We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Somesh Yatham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Somesh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I can confidently say I’m generally happy as an artist, but it is something I think about often. With how tumultuous the industry seems to be, there’s a level of anxiousness that no amount of dedication or accomplishment I think will ever solve. For me, It’s created this mindset of having to constantly one up myself, which I’m sure many other artists feel as well. But at the end of the day, I can’t imagine any other occupation giving me the same sense of fulfillment. It also helps tremendously that I have a support system that allows me to push myself and take advantage of opportunities..

Somesh, 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?

I’m a multi-instrumentalist composer, conductor, and sound designer based in NYC. I started off in classical composition, securing premieres of my works with chamber groups across the world, including two separate orchestral symphony premieres with the 60+ piece Austin Symphony Orchestra. During Covid, I began experimenting with electronic synthesis and production music, where I started indulging more in scoring. I pride myself on creating completely unique soundscapes and as of today, have scored for more than 50 indie projects that have placed in festivals both in the US and India. As someone of Indian descent, I’ve also done many scores that help tell the first generation south asian story, utilizing both my Indian upbringing and my western classical background to create new hybrid type of music. While composing remains my main focus, I’ve also delved heavily into sound design, focusing on foley implementation and dialogue cleanup, as well as score production where I’ve worked with Joy Music House to provide orchestration midi cleanup, and general assistance for projects on Hulu, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

For me, there’s always been an underlying guilt that I may not be contributing to society as much as a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Film scoring has explicitly allowed me to at least get as close as possible to telling untold stories that, in the long run, influence policy and public perception. Being able to make the audience take a particular issue or theme more seriously through emotionally connecting music is a massive motivator for what I do. Essentially, My drive to constantly learn and improve at my craft comes from the ability to one day transform temporary entertainment into something more meaningful in an audience that may foster action.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Before college, I knew barely anyone pursuing a career as a creative. The vast majority of people I grew up with followed more traditionally stable occupations, and the biggest misconception I faced often was that I didn’t care about money. That Simply because I’m heading towards a more atypical path, I live in a fantasy world that will surely catch up with me. The reality is that financial security is obviously very important to me. I’m very conscious of the risk involved with this career path, and it’s because of that consciousness that I’m constantly working. Artists are not naive. We’re just as aware as anyone of the unique challenges in our industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.someshyatham.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/someshy_composition/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/somesh-yatham-a6762b210/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@someshyatham
• Other: Linktree: linktr.ee/someshyatham

Image Credits
Christian Amonson