Alicyn
Welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm your host, Alicyn Packard. Join us as we journey through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games.
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Hey guys, welcome back to Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm your host, Alicyn Packard. And with me today in the studio is a very special guest Daniel Rojas, the music composer best known for his work on Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, as well as shows like Hit-Monkey. So please join me in welcoming Daniel Rojas. Daniel, welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland!
Daniel Rojas
Thanks so much.
Alicyn
Oh, so glad to have you here. You have pretty interesting story about how you grew up both your parents were musicians.
Daniel Rojas
Correct. Yes.
Alicyn
Can you tell us a little bit about what that was like?
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, honestly, it was, I think I got very lucky because sometimes then especially seeing like some other of my friends early on or classmates is difficult to to explain to your parents that you're gonna dedicate your life to music and arts and stuff. And I never had that problem, because my parents were both in the arts. And they fully understood the value of that. So I feel like that was one of the biggest things that I was always encouraged to take this seriously if I wanted to, I was never forced.
And I mean, at some point in my life, I wanted to do something completely different. After watching Jurassic Park, I wanted to be a paleontologist, I wanted to be an astronaut, all kinds of things. But I think my parents always knew that I was gravitating towards music. So they always kept me in classes. And you know, pretty excited about music in general. And then the more serious I got, they fully encouraged it, which is when I see that I see the divide, because I had friends who are really talented, but their parents wouldn't really encourage that side as much. They thought it was a little bit, you know, like almost getting away from the real job or whatever that stigma that we have as artists.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
And I thankfully never had that, whenever I wanted -
Alicyn
There's no money in it or you're never gonna get a real job.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, my parents never made me afraid of that. They just basically told me if you want to do this, then you got to do it for real, you know, like, if you really want to pursue it, you got to take it seriously. And you got to, you know, get it together.
Alicyn
Well, I have to fangirl a little bit because when I was listening to the soundtrack to Kipo, I was blown away, I was like, this is just not your average kid's album. I mean, like, go on a jog and put it on and just, you know, the beats are so fresh, and you have such a broad understanding of tones and styles. It's almost like, you know, they could be like, "Give me something that sounds like this" and then you're turning around that this, you know, very uniquely different and diverse album of music. So....
Daniel Rojas
Well, thank you. I mean, that's obviously what I would love to hear unless our concept when we were kind of getting started on that was to make it as diverse as the show is, you know, try to kind of make a metaphor musically of what the show represented, which was everything.
Alicyn
And how many instruments do you play?
Daniel Rojas
I would say, you know, comfortably anything that is like guitar-like, you know, guitars, bass, ukulele, and piano. So keyboards and guitars, that's where I feel I'm like fully proficient, that's where I got my degree and everything and now as far as like messing around, then I do get to record a lot of percussion of course because it's you know, part of my job to find sounds and things like that. And I can do like decent enough job in like cello or viola, if I have to, like record very slowly, but if I need to record something professional and for it to sound like something from a conservatory, I would not say I could play those instruments. So I will say I'm a mediocre cellist and a proficient guitarist and pianist.
Alicyn
Although with electro - with music and home recording, there's a lot you can -
Daniel Rojas
Oh, I'm very, very glad for quantization and tuning. It's been a big help during my cellist career.
Alicyn
Who are some of the songwriters that have inspired you throughout the years?
Daniel Rojas
Songwriters. Wow, there's so many honestly.
Alicyn
Or musical artists.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, yeah.
Alicyn
I'll accept that. I think it would really depend on on the time, like the year or let's say...
Alicyn
Let's take it - let's take it back to you as a child, like a kid. My son is six. So when he was watching Kipo, like, you know, the music, he loves it. And he actually, yeah, performed one of your songs at his little talent show.
Daniel Rojas
That made me so happy. Yeah.
Alicyn
It was very cool. But like when you were like a little kid, who were some of your musical influence?
Daniel Rojas
Well, again, because my parents were musicians, I was very lucky to be presented with pretty I mean, music is good or bad, depending on your tastes, of course, but you know, music like Michael Jackson and the Beatles and things like that very early on, which you know, is universally considered pretty good. Yeah. And my parents had good tastes, I would say, you know that so, as a child, I was able to experience all that type of music fairly early. But of course, I was also into very pop music just like what my classmates and my friends would listen to so at the time of growing up.
