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

Luke, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Well I’ve actually written and composed music as a freelancer for a little while now on and off, but in 2023, something deeply stirred within me – a switch flipped in my head and I knew it was go time. It was time to start that business I had always wanted to. It was time to get serious, sit down, and commit to making this decision a reality.

For most of my life as a young adult, I’ve always had this weight on my chest, urging me to become a producer, artist and composer as well as an entrepreneur/business owner, but no one in my circle was a business owner nor wanted to be, and my upbringing was not an entrepreneurial one.

So it was decided then, in 2023 I started my LLC officially, used the assets I already had and started finding clients as well as working with the ones I had in the past. The next days and weeks were crazy, like time was moving so fast because so much had to be done, but I resolved within myself that even if I was unsure about something, I would face it head on and give it my best effort and not be held back any longer.

From the outset, there were many challenges – how do I show my work online? How do I build a website? How should I present myself? How do I use social media to find and build business relationships? How will I do ALL of this?

Well truthfully, I didn’t do it all myself. I hired freelancers to help with my logo, business cards, and even legal documents to help me get started. One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t—and shouldn’t—do it all yourself. Investing in your business and yourself is a scary, but necessary decision. Having others help me establish my logo and documents helped me focus on what really matters – the music.

Now I compose music for my clients in the form of film scores or production tracks for artists. Ultimately, my goal is to ensure my clients receive the most high-quality and fitting scores or tracks for their projects. I look forward to the many opportunities and changes that are soon to come and will be ready to face them head on.

Luke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Absolutely, I am a music producer and composer focusing primarily on film scores, orchestral music and production music. Drama and action are certainly two of my main and favorite genres to compose, although my ability is vast, ranging from action orchestral to ambient or solo piano. I also produce tracks for hip-hop and pop artists, working with local and international artists, including Thomas Austin, Genesis Ritchot, and BeatsByCasual.

I first got into music creation in my teenage years, when my brother and some friends were messing around in FL Studio (a digital audio workstation used for music creation), and they asked me if I’d like to try it since I played guitar at that point in my life. I didn’t have much gear at all at the time, not even a microphone or keyboard, but I messed around and had fun with it.

I eventually decided to experiment on my own time and decided I’d like to pursue music as a hobby, if nothing else. So I purchased FL Studio and the Komplete bundle by Native Instruments and created some beats and tracks. Of course they sounded awful at first, but I kept going for many years later and have learned so much along the way and the quality of my work has significantly improved.

In my earlier years, I was heavily influenced by rapper and artist NF. I fell in love with his heavy and hybrid orchestral style, seamlessly blended with heart-felt lyrics. From there, I started experimenting with the sound of the orchestra and also discovered the beauty of film scores. Ever since, I’ve been creating and composing the scores and songs of my dreams, while constantly learning and opening myself to more possibilities.

The services I offer include: custom and original film scores as well as instrumentals for artists, rappers and singers. The problem many of my clients face is wanting an elegant, original sound for their film or project, but not having the budget for such a sound. That’s where I come in. I offer high-quality, elegant and dramatic scores and tracks at an affordable rate and with the ability to create an original sound; I can also sync music to picture, which significantly helps with the editing phase of a project.

I am proud of my work with Genesis Ritchot, as I had the ability to compose strings for his track “Kitchen Sink,” now with over 3.6 million streams on Spotify at the time of writing. I have also had the ability to work with some really amazing tech companies such as Lemur and Standard Bots through a collaborator of mine who owns a film production company.

I’ve seen some amazing projects come to fruition through my work with other collaborators and creators, and one attribute I have really placed a high value on throughout my creative career is communication. Clear communication is key for project success, and I cannot stress enough how important it is to set expectations, be understanding and empathetic to the project needs (including budget, timeline, style) and do what you say you’ll do.

As with every endeavor, there will be times things don’t work out the way you wanted them to, and when that happens, I truly believe it is important to take ownership and be honest and upfront. This is the kind of mindset that will find solutions, not problems.

Lastly, I value real conversations. In a fast-paced and distracted world, it really is worth our time to sit down and have real conversations with others or ourselves. In the creative space, I feel there is a lot of discussion on how to create good art and how to monetize that art, but there isn’t a lot of conversation on the topic of challenges you face in your everyday and creative life. To fill that void, I’ve created the podcast Real Life Artist, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We discuss the challenges that come with being an artist and creative, and how you can overcome those challenges through practical applications, shared experiences, and general discussion.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Awhile back, I had worked with a client needing an orchestra for a piano score, but did not have the budget to record with an entire orchestra. So I set out to use my then available tools, namely virtual instruments. At first, everything was great, the client was happy with the orchestration and I sent sheet music over for some players to record live violins and brass.

The final payments were processed, and the final files were sent over, and the project was finished. Or so I thought. A few months went by and the client later remarked they were experiencing issues with the files that were sent over needed revisions and work done to them. I spend extra time working through the issues best I could, although it was difficult work as there was a lot to be done and there was other work piling up as well.

After all was said and done and the revisions were sent over, I had contemplated if this is the kind of workload to expect when working with artists and if it would be worth pursuing this kind of work in specific and a career composing music in general. This was a very trying point in my creative career, but after some time and consideration, I decided I would not let it derail me from the path I ultimately want to take my life. I have since worked with amazing clients and collaborators.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that despite intentions, friends and family do not always know what is best for you.

So many decisions I made early in my life were heavily influenced by friends and family. One particular decision that was heavily influenced was to avoid pursuing music production as a career and then go to college to get a degree in something I wasn’t ultimately interested in so I could get a “real job.” I did avoid pursuing music production and did get a degree in Computer Science.

I’d like to take a brief moment to say 1). I have much respect for anyone who works in the computer or technology industry and do not condemn that career choice at all, and 2). although my choice to avoid music production for so long was heavily influenced, I do ultimately take ownership of that decision and cannot blame anyone but myself for my successes or failures.

I had to decide for myself that pursuing my own business was a choice I had to make, whether those around me supported it or not. Some will come around, others will not, but the important thing is that you sit down with yourself and really decide what it is you want to do with your life. What is that gut feeling telling you to do? Why have you been ignoring it so long? Is it because you’re afraid it won’t support you or your family financially? Is it because everyone around you tells you it’s a bad idea?

The most important overall lesson I’ve learned is to stay consistent and develop habits and systems for your own success. Output, share and connect as much as you can consistently, and make sure to genuinely listen to what others are saying. Every opportunity you take seriously could be your next break.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chioccaproductions.com
• Instagram: luke.chiocca
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVYpy158dcG8bMdDpayYhkw

Image Credits

Image 2 – Aliya Al Qaimi