We recently connected with Mark Crawford and have shared our conversation below.

Mark, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Being an artist can feel like straying from a walking path to go hacking away through dense jungle with a machete. One one hand, it’s incredibly liberating being able to manage your own schedules, vacation time, which projects you work on, and even when to work on them during the day (or late night). You are the master of your own fate and you determine how fast or how slow you climb whichever ladder you’ve laid out ahead of you.

At the same time, you feel the pressure of being in control of your success and an artist can constantly feel isolated, full of self doubt, on whether they can navigate their way through a jungle that has no clear path. There is no diploma or certificate that says “Hey! Now you’re a writer!” or “Congrats, you’re a composer!”. An artist has to make that call. And even when you receive that award nomination and even win that award, that self questioning of whether you “made it” doesn’t end there.

It takes a good amount of mental prep, emotional strengthening, and stress for someone make a shift from a regimented life of working a structured job to being a freelancer or an artist full time. I know because I’ve transitioned both ways, going from working shifts at a grocery store to being a freelance filmmaker out of college, to going to a salaried job, and back to being an artist. The grass is always greener on the other side. Some days you’ll want that financial security and structured schedule. Right now I’m loving being an artist, hacking away at jungle with a machete and all.

Mark, 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?

My name is Mark Crawford and I am an Emmy-nominated film composer. Most recently I scored the film The Social Dilemma and the Emmy-winning short documentary The Love Bugs. I’ve spent the last decade collaborating closely with producers, directors, and editors to shepherd a shared music vision for countless short films, promos, and animations in addition to feature films. When I approach a new project, I’m always story centric and I’m always looking for how my music can add something that isn’t already on screen or in the sound mix.

I relish the collaborative aspect of the post production process, and I strive to find the balance between an ambitious creative musical palette and the timeline, budget, and scope available. With my extensive production and post-production background, I empathize with the entire creative process, and I recognize how clear communication across teams is essential for achieving a shared vision.

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

Better education for financial planning, please! I think this goes for just about every living, breathing person out there, but especially for artists and creatives. An artist can be brilliant and create amazing things, but if they don’t know how to manage a budget, whether that’s for a project or in your own life, it can really get them into trouble. And when I say education, I don’t mean just from schools or online course, but from our families as well. I feel fortunate to have had parents and mentors that taught me the ins and outs of budgeting, taxes, and investments (what the heck was a 401k??), all the not so-fun-stuff a young artist wants to spend time on, but wow have those lessons extended my creative career.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Fresh out of college, and eager to not have to be tied down by a job at my local grocery store, I decided to become a freelance filmmaker. I took on odd jobs from musical ads for kitchen appliances to animations about hemophilia. Someone described this style of work is being a hunter approach to gigs. You put yourself out there, you get the gigs, you make your “kill” and hopefully it’s a successful one, and then you move on to the next.

I found out later on in my creative journey that the approach of being a musician can be much different, and similar to that of a farmer. A musician can create music either for a project or as a standalone piece and through something called a PRO (performing rights organization), that music work can be registered. That music become the “seeds” of their craft and the PRO a type of “seed bank”. If the music is “synced” with a TV show or film, you could be entitled to royalties. The more music one writes and the more placements they get, or the more seeds you create and the further you scatter them, the more likely they will blossom into something fruitful that can sustain you. Down the road when one’s arthritic hands can’t grip the neck of a guitar, hopefully they can just sit back and tend the music “garden” they’ve planted over the years.

Think of your favorite TV shows or jingles. Every time the theme song plays, the artist that created it may be getting royalties. While Spotify and other music streaming services are wonderful for listeners, it takes a lot of streams, and a lot of hustle to build a following in other ways, for an artist to see any financial return. But if you can get the right song in the right place at the right time, that can be a alternate avenue than say putting yourself on TikTok to promote your music (the very thought of this for an introvert like me gives me the heebie jeebies).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.markcrawfordmusic.com
• Instagram: @markcrawfordmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markcrawfordmusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcrawfordmusic/
• Twitter: @ComposerMC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/markcrawfordmusic
• Other: https://soundbetter.com/profiles/288878-mark-crawford

Image Credits
Matthew Staver