I mean, Costa Rica is a mix. So there are bands in Spanish a lot of things that come either from Mexico or Columbia or things like that in Costa Rica itself. We didn't have that much like Costa Rican music growing up, but as far as like, Anglo bands like American dance and things like that, I mean, I went through like some rock face where I liked even pretty heavy stuff like...
Alicyn
Metallica.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, Iron Maiden things like that. Metallica. I mean, I liked it, but not so much. I went a little more left of center with like Megadeth and things like that. That was like my high school years. And the reason why I pursued guitar although in the end, I did have a jazz guitar degree but I you know, rock music had so much guitar that that was a big influence.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
But nowadays, I would say I try to stay current in the in the world of pop. So I am not one of those snobby, you know, classical musicians that doesn't like pop music. I listen to pop music all the time.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
And by pop, I mean, the broader term of it. You know, like, I love hip hop, I love trap I love even in Spanish, like some reggaeton artists, not not the whole thing, but some of them are doing great, great stuff. So I try to keep it broad and fresh. And I also like to dig in a little bit like one of my favorite artists is Banks was not like super famous mainstream, but she does amazing music. In the style, I would say, like a darker version of what Billie Eilish is mainstream. So things like that I really love.
Alicyn
Yeah. So you kind of you went to college, and you were majoring in jazz, I believe?
Daniel Rojas
Correct. Yes.
Alicyn
And so then you came out of there? And also, how did you make the transition from being a jazz musician to being a music composer?
Daniel Rojas
I did start from the very bottom, honestly, by picking up lunch orders and making good espresso.
Alicyn
Here in LA?
Daniel Rojas
Yes, here in LA.
Alicyn
Okay.
Daniel Rojas
So I studied in Texas, kind of exactly. So I studied in Texas, and I did get my degree in Jazz at the University of North Texas. And then I moved to LA and I had a friend who worked at Remote Control Studios, which is Hans Zimmer's studio, and he was able to kind of invite me a couple times to just be around. So it was not an official job or anything, just be around and be of service if people kind of need you. And you know, it wasn't that long ago, that was like 2009. I came here this summer 2008 for a couple months, but it was, I think, a little bit easier than it is today, although it's only been 10 to 15 years. But I from what I hear nowadays, they require a lot of paperwork, and they require you to be like enrolled in school or whatever. Yeah, back in the 2010s, or before you just showed up, they needed lunch, they would shout at you, you would go get the lunch and bring it back in. So it wasn't as official as it is now. But that was kind of how I started to dip my feet into this world. And then I got connected with Klaus Badelt, who is most known for his score to Pirates of the Caribbean. He's another German composer. And he was the one who I would say, took me under his wing a little more in in a musical way in the sense that I with him, I was actually working on music before him that you know, the time before that it was more like just running errands and doing harddrive backups and things like that.
Alicyn
Sure. Yeah, waxing the car.
Daniel Rojas
Exactly. All of that stuff. But yeah, so in my career, I mean, to kind of try to do it quickly. I started as an assistant with Klaus doing a lot of tech work, like setting up his servers, his sessions, things like that recording for him, and then I kind of graduated up, you know, to become an arranger, then I started orchestrating.
Alicyn
Can you just take it back even and tell us what an arranger does?
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, for sure. So in the world of film, music, the word arranger is a little bit different to what a classical musician might think of an arranger, like when I was in school, and arranger would be someone who would take you know, a piano sketch and like arrange it for different instruments and things like that. Got it in the world of film music, it usually means more production.
So an arranger is someone who takes a sketch and programs it into something that sounds like a proper cue that can be presented. That's kind of what they call an arranger. So for example, a composer a lead composer would come up with an idea or a theme. And then the arrangers would take it and create cues and it's a little bit broader because you're doing a little more than just arranging but you add the percussion you divide the strings properly, you add some brass you had some synths, and things like that and kind of build it up for it to be presentable to whoever is the filmmaker.
Alicyn
Got it! So you dip- dabbled in that and then?
