inside me, I wanted to prove him wrong by learning the guitar on my own.

The years went by and my mom and dad bought me my first “Electric Guitar” years later I moved to Chicago; there I started to learn about music production and how to start recording my first musical ideas, the trends of music and a whole new skillset that took my music understanding to another level though I only relied with very few equipment to record.

After living four years in Chicago, I decided to move to California to follow my dream. I had a job as a security receptionist for an apartment complex in downtown LA because I had to sustain myself. There I met a friend who gave me my first piano keyboard. One day he invited me to his music studio and spoke to me about Hollywood music composer Hans Zimmer, at that very moment my life changed. I knew where exactly I wanted to take my musical path. Months later I started learning more about the creation of movie soundtracks from various sources online and many other talented composers, it really took me back to the days when I used to watch movies with my family, that’s when I decided take music seriously and wanted to pursue it professionally.

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.

Hello, my name is Leonardo Escarcega. I’m a thirty-one-year-old music composer currently living in Orange County California. Music has always been a passion for me. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve always had a musical ear. After I took the decision to follow this path professionally, I always tried my best to prepare myself and to grow my skillset.

One of the core things I do to always be prepared in this industry is that I study hard and try my best to update my knowledge. There’s not a day where I don’t learn something new, I go to YouTube, Google, listen to audio books, take a music course etc. Personally, I believe that there’s plenty of resources I can learn from. This is what takes me far in this industry. I’m always learning something new, I aim to do my best work, always recalling the words of my mentor and friend Gilde Flores, I let my work speak for itself. I strongly believe that everything good comes with preparation, hard work, a keen desire for success and faith overall.

Another important thing I’d like to talk about is networking. Networking has played a huge role in my career, though I believe building organically with people is the way to go; It has taken me years to build a strong foundation with people from this industry based in trust, respect and understanding. This is how I’ve got to meet amazing publishers, a team of amazing entrepreneurs and composers and my mentor Gilde Flores.

The people I work with know each other very well, as a team of publishers and composers we are an unstoppable force, or this is what I believe. I’d strongly suggest to anyone who’s reading this interview, to network organically with people, it’ll skyrocket your knowledge and open doors to greater heights. For the past years of my career I’ve built strong relationships, worked with them and learned with and from them.

I have been working very closely with the CEO and founder of Paint the Noise, my friend Gilde Flores. Together we have been working on many campaigns with some of the big names out there with clients such as Play Station, HBO, Lionsgate etc. Including unknown projects that are still in the works.

As a team our goal is to innovate the sync industry with new ideas and new sounds, that will take the listener and our clients to a place of total creativity, as well as to give a voice to new talented creatives out there though I believe is all in divine time.

Speaking of the work we’ve done as a team over the last few years, another thing worth mentioning is that as a team we have learned to commit to our craft and be flexible in every project. In this career there’s always last-minute changes, so it is always good to be prepared and work with the flow of things without taking anything personal. Personally, I never do. I focus on the mission and the result.

I’m always grateful for all the opportunities that have been presented to my team and I, it really is a blessing, though we still have long ways to go. This career is a non-stop learning process, as I mentioned earlier there’s always something new to learn. Setting new goals is always a way of pushing oneself, I continue to thrive for greater heights but always staying on the humble side of things. I do not feel like I’m better than anybody else It’s my work ethic that has taken me to where I stand today.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to inspire and help creatives in the future to find a voice in the sync industry, I’d like travel the world, create conferences, motivational speeches; collab with creatives and companies with similar goals, To be able to teach what I’ve learned for the past years and more this is one of my biggest goals in this industry. I believe that I should never hold any knowledge just for myself, to the contrary I should always share that knowledge with the people who’s ready to learn and help them achieve greater heights. There’s lots of planification and room for me to achieve that goal but that’s a mission I want to complete.

On a more personal level as I mentioned before, music is my passion. I’d love to collab with as many creatives, companies’ clients as I possibly can. I’d really love to make music for a videogame or a major film along with my team, and that one day we can all be sharing a Grammy or an Oscar together. I do not see these goals far away, they’re always on the horizon if I put my heart into it, I can achieve greater things with commitment, perseverance and dedication. Above else what drives my goal is to make my family and my wife Luz Dahi proud.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have a very personal one, I remember the first time my music got placed on a movie trailer, it was 8:00 pm at night and Gilde had just sent me a text, opening the opportunity to pitch music for a Lionsgate project. The brief was about a schizophrenic girl who had crazy visions, but nobody believed her. This brief was totally on the horror side of things. I Had to come up with an original horror piece in trailer format, but I had no clue how to write horror trailer music and where to start.; shortly after reading the brief thoroughly Gilde asked me if I could make it happen. After thinking for like a minute if I could, I agreed to take on this project all by myself. What followed was the challenging part of learning on the spot. I pushed myself and started to learn, I dragged a reference track for inspiration to my workstation and I started composing the music, paying close attention to the sound selection, the structure, sound design etc. The work had to be turned in by 9:00 am of next day. I worked from 8:00 pm to 9 am, finished the writing process, premixed the track then sent it to my mix engineer for final touches at the time. It was 7:00 am already. At 9 am I turned my work to the editor. I was exhausted but the work was done. weeks later Gilde called me and said to me that I’ve got the placement, and that trailer editor of Lionsgate was going to use my music for the main trailer of the movie “Fear of Rain” I learned something very valuable that day. Never give up, there’s no excuse to achieve your goals when opportunity knocks on the door always be prepared and take it head on. All it takes is full commitment to your goals and to believe that you can achieve them with no doubts in your head.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leomusic_isback?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/leonardo-escárcega-82205410a

Image Credits
Luz Dahi, Myself, Richard Scott Whitfield,