* *
- I've always wanted to do this.
Just always been drawn to it.
I love it so much.
When I'm just creating,
it just comes.
It just, you know, just goes out.
Then I don't think very much about it.
Well, when you tell somebody
that, "Yeah," you score film,
"That I make music for film and television,"
it's kind of like,
"Well, you're not in Hollywood, so I don't understand that."
Like, "How are you doing that from Janesville, Wisconsin?"
* *
I think there's...
a picture of me in a little sailor suit,
and I'm like two years old, at the piano.
I've just always been drawn to it.
I love it. I was obsessed with this.
I was constantly at the piano.
I had a little TV that had
a video player in it,
so I would actually put it right on top,
and I would watch movies and compose,
and then try to sync them up, and then rewind the videotape,
and then press 'Play,' and then watch it.
I would do that all day.
I just always wanted to do music for film.
I thought it was so important the role that music has
in any film.
I started reaching out
to a bunch of music supervision agencies,
and just email after email,
and it started to happen.
And so, I started getting busier and busier and busier.
And I...
You know, I'm so responsible,
I turned some of these huge--
these unbelievably huge gigs down
because I was in school, pursuing social work.
So, I think I got some opportunities
for the Super Bowl one year, but I decided,
"Well, I've got this paper that's due tomorrow.
And so, I'll probably just do the paper."
You know?
And so I turned some of these opportunities down,
and then I realized later on
that that's a crazy thing to do
and that I should totally go full into this,
and, you know, 100% jump in and pursue my dreams.
One of the most well-known ones,
of course, is the Super Bowl spot that I did,
and that was featuring Kim Kardashian
in a T-Mobile commercial.
* *
- These are the batteries.
The tab makes it super simple.
- I did one that was about hearing aids.
- How does that sound?
- [man exhales audibly]
- Duracell saves the day.
[with great emotion] n- I think so... That's amazing.
- [almost inaudibly] "Thank you."
- Now with "Wisconsin From the Air,"
it's a little different.
There's not a lot of dialogue,
so the music can't hide beneath anything.
It's pronounced.
* *
It's out in the front, you know?
It's right next to the picture,
so you have to treat it differently.
We're trying to guide,
you know, the viewer
to feel certain emotions
or to,
I don't know,
solicit certain responses.
So, my job then is to take the tones,
take the feelings
that the producer, the editor, the director
were going for,
and then have it make sense for the actual film.
[majestic instrumental]
I like the rushing to create something awesome
overnight
and send it out because
you don't have time to think, you don't have time
to pick everything apart and be a perfectionist.
I think that's cool,
and I like that.
But I think
what I'm really going to be trying to get into
is doing more scores
because I love the accomplishment
of creating something grand .