Daniel Rojas
Then I dabbled a little bit in orchestration, which is another process of the film thing. And again, orchestration all this I think the film music has taken all these terms and kind of have done their own thing with them. Because orchestration when I was in college was there and it is the same term but you know, I think it would be interesting to some people watching to to know that in the world of film, orchestrating is more like putting things on paper. So since we work so much on the computer, everything is in the dock, like Logic or Cubase Pro Tools, whatever it is, once you want someone to play that live, you need to put that on paper on score for the musicians to read it. And that's what an orchestration mostly does. Orchestrator mostly does is take the MIDI basically and write it out whether it is for an orchestra or a chamber ensemble or just one violin, you have to be able to take the MIDI, write it properly, you know, to make sure it's within a range that you're not writing notes that they cannot play, things like that.
So that's another job that is very common for young aspiring composers to do. And you learn a lot, because since we work again, so much with computers, sometimes you do things that are not playable. Like, you know, you might write a note that is too low for a violin, because you're using a patch.
Alicyn
Right.
Daniel Rojas
But when you're writing it, you need to know that they cannot go past a certain G you know, and you'd be right up lower than that. There's nothing they can do.
Alicyn
It's so instrument.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, exactly. So those are the things that you know, I think as a young musician, it's important to kind of learn if you want to eventually be a composer.
Alicyn
That's great. Yeah. So how long did you dabble in different avenues?
Daniel Rojas
About three, three and a half years?
Alicyn
Seems radically quick.
Daniel Rojas
No, yeah, it was, it wasn't as long I did do a lot of projects in that time, because it was pretty intense. And I'm not gonna lie. I mean, it was definitely the cliche Hollywood Assistant, where you're working until three in the morning, and back at seven, you know, sometimes.
Alicyn
Ohh!
Daniel Rojas
Sleeping three hours chugging a bunch of coffee and terrible deadline, it was three and a half years that felt like 10.
Alicyn
Yeah, yeah.
Daniel Rojas
But it was kind of concentrated. And on the flip side, I did feel like I learned a lot. And I, you know, made some contacts and learn to craft I would say, by just watching other people doing things. But yeah, coming in, like 2012 I, that's when I decided, let me try to just start doing my own things.
Alicyn
So how did that happen? I mean, what was your first gig?
Daniel Rojas
My first gig was actually commercial. And that was the gig that made me like jump off from the assistant world. It was a commercial for Pepsi in Spanish, but for the Superbowl. So it was a whole like campaign. It was like six commercials for Pepsi in Spanish, mostly for the American market. So like Televicion and Telemundo and those things, but the world of commercials can pay pretty well, if you compare it to the assistant world.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
So I saw that I landed it and I was like, "Okay, this is kind of my exit right now." Because this is it wasn't I mean, in hindsight, it wasn't like a astronomical amount by any means. But I was making such little money as an assistant. That was like six months. Okay, in like three weeks, I could make what I normally make in six months. So that's when I was like, Okay, I'm out, I'm gonna doing my own thing.
Alicyn
Then you'll be pitching.
Daniel Rojas
Yes, exactly. So I did start mostly with commercials. So that Pepsi commercial was with an ad agency in Austin, Texas, that specialized again, in the kind of Hispanic market. And that was kind of an untapped territory.
Alicyn
And you are Hispanic, I mean -
Daniel Rojas
Yes! Exactly.
Alicyn
Was that a coincidence? Or?
Daniel Rojas
No, no, no, it was... I mean, it had to do with some friends. I had this Mexican friend here who was um, Costa Rican, but my friend was a commercial producer. And he had sent by music without me even though when to this other people in Austin, Texas.
Alicyn
Yeah, thanks bud!
Daniel Rojas
Exactly, so he definitely hooked me up. And since.. what I did was very cinematic at the time. I mean, nowadays, I've kind of branched out to other things, but I was working on this pretty like cinematic big films, and the Hispanic market for commercials had like a bit of a hole in in that, you know, like, they were not so epic as like English commercials at the time. So if you would watch an English speaking commercial for Toyota, it was all filmed sounding like super epic, but then you would watch the Spanish ones. And they were still a little behind, like with the, you know, week ukulele or something. So when I send my demos, that agency thought it was pretty fitting for their campaigns, so they started using me quite a bit. And they did several other things with them. And the the world of commercial is very much like our world here in the film that is just word of mouth. So one of the producers would move to a different ad house and then would call me up. And so I spent a good two to three years dealing mostly with commercials. And since it's not as steady, I would complement it with just writing a lot with musicians like artists, which is...
