This week, we have the privilege of hearing from guest author Luke Standridge share about his journey to becoming a film music composer. Learn about how his love of music and his faith inspired this kid from small-town Indiana to pursue the exciting dream of composing film music on the distant shores of the island of Japan.
Small Beginnings
Some of my earliest memories of hearing music are from the late 90s when I would listen to my eldest brother's diverse music collection through a pair of cheap speakers. He had a large selection of film soundtracks and new age synth music, and I would spend hours listening to my favorite songs on endless repeat. Around age seven, I began teaching myself how to play my favorite songs on the piano, which led to me experimenting with composing for the first time. From there, I began to develop the desire to put my musical ideas down on paper, but I was completely lost to the world of music theory and notation, so I began to study the hymnals and various pieces of sheet music we had lying around. This led to quite the fascination with how composers notated their compositions, and from that time on, there was nothing else I wanted to be other than a composer.
My next opportunity came when my 2nd eldest brother joined the middle school band. He was beginning to learn music theory, and one day he decided to download a free version of Cakewalk Studio’s super rudimentary notator so that we could remake our favorite songs from Phantom of the Opera. He was interested in it for an afternoon, but I became completely obsessed. I finally had a way to notate my compositions and hear them back! Although I quickly hit the limits of Cakewalk Studio, I was inspired to try my hand at band and orchestral music. This began the few years' journey of creating tons of new email addresses so I could keep downloading the month demo of Finale. After convincing my parents to let me buy the full version with my allowance, I used the program exclusively until 2012. Around that time, I started to hear amazing sample libraries being released by companies like EastWest and Project Sam that were lightyears ahead of the sound quality and realism of what I could get out of Finale. It was time to step in the world of the DAW (digital audio workstation).
The Dream Evolves
I saved up my money and decided to invest in a new computer, a MIDI keyboard, and a copy of Cubase 7. Slowly, I began investing in different sample libraries and wanted to start putting my music out into the world, so I got a SoundCloud account. A few months after posting my first several songs I got an email from an Australian film student asking me if I wanted to score his senior project. Of course, I jumped at this opportunity! I also started sending my music out to other composers that I admired like Ivan Torrent and Mark Petire, and these guys gave me my first intro into Library music. From there, I had small successes and more opportunities to score films or collaborate with other composers, but I never had big enough success that I could do it full time.
A Redirection
In 2018 I felt an undeniable call to move to Japan and become a full-time missionary, but the big problem is that I was still holding onto that dream of being a film composer in Hollywood. Was I prepared to give up on the dream I had had since I was 7 years old? To make a long story short, I took that leap of faith and moved to Tokyo, Japan 6 months ago with zero prospects for music. I just knew that this musical gift would be used here in Japan. Little did I know that the doors of my expectations were about to be blown wide open!
Since moving here, I have had the tremendous privilege to work with composer Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia, Haikyuu, and Pokemon). Through work with him, I have been able to compose music for anime like Dragon Quest, Haikyuu, and even a stage play! I have become friends with composers like Evan Call and had the opportunity to attend recordings and sing in a song for the upcoming Violet Evergarden movie! I am blown away by all the doors that are opening up here. However, all of this would be meaningless if there was no higher call. I am going to continue to take every opportunity given to me and use it to build a platform so that I can relevantly speak into the lives of the Japanese people and build friendships here. Thank you so much for listening to my story!
Like many of you, Luke started as a kid with a dream to write music, and today he lives on the other side of the globe doing just that! If you want to learn more about Luke, I highly encourage you to check out some of his music, and start pursuing your musical dreams through lessons with one of our awesome instructors.
- Luke Standridge, Freelance Film Music Composer
