We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Obadiah Brown-beach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Obadiah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had multiple turning points in my life when I felt a stark pull towards needing to make music. I always had at least a general interest in music, but as a teenager I felt compelled to actually start writing my own out of a need for an emotional outlet. I took the harder things in life that I didn’t quite know how to communicate effectively and put them into personal songs that I would play in my bedroom as a form of soothing myself to sleep. The teenage angst, drama, loss, loneliness, and newfound heavier emotions and questions all came out through music so I could continue to feel more emotionally regulated otherwise. At that point I started to realize how much I felt drawn to songwriting as a much-needed form of personal expression and catharsis.

Later, upon hearing my older brother’s college choir perform a jaw dropping performance (including Eric Whitacre’s Lux Arumque, which I’m quite partial to), I decided to attend a school with a great choral program, Concordia College, where I sang constantly and found a great deal of inspiration. I continued to write some personal acoustic songs on the side and started performing some of them here and there, but had essentially yet to begin composing anything outside of that.

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.

I am a composer for media, primarily working in video games, with extra work in tv and film. Some of this includes writing/recording guitar, vocals, lyrics, arranging, production, editing, and the occasional saxophone performance.

It was only after undergrad that I decided to shift gears to composition. I was playing in a rock band in Seattle, but was not seeing a way to make that passion project into something that would earn enough of a living to be able to quit my service industry job.

I had some friends working in the games industry as artists who convinced me to write music for their tabletop side project. They really encouraged, pushed, and inspired me to branch out (shoutout to my buddy Dave Peixoto). I pivoted and used this newer material to get into the Berklee Valencia Master’s program. I still had that same need to make music, but felt I might do better as a composer for media than as a performer.

After Berklee I eventually moved to Los Angeles where I interned and then contracted for Bear McCreary’s Sparks and Shadows working on TV projects like Outlander, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Black Sails, and The Walking Dead. On the side I scored my first mobile games with Shovelware Games and worked on various short film projects. I used some of my favorite pieces from my extra work to apply to an open composer position at Hexany Audio, and landed an in-house position there, which I’ve held now for over 6 years.

At Hexany, I’ve composed for a wide variety of games, including titles such as: Arknights, Honor of Kings, Overwatch, Wuthering Waves, PUBG Mobile, and New World. I’ve been tasked with writing, producing, and mixing/mastering music ranging in style from fully orchestral (both live and mock-up), to electronic, hybrid, funk/jazz, all the way to heavy metal. I’ve gotten to write interactive underscore, score to picture for cinematic moments and trailers, and write quite a few standalone songs as well, many of which have been performed in China for Arknights’ award winning Ambience Synesthesia concert. Our work has gotten recognized at the G.A.N.G. Awards, Hollywood Music in Media Awards, as well as the Global Music Awards.

I pride myself on being able to make a wide variety of music that maintains quality and ease of listening while drawing on multiple styles and influences. Or at least this is what I continually strive for. I want to be able to push boundaries a little bit, while writing from the heart and mind in a way that still relates to the project and story I’m working on.

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

After undergrad, I’d decided music was my passion that I needed to follow. Yet being a small town guy with little life experience outside of being a student, I had absolutely no concept of how that would or could work as a career. I moved to Seattle to play in a rock band with my older brother. We as a band had a lot of heart, but no business savvy, industry knowledge or connections, and next to no money for gear, recordings, or self-promotion. Most of our attempts fell flat. We rushed through the recording of a first album as we didn’t have the money for more than about 2 takes per song in a cheaper studio on our budget gear. And because we lacked the maturity to workshop and edit our tunes for a while longer before recording, we hastily pushed out some music that wasn’t ready for the world. It unfortunately wasn’t received all that well, which is always a bit heartbreaking when you get vulnerable and put a lot of your self into something.

Relationships were strained from barely affording rent on service industry wages, and worsened because of a rather heartbreaking realization that the person dearest to me on this earth was an addict and I had no idea what to do about it or how to ask for help. I spiraled into quite a bit of depression and was rethinking my life choices, and ultimately decided to try to pivot and flee back into school, which led me to the Berklee Valencia Master’s program for composition in Spain.

From that point onward I decided I would absolutely make composition work as a career no matter what, which still took a fair bit of time. The first years after graduating had many months with no work, financial struggles, some couch surfing, numerous rejections, and plenty of all-nighters, but eventually things came together.

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

If you enjoy art someone makes, buy it, stream it, share it, attend it. Just be an active and vocal supporter of the things you enjoy and show up in full force. Any bit of support whether moral or financial is always so appreciated.

And in today’s scary age of AI that’s rapidly getting better while having been trained on pre-existing works, do your best to not use or support it. Pay an artist to create an image, logo, or custom song for your project. You’ll get something more personal, uniquely human, authentic, and support a creative in the process. AI tools are incredibly impressive, but they threaten to take away our most human forms of self-expression and culture. I personally think the best way to support budding artists and creatives is to consume, promote, and celebrate their original work, while refusing to take part in AI generated works.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.obadiahbrownbeach.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/obadiahbb
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/obadiahbrownbeachmusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/obadiahbrownbeach
• Twitter: https://x.com/obadiahbb
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@obadiahbrownbeach
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1CENKGLQfrqJLgp88UERWB?si=-Voj5lH4TSa6jOXjOW5SFA

Image Credits

Tomorrow Mingtian