Alicyn
Uh, like pop?
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, like pop music.
Alicyn
Oh, so doing co-writes, stuff like that? Amazing.
Daniel Rojas
For, like, sync you know.
Alicyn
Oh, sure thing.
Daniel Rojas
So write original songs to like pitch to TV shows and things like that. So I kind of I would say from like, 2012 to 2016 those four years, I was pretty apart from film and TV. I just kind of dedicated that time. And it wasn't a conscious decision. It was more kind of like what happened happened. You know, I did a bunch of commercials and CO writes with all types of artists. And yeah, I started landing some songs here and there or like, whatever even reality shows or things like that, but it was a good time. I feel in hindsight to expand my sonic palette, you know, to just just try different things and you know, read briefs and just try to like, do something that sounds like this or something that sounds like
Alicyn
Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about your process for when you first read the brief till when you pitch the song.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, so I think Well, like I mentioned briefly before, my girlfriend's uh, is an actress and voiceover. So she does a lot of auditions. And I think there's a lot of similarities between the auditioning process and the demoing process except the demo, it takes a lot longer, you know an audition, you might be able to do it in an hour, if you learn your lines. And you know, you do five takes or whatever you're kind of done demo might take, you know, anywhere from three to five days, if you have the time, you might have to do it overnight, if that's what it takes. But in general, I think they usually send you references. So you try to listen to the references, and definitely not copy because the job is not to copy things. And that can be very dangerous. So I think the job is usually to see what the through line is, you know, try to dig a little deeper and not just find like, oh, that beat is cool. Let's just do that is more like, okay, they send this five songs, what do they have in common? Like, how do they make me feel? Why do they like all these five songs? So I think that's kind of how you start, you know, you try to find the through line of whatever the brief was trying to say. And then it's a lot of trial and error. You know, just start in try to -
Alicyn
See what feels good.
Daniel Rojas
See what feels good. Yeah.
Alicyn
Do you start with a beat, or do you start with a melody or lyric?
Daniel Rojas
Honestly, it's always different. So it depends too also, if I started with a guitar, or with a piano, you write very different songs. If you sit on the piano, or if you take a guitar, right? I feel like if you take a guitar, things tend to be more rhythmic. Because of the nature of the instrument that is a little more manageable. As far as rhythm goes. The piano, you tend to do something may be a little more cinematic, not always, but it tends to be that or Baladi or something that is not necessarily in the piano, you don't have the ability to be as rhythmic as you would. That's why, for example, the music of someone like Ed Sheeran sounds so different than someone like Adele.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that although both of them use pianos and guitars and children's music, it's very clear that guitar. Every time I hear like "Chang, Chang, Chang Chang Chang" they all started like that, because he's writing like guitar, whereas someone more like Adele or Amy Winehouse, you know, it was very clear that they wrote those songs on the piano.
Alicyn
Wow. Yeah.
Daneil Rojas
Yeah.
Alicyn
And so what was your very first job then coming in as a composer for television?
Daniel Rojas
My first major one, I... was actually Kipo.
Alicyn
Was it? Yeah.
Daneil Rojas
Like, I would say major as far as it was a big network with both Netflix and DreamWorks. I did do a good amount of like reality TV, but that's not scoring. That's more sinking. You know, like you don't write to picture in reality TV. You just write music that fits the show.
Alicyn
'Daniel, we need it. We need that angry. Jealous. Rage-filled.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah.
Alicyn
Hollywood's --
Daniel Rojas
It's funny. But reality TV is full of like epic music. You don't realize it until you're like pitching for it. But it's, it could be the most trivial thing. Like, let's go into the supermarket. And the music sounds like a trailer for Inception. It's just the way it's cut. You know, like, they're like, Oh, what are you getting for dinner and the music is like trying to engender because they tried to like really up it up. So it's a good place to like sing music, you know, if that's the type of music that you want to be doing. You'd be surprised. And as you watch reality TV, you will notice that more now you're like, Wow, this is really epic music for this moment. But that's how they build this shows.
Alicyn
Now do any of the songs that you submitted for your pitch for Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, did to they get in the show?
