Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Theo Elwell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

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’m a composer working in film/TV. Most of my work is writing TV/film scores but I also do a lot of work for other composers, including orchestration, music editing, session recording etc. I was fortunate enough to grow up playing in orchestras and singing in cathedral choirs, before moving to London to study the violin and composition. Having the opportunity to tour the world and perform brilliant music was the perfect musical education. These experiences were formative to my pursuit of a career in music/film and I count myself very lucky indeed.

The last year has been my busiest to date. I scored my first series for Warner Bros, my first feature documentary and orchestrated a number of brilliant scores for some exciting film and TV projects for Netflix and Disney. As a violinist originally, strings usually find their way into my writing, and I like to do as much of the playing myself as I can. My orchestral upbringing has been very helpful when orchestrating or solving queries for other composers who may have had less traditional ‘classical’ educations. I am now onto my third solo TV series and a number of projects with LA/NYC-based filmmakers, as well as a film for the Oscar-winning production company SlickFilms.

Theo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Being a professional artist in any capacity is an inherently risky decision. Everyone has to sell something in order to make money and pay the bills… Whether that’s selling your time, your services, or in our case – our art. This presents a paradoxical scenario when embarking on a career as an artist, and begs the question ‘Do I make something which will appeal to the masses and has the most chance of making money, or take a risk and produce something that is authentic, hoping that it will be a success?’. My belief is that you must do a combination of both. A film composer’s job is collaborative by nature; you work with a director to establish the framework of the score, general ideas etc, then use your artistic license and skill to make it unique to the characters/setting/story.

It is inevitable that a time will come in your life when you will face a decision between taking a risk and playing it safe. For me, that decision was leaving my full-time job to go freelance. As an incredibly risk-averse person, the idea kept me up at night and made me feel sick whenever I thought about it. I thought the only way I could do it was to see into the future, so that’s what I did… more or less. I contacted hundreds of composers (and other professionals) who were 10 – 20 years ahead of me and asked them for advice. They all came back with relatively similar answers – ‘Save up, go for it, in your 20s you have nothing to lose’. So, I saved up 9 months worth of living expenses and took the leap. a year and a half later, I’m the happiest and most fulfilled I’ve ever been.

My advice to anyone thinking of taking a risk and becoming a freelancer is this: Take risks wisely and preparedly. Risks are just opportunities. If you never try, you’ll never know.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I’m a big believer in remaining constantly curious and learning the most you can about everything. As a composer (or artist in general), your aim, I think, is to produce something that is unique and has meaning, so it makes sense to me to consume as much of the human experience/life as possible. Whether that be learning about the nuances of different religions or talking to older generations about their unique experiences growing up in a particular era, learning can provide the inspiration for the next artistic idea. I take a lot of my own inspiration from nature and from other art forms (paintings, poetry, architecture). There are certain cross-overs in nature and music which I find constantly fascinating – the harmonic series, fractal patterns, murmurations etc. which is part of the reason I think the Planet Earth/Blue Planet series’ have been such a success.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I was 19 I thought I wanted to be a financier… Call it a quarter-life crisis. I taught myself economics in my college dorm and ended up getting onto some masters courses to do Economics. I’m very grateful to everyone who convinced me otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theoelwell.com
• Instagram: @theo.hugo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-elwell-785a46139/
• Other: TikTok: @theo.composer