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

Vincenzo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

It’s been changing over the years, and I’m sure that going forward, considering how much we grow every day, I will probably have a change in heart a few more times. Right now, the thing that’s most important to me is being remembered for cultivating personal connections through my artistic expression. I guess it comes from a selfish place for the most part, but I want to be able to tell my stories and have people invested in them. I truly look up to artists who manage to do this – Taylor Swift is a huge one. When discussing her music, I’ll hear a lot of people say things such as “that sounds like it came right out of a diary,” and those statements resonate so vibrantly with me. So yes, I think it’s a little selfish of me for having my eyes set on capitalizing my own life in some way, but if I can manage to have others feel some sense of camaraderie through it, then I think it’s a worthy aspiration.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I first discovered Program Music, which is music written to depict a narrative, it was a complete game changer. All of a sudden, I wasn’t just working with pretty sounds (which of course, still have their merit), but now I could use the language I’ve spoken my entire life since I was 2 years old to actually share stories. And the stories that I listened to were fantastic, intimate, heroic, downright depressing, and it was all beautiful.

I wanted to do that.

So, in my high-school-equivalent music exam back in Malaysia, I composed a 12-minute long symphonic poem detailing the Battle of Helm’s Deep from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” I had been an avid fan of the film trilogy that Peter Jackson directed, and immersed myself in all aspects of Middle-Earth, from the lore, the literary criticisms, the extended works of Tolkien, the spin-off games, and of course all the music that breathed life into those stories. It was due to that music that I chose to pursue Film Scoring at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, kick starting my career as a Storyteller in Music.

Ever since, I’ve been composing music for student/indie films and musical theater productions, arranging music for and working with internationally acclaimed artists from Lalah Hathaway to Maya Rae of Tiny Habits, constantly learning and honing my craft in every aspect from the study of noise to silence, all in the pursuit of enhancing a narrative through sound. Though little has come close to the high I felt when someone listened to my song and said the words “I cried.”

There is still a long journey ahead of me, with so many more stories just aching to be told. I’m hopeful that I’ll find some beautiful people to tell those stories with me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Ironically, it’s connecting with other people through my work (I’m painfully introverted!). When the stories I tell resonate with the audience, there’s nothing quite like it.

Growing up in the environment that I did, music wasn’t really one of those things people found all that cool, especially since my earlier introduction to it was classical music which then transitioned to jazz and the oldies for work in a wedding band. Although I dabbled in sports every now and then, my real interests were full of things one would stereotypically associate with the ‘outsider’ type in a movie or TV show: heavy metal, high fantasy, and horror. You know Eddie from Stranger Things? Yeah, that was basically me, just without the long hair (it wasn’t allowed in my British-styled boarding school). So although people knew me and we spent time together, it almost always an act that I put up to some extent, which after a while gets exhausting. I also had a lot of previously close friends who decided they wanted nothing to do with me because of my newfound interests, especially with the horror and heavy metal, deemed by my Catholic circle to be incredibly Satanic. Needless to say, things began to feel isolating.

I mentioned previously the words “I cried” said to me after someone listened to one of my songs called “i cant sleep tonight.” Because that song was basically a 4am, unfiltered confession as I sat in my bed, subtle tears reflecting the light off my phone, it felt like I was finally being seen, like someone had somehow shared in my life and validated my experience. They said the words “I cried” but what I really heard them say was “I know you, now.” Another moment that has felt incredibly rewarding was the time I played in a college-mate’s recital, and there was this insane saxophone solo I had to pull off. I toiled over that for hours upon hours, I had to learn completely new techniques just to execute that, and when I finally did the day of the show, one of my best friends who watched said to me “I love hearing you play.” And because that performance was so ingrained, such a part of me extended, what they really said was “I love you.”

Now if both those moments in my creative career didn’t spark anything in me, I don’t know if anything else could.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Oh, definitely! Music technology is a huge one.

I was very close minded growing up about a lot of things, one of the biggest regrets being this opposition to the future of music. It makes sense when you think about it, growing up surrounded and cultivated only by classical and jazz music in a tiny island like Penang. My family also wasn’t the most wealthy, and having invested a lot into acoustic instruments, we honed in on that side of the art for most of my life.

But, having gone to Berklee and opening my mind to all sorts of cultures, musical traditions, music history, and of course finally having the chance (or shall I say obligation for a good grade) to invest time and effort into music technology at even a fundamental level, I’d say that has reshaped my entire musical and creative identity, so much so that I even decided in pursuing a second major in Electronic Production and Design, where I met some amazing faculty members who have inspired and pushed me to reconsider creative philosophies and aesthetics. Previously, I would never have indulged in anything to do with “making beats on a laptop,” as my younger self would scoff, but now I have a two brand new songs releasing soon, one being a meditative soundscape with spliced up recordings of a read poem, and the other an electronic-black metal-baroque hybrid track.

I’m so excited about the creative that I’ve become, I wish younger me could have shared in this excitement about the future.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vince.deleon66/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vince.deleon66/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincenzodeleon/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdIVymGRViWAiyY4jNF3qWg

Image Credits
Vincent Chin; Darcy Ying Xiaoyi; Edwin Lim; Khaw Ju Liet; E.S. Lu