Daniel Rojas
Not of what I pitched. So the the pitching process is there's several layers to it. So you start usually with a demo reel that can be just existing music that you have. And this is not just for people just in general. You know, like when a show comes in, and they don't have a composer in mind, and they want to try some people, they'll make a brief, you know, explain what the show is about give you a little logline and some reference tracks, and then they asked for a reel. So you put together a reel of anywhere from 10 to 15 tracks or songs. And that's what's going to take you to the next level, you know?
So many, many times, that's where it ends, you send your reel and you never hear back when you hear back. Our call back is usually what they call spec or in our world we call it spec for I think it's stands for specific?
Alicyn
Speculate? Speculative...
Daneil Rojas
Speculative, I'm not sure. You know it. So you do spec. And that's actually to picture in the world of animation, it usually means to animatics because composers get in fairly early. So animation is months away still. So they'll give you some animatics, which are basically storyboards that move a little bit. For those that don't know, I know you know, and then you try to score to the animatics. And that's also something that you get better at with time, because at the beginning, where if you're used to scoring live action, you're used to getting so many cues visually, that storyboards can feel really lacking that sense. Like things don't really move as much but think like everything is just practice. I think once you see more storyboards, you start learning more how how the process is.
Alicyn
And so maybe the animator even is inspired by what you're bringing to the table.
Daniel Rojas
That too. For sure! As they go through the process of -
Alicyn
It's getting better boards, more detailed storyboards.
Daniel Rojas
For sure, especially in a show like Keepo, or shows that have characters that are musicians or play instruments inside of the show. That's crucial. We always have to do music before they animate, or in general. So there's, they call it pre-production music, which means you write all the music, and then the animators will animate to that. Because otherwise, it's almost impossible to make something musical if what you're trying to do is just match whatever they animate it to nothing. You know, it's so hard because there's no rhythm. There's no shape to it. Yeah. And they see that sometimes in shows, right, sometimes you watch a show, and you're like, okay, they definitely wrote that afterwards. Because it's like, all over the place. And I don't blame the musicians, you know, like, it's, it can be pretty tricky. So the scoring happens afterwards. But the pre-production music definitely has to be pre, you know, like pre-animation.
Alicyn
Hey, guys, this is Alicyn Packard. Sorry to interrupt, but I just want to let you know that if you like the show, please, please, please remember to subscribe to this podcast. And leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much.
Now, when you did get the job hired on Keepo was that did you get to work very closely with Rad Sechrist?
Daniel Rojas
Yes, very, very closely. So at the beginning of it, when we were doing the pre production, there was mostly Rad. And at that time, there was a second showrunner Bill Walcott, who was one of the main writers, I think it was like the head of the writing room. And they were co-showrunning up until post production. So since I started on, keep us so early, I got to work with him and read together quite a bit at the beginning of it, but once we started posts, then he was out. And it was just Rad. So the whole scoring process was only with Rad, and of course, the music department remarks who are very involved in everything. And Kipo also had music supervisors, which was something that not all animated shows have.
Alicyn
And correct me if I'm wrong music supervisors, someone that licenses, licenses music to?
Daniel Rojas
Okay, exactly. They, but they also find the songs. So it's not just, you know, the clearance part of it is, yeah, the boring side of their job. Yeah, the creative part of their job is trying to find the songs put playlists together and shape the sound of the show together with a composer. So in our case, we had two music supervisors who work together here, Lehman and James Cartwright, who are fantastic. And Dave music supervised a ton of movies that I'm sure you've watched even Into The Spider-erse, The Mitchells Versus the Machines. So they're big.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
And a ton of shows like, I mean, you look at that, their IMDb, it's probably 100 shows that you would know about. So we got really lucky that they were part of Kipo because they had really good taste. And they had very, a very effective way of working, which, to me being my first bigger show was super helpful. Because it wasn't, I mean, I was kind of the only newbie, they knew very well what they were doing. And that was helpful, because I could rely on that, you know, even ask them when I was kind of in doubt of how something works. They'll be like, Oh, that's fine. You know, like, kind of guide me through it. A little bit came under my way. Yeah, exactly. Which was great.
