You’re Never Too Young to Make Winning Music
Music composer Mark Oates lives to write music. 26-year-old Oates, who is studying music composition at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, calls himself just a “regular guy on campus.” And the young composer has already won several awards for film soundtracks and movie scores he’s written, including the 2005 indie film, Lady Liberty.
Though Oates has worked with filmmakers in the US and Europe, including Finnish filmmaker Samuli Jomppanean, and German filmmaker Joachim Jung, Oates’ notoriety hasn’t made him arrogant. A self-taught composer, he’s financed his production company entirely on his own, by working ordinary jobs and with the help of student loans. And with his recent string of successes, it’s clear this young man’s talent knows no boundaries.
SW: How long have you been composing music?
I started composing when I was in High School, and I’d been playing instruments like trombone, and stuff like that. I didn’t like being a performer that much ‘cause I get nervous around people, and I’m especially self conscious that everyone’s watching you, and you’ve got these lights on you, and you’re like, ‘Oh, what am I gonna do!’ So composing was more attractive to me because I’m more of a guy who likes to kinda sit with myself and think things through. I mean, I started composing when I was in High School, and I’ve just been doing it ever since.
SW: How exactly did you get started?
It’s a very difficult thing to be successful as a composer. While studying at Oklahoma State University, I had changed my major from Music Composition to Computer Science. Then I decided, okay, Computer Science is fun and all, but I’m writing this [music] stuff anyway. I’m enjoying writing music, and I’m gonna try and do that as much as I can. I don’t care what people say, ‘It’s difficult… whatever, it’s hard.’ It doesn’t matter. So I moved out here to New Mexico, switched my major back to Music Composition, and I started acquiring more professional recording equipment—microphones, you know really nice speakers—so I could record people, could produce complete scores of orchestras that they needed. I purchased a different series of samplers, all kinds of software, in order to produce professional quality music—that was exactly what they told us to produce. And all this started about two, maybe three years ago. Then a friend of mine told me to check out the Duke City Shootout, which is a nationwide film competition that happens once a year here in Albuquerque. That’s where I started getting awards for the music. People really liked what I was doing, and I started getting recognition.
SW: Tell me about the first film for which you composed the musical score.
The first movie that I ever wrote music for was called Stalingrad 1943, and this was a short film. I had met this guy on the Internet, named Samuli Jomppanean, and he was from Finland and he said, you know, we’re making movies, and your music is really good, maybe you can write something for one of our movies. I had no idea what was going on ‘cause it was all in a different language; even the subtitles were in a different language. It’s about World War II, about a soldier who’s in the war and all the horrible things in the war that were done to his family. It was shot in black and white and it was very sad and melancholy.
SW: Tell me about the sound effects work that you’ve done for films? Is that something you’ve enjoyed doing?
Well, not so much. I get kind of roped into [doing Foley sound] because I have all the recording equipment, so I’ve been doing the sound mixing and the Foley stuff for movies, but really what I want to do is the music. The reason I sort of allowed myself to do the sound was because the better the sound is, the better the film is, and as a result, the higher the possibility my name will get out there. It’s tedious; it’s not like composing. Foley’s not bad, but doing the sound makes it so much more tedious; just making sure the meters aren’t peaking is pretty meticulous. Foley’s creative; it’s like, ‘How can you make it sound like a guy’s getting punched?’ [I ask myself] ‘How hard do you want him to get punched? And when they put the metal pipe to his head, do you want his head to crack?’ It’s a lot of fun.
SW: Who are your favorite music composers?
Well, there’s a bunch of them. I can’t deny the brilliant works of the famous John Williams. There’s also James Horner, who I like a lot. Clint Mansell is really good. He did Requiem for a Dream. James Newton Howard… there’s a huge list. In my influences, there are not just film composers but musicians in general. You can go into classical musicians—avant garde musicians, and pop—I mean, even Britney Spears has had an influence on me. A lot of people don’t give her enough credit. She’s a cliché pop-icon, but she’s worked really, really hard to get where she is now. She’s very dedicated.
SW: You won awards for Lady Liberty, and Under My Skin, has that success gotten you more recognition?
Yeah, definitely, but I think what’s helped me more than the awards is the networking I do with the people I’ve met. When they did the Duke City Shootout, that’s when I got two awards for films that I did. I met so many different people—John Lore and Armando Kirwin, two editors I work with—and they’ve networked me to even more people, and it’s just great. Networking is proportional ‘cause if you meet one person, you’re gonna meet three more people, and out of those three people, you’re gonna meet three more, from each of them. I was thinking about this the other day; I could tie almost all of the films I’ve worked on so far, to two people.
SW: What advice would you give to other up-and-coming composers?
The most advice I would give is, like in Charlie Brown, what was it that Lucy said to him? ‘The more you fail, the more you learn’, and Charlie Brown said, ‘Well I must be the smartest kid in the whole world,’ ‘cause he fails all the time. But that’s so true, you just have to keep going. Be critical about whatever it is that you’re doing. You have to write everyday. Network. Go to parties. Part of it—the whole industry—is not just being able to write music, but a huge chunk of it is networking, meeting people, talking to people, getting interviewed. Go to film festivals, meet directors, make CDs. Go to different directors’ conferences. One thing I did last weekend is I went to a film festival in Santa Fe. That was good because there were lots of composers trying to network with the directors, and the directors were coming to meet the composers. All of them look [and listen] to your music and you can talk to them that way, otherwise you’re gonna be one of many fish [in the pond.] Ultimately, you’ve got to make yourself stand out.
Author's biography:
Anna Terrain is an art lover and music enthusiast who lives to see a live show, especially anything underground. She plays the piano and enjoys writing poetry, short stories, and reading her work publicly from time to time. Anna is currently writing for Sonic Weekly and working to progress environmental causes. She resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
