top of page
Search

WHERE DO I HOPE TO GO (WITH MUSIC)?

Joel Wybrew

I think this is a valuable question for any composer - any artist, really - to consider. It’s also a greatly difficult one to answer. I have many answers, which collectively don’t make a unified answer. Oops.


I’ll start with the simplest and least important of all: I hope to do some commercial music making. I don’t mean make music for commercials specifically, but earning money from making music. I think mostly because receiving income for your craft can provide a sense of merit and reward for the work you do. It 'proves' (in one sense) that what you do has a kind of value and is useful in a certain space. And let’s forego any pretence that money isn’t good or helpful to have. So yes, I’d like to get paid for my work! This might be music for radio, TV, film, or backing music for something like a Twitch channel!


On a totally opposite end of the spectrum, I hope to continue to find ways to express thoughts and emotions in my music. I mean this whether or not the end result goes public or not. I want to discover new ways to musically translate my experiences and the imprint they have left on me. This is an inherently personal endeavour that may enter into the public sphere, but has nothing to do with money, ‘the industry’ or even good community involvement. I want to express myself for me, on some level.


As I talk about in another blog post reflecting on a collaboration with Michael Henderson, I want opportunities to express my convictions publicly and help make an impact on people’s hearts to see faith, each other, themselves, culture, and the world in new lights. I want to be a part of movements that achieve cultural and spiritual good. I want to vulnerably share my own experiences to help enable others’ openness. I’ve seen what that can look like, and it’s incredible when done well. I want to work on my craft so that I can do these things in aesthetically pleasing (or intentionally and appropriately frictional) ways. I hope that through high quality music in connection with powerful art, I can help start and be a part of transformative conversations.


I’d like to score a film. That would be super cool. I’d love to create a theme that can create such a strong connection as some of those in The Lord of the Rings have for me. I can see Rohan with my eyes open if I’m listening to the theme. To have that impact on another story and its fanbase would be utterly surreal.


I’d love to collaborate with Jeremy Zuckerman. He doesn’t know it, but that’s something I intend to pursue in some way. I’ll pay him or something. We’ll make it work ;) Speaking of him, I have a special project that I hope to one day complete and present to him in-person.


Lastly, I’d really like to see how I can connect with people in working with them on projects. Collaborating, for me, is an exciting venture that can produce something greater than the sum of its parts, but also be super conducive to creating deep and wonderful connections with people. You can reveal a deep part of yourself when you do art. I say ‘can’ because it is also entirely possible to have a lengthy career in the arts world without ever being truly vulnerable, which is not necessarily a ‘bad’ thing at all! But for my objectives and natural inclinations, shared vulnerability is both desired and inevitable. The reason for that is, as I’ve said, for connections and impact and achieving something beyond the immediate product of the work.


I hope that in all these kinds of endeavours, and wherever else I end up going that I can’t foresee now, I can stay true to my convictions, my spiritual faith, and my vision for being the tiniest, tiniest part in things bigger than myself to challenge, uplift, improve and inspire people.


I don’t know what the future holds, I really don’t. But I trust I can be taken to good places and help achieve some kind of good. Oorah.

bottom of page