Alicyn
And your styles seem very simpatico, like the show is so cohesive between
Daniel Rojas
Things! Yeah, no, we definitely. I mean, we work together very closely. I was in touch with them nearly every day for about two years.
Alicyn
Amazing.
Daniel Rojas
So and in fact, we we've done other shows together afterwards. But yeah, it was a very collaborative process in that sense. Because every episode, or most episodes, I think there were a few that didn't have, but most episodes have licensed songs that they found. And then I always had to make it cohesive, like I said, like, just try to make sure that the score blended into them and out of them in a natural way that they didn't feel odd.
Alicyn
Amazing.
Daniel Rojas
So we had to be in touch all the time.
Alicyn
It's so cool. Yeah. So you were a child of the 90s as well. Did you? Were you big cartoon fan?
Daniel Rojas
Yes. Absolutely. Nice to watch cartoons all the time in Did you?
Alicyn
Were you particularly drawn to the music in cartoons
Daniel Rojas
a lot? Yes. I mean, there's so many cartoons, but I do remember. I mean, I love the Looney Tunes. I love Pinky and the Brain Animaniacs yeah, there's so many shows that I...
Alicyn
Yeah. And, you know, what they brought to the table really helped to enhance those shows in sort of a new way. Right. Prior to that we hadn't we hadn't seen that level of songwriting.
Daniel Rojas
Totally. Yes, it was so memorable and made the show so much more enjoyable. And I think a big reason why I do so much animation is precisely how much I enjoy that as a kid. And that that even sticks, you know, 20 something years afterwards. I mean, I'm 34 now but after you know, growing up, I still feel like a lot of my background comes from from that time of just growing up watching cartoons all the time and loving them.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
And movies as well. I mean, yeah.
Alicyn
And was it a strategic move to start doing composing more for animation. You also worked in Hit-Monkey. So was that intentional? Or was did it just kind of one led to the other?
Daniel Rojas
Funnily enough, it wasn't actually before Keepo I had done very little animation. I had done some animated shorts, but I had not done any shows or any features in animation, everything was live action. But I do think, you know, looking back that it only made sense that my career would be kind of kickstarted with animation because I was such an animation fan. Like we were saying that it felt when I was in the room with animation people like animators or show runners where animation shows I was at home. Like, when they would speak about something, I would know it if they would mention a movie, I knew that movie I knew who did the music for that I knew the songs, I knew everything, which is something that is so so important, I feel we don't realize it's is as important as it is that when you're talking to the creatives to the people who are going to be your bosses, you need to know what their world is really well.
And so that's why for example, if let's say gore-horror is something that I didn't watch very much. It's not something that I enjoyed very much. I know there's a whole group of people that love that. But if I were in the room with a bunch of gore, horror filmmakers, I wouldn't have that much to talk about. I mean, I saw the Saw movies or something like I've seen the most mainstream ones.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
But it's not something that is part of who I am as much. And I have colleagues that do that type of music. And usually they know everything. They've watched 10 Gore movies this year, and they know them. And that's how they are proficient enough to talk to the filmmakers. And I feel like that's what happened to me with animation. I was very proficient in animation knowledge in general, that when I walked into a room at DreamWorks, I knew what I was talking about, without really trying to, to pretend or push it or anything. It was just something that yeah, I've seen all Shrek movies, whatever, you know, all of them even the not-so-good ones.
Alicyn
So what can you tell us at all what you're working on right now?
Daniel Rojas
Yes. I mean, as usual, you have to be a little bit disclosed and and some of that, but I'm doing new animated show with Nickelodeon.
Alicyn
Amazing.
Daniel Rojas
And they think that as far as I know, it's coming out later this year.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
So towards the end of the year.
Alicyn
Okay.
Daniel Rojas
And I'm pretty excited about it. And then I'm working on a couple other projects. I just wrapped up an independent film, which is live action. Oh, that is called Charleen. The pandemic with Jordanna Brewster it's like a pandemic dramedy, which is like, I think we have a whole wave of pandemic movies coming up. Was one of them. Yeah. And yeah, a couple other side projects that I'm working on. But those are, I would say, the main ones.
Alicyn
Now you spend so much time as a composer, do you also have time for any personal music or?
