Ciaran Birch is a music composer based in Dublin, who writes music for films and advertisements.
This year, he also signed with a London and LA based trailer company called ReallySlowMotion composing music for motion picture advertising.
Ciaran chatted to Her.ie this week about the leaving the corporate world to follow his dreams and the reality of what it’s like to be a composer.
How did you get to your current position?
I’m self-taught from both the musician and composer side of things. I was really into music as a teen and did the usual thing of writing music and songs as part of bands.
When I was in fourth year in secondary school, I was hugely influenced by The Matrix, which we studied as part of a film studies module. The way that the powerful music by Don Davis sucked you into an alternate world really stuck with me and I knew after that I wanted to be involved in films or advertising but I didn’t didn’t realise composing was a potential career choice at the time so I opted for a business route after finishing school.
I studied accounting in college but never fully felt that this career path was the right fit. About three years ago, my dad bought the music software program Pro Tools and I was amazed at all the possibilities that there were for creating orchestral style music. It was at this point that I fell in love with it.
The last place I worked before leaving to pursue a career in composing was a finance company in Blackrock and I actually composed a lot of music for their radio adverts. This gave me a great taste of what it would be like and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I didn’t mind spending ten to 12 hours a day working on a track and it was great to feel such passion and drive for something. So, I bit the bullet and decided I needed to leave and pursue what I really wanted.
I started out working on student films and competitions, which really helped me gain experience and confidence and led me to what I’m working on at the moment.
What is your typical working day?
I usually start the day about 9.30-10am in the morning and compose until lunch about 2pm or 3pm. I’ll take a hour for lunch and an hour or so for dinner and finish up about midnight or 1am in the morning usually, unless there’s a deadline looming. There are obviously a few coffee breaks thrown in there somewhere throughout the day to try and keep the ears fresh.
Facebook, Twitter and emails take up a bit of time too (no workplace restrictions here!) but it’s usually chatting to the trailer guys about where to go with a pitch I’m working on, or a director about a way the film is being scored. I always do try make time to relax, whether it be taking an evening or two off to relax on the couch with my girlfriend or get out and play golf. It really helps refocus the way you’re looking at a project in a good way.
Why did you choose your current career?
I really enjoy it, even if I do get the ‘blank canvas panic’. I find myself asking questions all the time, about how I’m writing, about the way I’m using my equipment etc and I never found myself asking those questions during my time in accounting. I’d just do as I was shown, there was no spark. It was a tough decision to leave a well paid job to pursue composing as a career, but I was very lucky to have some amazingly supportive people around which made the leap a lot easier that it could have been.
I find I’m constantly learning new information but there is still so much about composing that I have yet to learn. That’s the fun of it as well. When it’s something you love, you don’t mind putting in that extra graft and it keeps you on your toes because you’ll always have something to strive towards to make yourself better at what you do.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your career?
There are so many other people out there wanting to do exactly what I want to do and it’s very tough to get through the noise and be seen and heard by the right people. The added aspect of working for yourself is pretty tough, there’s no popping into work having a slow day and still getting paid.
Fortunately I’ve met some fantastic people who’ve really been great at giving me feedback and advice if I need it in the industry. It really helps in any job like this to have some people around to chat to. I’ve got a great family around, plus a very supportive girlfriend who is beside me every step of the way, which is amazing.
What are the most rewarding aspects?
Getting paid to do something you love is pretty amazing. It’s also great to see people moved emotionally by something you’ve created. I recently worked with Irish director Ken Wardrop (director of His & Her’s) on films for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s campaign for Living With Dementia.
It was amazing to be able to be a part of telling these peoples’ inspirational stories but still consider it a part of my job as well. Plus it’s great meeting directors and filmmakers who you know from the minute you meet them are as passionate about what they do as you are.
Could you ever see your work taking you away from Ireland?
Yeah it’s something I’ve thought about. Ireland is a great place to live though and with the Internet, it’s made the world a whole lot smaller. So there’s no need for every composer to be living in LA now to make a living at it. But if the right opportunity came my way in the future, I certainly wouldn’t say no to moving abroad.
What is the best piece of advice that you’ve been given?
The best bit of career advice I’ve been given was from Irish trailer composer Dean Valentine, which was to just follow your own path. He’s produced some fantastic work and people now want ‘his sound’ for projects. That wouldn’t happen if he’d decided to copy the styles of the top composers in Hollywood just because they’re popular. Too many people are trying to be the next soundalike Hans Zimmer or Alan Silvestri. So I’m just working hard on crafting the sound I like and best represents my personality. It’s been working for me so far.
What has been the one ‘pinch me’ moment of your career so far?
I’d say the big ‘pinch me’ moment is still yet to come and will be when I land my first placement in a trailer. But signing for ReallySlowMotion was a pretty cool moment I’ll have to say. My goal is to build a career hearing my music in some of the biggest Hollywood trailers, and these guys are one of the biggest around, having gotten placements with the likes of Marvel (I’m a massive Marvel fan!), Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount, Sony/Columbia and 20th Century Fox to name but a few. I’ve just composed on my third album with them, which will be pitched to the industry guys for upcoming trailers.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about what you do?
I’ve seen a few memes online that joke about how composers make music, which is pretty much press one button and it’s done! But even though most composers these days work virtually on a computer with sample instruments, it’s an extremely tedious job and takes a lot of time. You have to be a composer, musician and sound engineer all rolled up into one, which is quite difficult at times. To make a track sound as realistic as possible takes lots of practice, time, and study. Plus if any live instruments have to be recorded, there’s the addition of those to your track as well.
What is the biggest mistake that you think people in your chosen sector make?
I think people in any sector where you’re going it alone give up too fast. Anything that’s worthwhile going for is going to take time. And although it can be really tough going being patient with it, you have to try put that aside as best you can and just keep on going for it.
One of the best examples I saw was by comic book artist Todd McFarlane. He got 350+ rejection letters from major comic book companies when he was starting out, most of which gave him some form of constructive criticism on his drawings. A couple of years later, after sticking at it, he was drawing for both Spiderman and Batman and set up his own comic book Spawn, which sold 1.7 million copies on release. So if it’s feasible financially for someone to stick at it for that little while longer, it pays off in the end I think.
Describe what you want to achieve in your career with one sentence.
Being able to earn a living by doing something that I enjoy.
