We recently connected with Sean Chapman and have shared our conversation below.

Sean , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Music has always been part of my family, my mom played flute, grandmother sang in the church choir, grandfather played drums, So i was introduced to the craft really early on in life. As i grew older and felt the impact that music had on my life, I decided to study music in college and commit myself to being a perpetual student of music, However, I didn’t know what that commitment would entail. The long hours it took just trying to understand one concept of music theory, all the moments of self doubt, wondering will I ever be good enough. If I could go back with the knowledge I have now, I would definitely put more emphasis on practicing. And not just the concept of practicing by itself, but rather the art of knowing how to practice correctly. The place of practice is where we build good and/or bad habits and technique. The place of practice that builds good habits feels slow, time consuming and tedious compared to the place of building bad habits. The thing that stood in my of learning more was most likely my ego. I only “practiced” aspects of music that I already knew, which gave me a false sense of security. I actively avoided everything I didn’t know. I wanted the world of music to only be what I knew, instead of letting the world of music teach me the things that I didn’t know. As a more mature musician, I understand now that the place of practice only has space for the things we don’t know. That is what practice is for,

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?

I am a musician/Film composer originally from New Jersey but currently stationed in Texas. I first fell immersed in the world of film and music after watching the film The Lion King when I was probably around 15 years old. I have seen that movie many times prior but it was one day when I really paid attention to the score and how much the movie really comes alive with the aid of the score. It was that moment that I wanted to make music that makes other people feel the way I felt watching that movie. Eventually I decided to go to undergrad for classical piano and music composition, shortly after studied at the Film Scoring Academy of Europe in Sofia Bulgaria. Currently I am the bassist for the band Beyond the Marsh. As Beyond the Marsh we aim to take all the advanced and complex concepts of tonal harmony that make music interesting but apply them in such a way that is accessible to our audience. Each member of Beyond the Marsh comes from a different musical background, whether that be classical, jazz, classic rock, metal, etc. Every song is a blend of our musical differences that has a story to tell and we want our audience ride along with us on the musical journey. We don’t write music that takes our audience out of the musical experience.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Honestly it has to be that as a musician, or any creative in general, we have the ability to take a concept or idea, that has never existed before and make it part of reality. We can turn an intangible concept into something that can be accessible and communicate something to real people of this world, whether by seeing, hearing, taste, touch or smell. And if bringing something that never existed before into reality isn’t the coolest thing about being an artist, than I don’t know what is.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

For sure. After coming back to Texas from studying music for films overseas in Bulgaria, I had a really hard time finding a job in that specific industry, it is a tough industry to get into after all. So I couldn’t just not have a job, so I got a job at a music store. Unfortunately, that music store did not pay nearly enough for me to survive but luckily I was able to move back in with my mom, which kept my head above water. Well misfortune kept raining upon me and my mother eventually loss her job and with my job there was no way I was going to be able to pick up the slack on rent. So as things progress, we eventually got evicted and shortly before that my long term girlfriend and I broke up. Realizing that I had to do something different I decided to go back to school for something with a bit more job security, so I chose Cybersecurity. While working at the music store, I bought a bass, honestly just an impulse buy really. But in between my security classes I would practice bass endlessly because it was all I had at the time. Fast forwarding to now, I have a stable job and although I have only been playing bass for a little over year, all the practicing I did got the attention of some people trying to get a band together, There is no part of my life that I thought that I would ever be in a band, especially being the bassist of a band. The course of my life wasn’t ideal but I’m not complaining about the outcome of it all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://seanchapman095.wixsite.com/composer
• Instagram: rachseaninoff_95
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sean.chapman.56
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-chapman-066a84242/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@seanchapman7049?si=DXp4rCjFMo5JFVIq
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Dud4orEFohumGlDjq07Br?si=Vpz6svg8QweYO3J8IHwetAhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/1EHGo4Y7iJ38EteDcZnlXA?si=CCSBpyuRR-SfraheM6hu2A