Daniel Rojas
Honestly, I mean, I, for many years, I did have my own projects or collaborations with artists, it's been a little bit tougher the past like three years, I would say kind of since Kipo. It's been kind of nonstop, which I'm very grateful for, of course, but it's been, you know, overlapping shows pretty much. So I did do something that I would say is a bit of a passion project, which is opening up in a month. And I wrote with a friend of mine, this piece for the patient of the Masters, which is live event in Orange County in Laguna Beach.
Alicyn
Is it a parade or something?
Daniel Rojas
It's going to be almost 60 shows. So it's going to be every night for July, August and part of September. And it's like a live show that mixes art with music. So there's like paintings, and they recreate the paintings. And they use Tableau, which is like French art, which is like people recreate the paintings and like, stay there. And the music plays behind them. It's very bourgeois, you know, but it's a cool opportunity to write music to life ensemble, and it's like a full on Chamber Orchestra with strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion. So I wrote, yeah, our piece is like 17 minutes long. It's a it's a big one.
Alicyn
Wow.
Daniel Rojas
And it's, it's called Around the World's Fair. And so it goes through a bunch of different countries, India, Mali, there's a little American section, Mexico, China. So I got to write all different types of music, which is what drew me through it, when when I was offered the opportunity. I saw it, I saw the script. I was like, this is cool. Like, I don't get to write for amazing musicians to play live for 60 shows all the time. So... but that was definitely a bit of a passion project. Because it wasn't, you know, it's not what I really do nowadays.
Alicyn
Yeah. Wow, I want to go down and see it. That sounds amazing.
Daniel Rojas
I believe it starts July 5, and it's gonna be in Laguna Beach at the beautiful Laguna ball or something like.
Alicyn
I'm sure you'll be there. It's like thing.
Daniel Rojas
I'll be there. Few nights. Probably, yeah, I'll probably go down. I don't know, two or three nights.
Alicyn
Yeah, you could be backstage like with the workers.
Daniel Rojas
I'll definitely get to like, say hi to them, you know, and I've been in touch with the concert master the conductor. And I wrote this with a friend of mine, who's also Costa Rican. And yeah, we actually, I mean, Matt here in the US, but it was a big amount of music. So I also needed someone to kind of take some of that for sure.
Alicyn
Gosh, I mean, I feel like we could chat all day. I want to ask you about covering but I want to get to one question before we go, which is what advice do you have for anybody that might want to become a music-
Daniel Rojas
Composer?
Alicyn
I was gonna say producer, but I mean, I guess maybe like either too.
Daniel Rojas
Yeah, that too. I mean, actually, you bring a good point that I can quickly and point to, which is I think production and composition nowadays are pretty much one. You know, like back in the day, it was said that orchestration and composition were one because it's true when you were back in the day of, you know, Beethoven and Mahler. And I mean, even as soon as the early 20th century with the Russian composers, Prokofiev, and all of those, their orchestration was so embedded in their composition that you cannot take it apart. You cannot have someone like Ravel or Debussy without the orchestration, it just doesn't work.
But nowadays is exactly the same with production production is so important to the sound of any composer. Yeah, but if you just distill the music, it won't really get you very far. Yeah, but if your music is well produced, and it's a whole, you know, it's just the music and the production can live together? That's the type of music that people are going after.
So I would highly encourage people, if they're young, I would say, you know, learn music, obviously. But make sure you're learning production, because that's going to be super important. And if they're not as young, I would say, actually, probably even more emphasis on learning how to present their music properly, because most likely, if they're not that young, and they want to get into film music, they're already musicians, I would assume, you know, most of them are probably people that play instruments or do things like that. So they might already have the music side. But I think learning how to put it all together and have a good sound would be what's gonna make you have clients want.
Alicyn
Yeah.
Daniel Rojas
People want to use your music.
Alicyn
Amazing. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for coming out with us today. Pleasure. It's been so great to learn about what you do as a music composer and all the different aspects and we can't wait to see your new show coming out hopefully in the year.
Daniel Rojas
Yes. Yeah, we can that is us come in later on when when I can share what it is.
Alicyn
Hey, well, thanks, everybody for watching this show. And if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe. And feel free to tell a friend because we are going to keep creating these amazing episodes for you. So we'll see you next time!
Daniel Rojas
Thank you. Bye.
Outro
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