We recently connected with Simon Sohel TaufiQue and have shared our conversation below.

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

I got my first whiff of what it would be like to pursue a creative path when I became friends with my NYU classmate, M. Night Shyamalan. I’ve never met someone so laser-focused on their passion and so singularly driven to realize that passion as their life’s purpose. While he was clear-sighted on his destination, by contrast, my path turned out to be a maze, where each corner would reveal new possibilities, discoveries (and dead-ends) about myself and what I wanted before I could understand where I wanted to go. Some clues revealed themselves along the way: I was immediately transported to a new world when coming up with new sounds and melodies as I noodled around the guitar, not unlike when I was introduced to new stories and characters during the many film screenings Night would host.
All of this led to a far-off goal of saving enough money so that one day I could work on music full-time. As an immigrant, a professional career in the arts seemed much too irresponsible and naive at best. And yet, I held onto that dream as a North Star while I continued 0n my path along the maze. That path resulted in early-morning composing sessions and all-night practice runs while I worked various gigs teaching and consulting in tech. One of those gigs allowed me to invent a technology process that ultimately turned into an award-winning startup that I founded. I knew it wasn’t my life’s purpose but maybe it could carry me along until there was enough saved to live the dream someday?
It was on 9/11 when I realized that living today for some day in the future was no longer possible. I learned that one of my high school classmates as well as one of my NYU students had perished in the towers that day. It was then that I knew I could no longer delay my life’s purpose. I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path and it had to start now. After that day I took off the blinders and found my way through the maze, clear in the pursuit of a career in music and film. I’ve never looked back since.

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 compose original music for Emmy-nominated narrative and documentary films and episodic series. I like to think of my work as a composer as helping to tell stories in an unspoken language that can’t be told only with words in a script or performances on a screen.

I develop and produce other award-winning films with an ever-growing number of emerging and seasoned writers, directors and producers. As a creative producer, I am driven by storytellers who need support from someone who can help them with the creative process and who can look at the creative challenges from a new perspective, whether it’s to push the envelope of character, genre, or even in a market to fund the story.

I also teach film producing at NYU and Sundance.

Along with that I co-lead the NY chapter of an entertainment industry mentoring organization, the Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS) and also host one of the largest filmmaking salons in NYC, called Squalor NYC.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Artists and creatives need room to fail so if we can help to provide a safety net so artists can take creative risks, their work will benefit. Meaningful support in the form of housing assistance, project grants, teaching fellowships, on par with what is available in other parts of the world, will make a huge difference.

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

When I was growing up I wasn’t allowed to have a guitar so I smuggled a borrowed electric guitar and hid it under my bed. Because it was electric, it wouldn’t produce much sound without an amplifier (which I couldn’t hid, let alone afford). This was perfect because I could teach myself how to play it silently in the early morning hours before the family awoke or late into the night while everyone was fast asleep. I was determined to learn how to play guitar, despite the restrictions, so I did whatever I could to make that happen. When I was older, living on my own and free of the restrictions. I would still wake up before dawn to practice for an hour or two before going to my college classes and after that, to my first full-time jobs. The experience taught me that passion always finds a way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.musiquetaufique.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simon_taufique/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simontaufique/
• Twitter: https://x.com/simontaufique
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/simon_taufique

Image Credits

Deborah Chesher