Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Knorr.
Hi Benjamin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I began taking guitar lessons when I was seven, originally to learn how to accompany my brother Ray on fiddle. Fiddle music has a very rich tradition all across Canada, and I was eager to learn how to be a part of it. In the summers my brother and I would go to fiddle camps and competitions making some lifelong friends. Since the beginning, my love of folk music has provided a foundation on which I consciously or unconsciously base my instinct on.
I grew up in a supportive musical family, often playing guitar and banjo with my brother and sister for in our family band the ‘Knorr Kids’. These were the first moments of performing and learning what is important when playing music for people. As the years went by I began exploring different acoustic styles from folk to classical and jazz, eventually getting my taste of world music while playing with an Indian Hang Drum player, I loved every moment of it. High school is where I really dug into music as a “career” and started focusing on composing. I am very grateful to have gone to a school with so many different musical opportunities. I was able to throw myself into the world of concert bands, chamber choirs, musicals and more. It fueled my curiosity and creativity. I will be forever grateful to my music teachers for the many many after-school visits to review my compositions and help me along the path.
I come from a family of engineers and nurses, so deciding to go down the artist route was not something my family took lightly. That being said, they supported my decision and wanted to give me the best chance of success possible. After high school, I went to Berklee College of Music to study Film Scoring and Guitar performance. In 2018, I graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Film Scoring and was awarded the Don Wilkins’ Award for Film Scoring, and the Courtney Hartman American Roots Guitar Award (a hand-crafted dreadnaught guitar by Dana Bourgeois, CEO of Bourgeois Guitars). During my time at Berklee, I had the privilege of studying with Eugene Friesen, Casey Driessen, Tony Trischka, Julian Lage, Bruce Molsky, Maeve Gilchrist, George Clinton and I would not be the musician I am today without their guidance.
I am now currently living in Burbank and I work as a composer and studio musician for Audiomachine, a production music company specializing in original music for trailers and advertising.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
On average, I would say it has been smooth. I am grateful for everyone that has helped along the way and the universe for the luck. The most stressful part of the journey would have to be either dealing with visa-related issues or imposture syndrome. At Berklee, I was actively gigging and taking on transcription/arranging projects. In order to work on them legally (I had, and still have a horrible fear of being deported). I started my Pre-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) which is basically a work visa associated with the student visa I was already on. In most cases you would save the OPT visa for after you graduate, giving you a full year of work opportunities, but I decided to use up eight months while I was in college. This realization hit me in late April as I was sitting in one of my electives, “Oceanography”, only a couple of months before graduating. I realized that it would be near impossible for me to build enough credits to qualify for the O-1 (extraordinary artist visa) in just a four months on the remainder of my OPT. In that moment, I decided to drop my directed study class, forgo Dean’s List (since you don’t qualify if you drop a class), to take it again in the fall with George Clinton in L.A. This would allow me at least a couple more months to figure out how the heck I was going to have a career in this industry.
This is where luck takes over.
I didn’t realize that parallel to my decision, Berklee was having discussions about qualifying four of their majors for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) OPT. Essentially, if a student graduates after August 2018 in one of four majors Film Scoring, Music Production & Engineering, Contemporary Writing and Production, or Electronic Production and Design, they would be allowed to apply for an additional two years of OPT! Since I was taking my last class in the fall of 2018, I would be graduating in December and ended up being the first Berklee student in history to apply for the extended STEM OPT. This, along with being hired by Audiomachine gave me plenty of runways to explore my craft and work in the United States.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a composer and session musician for Audiomachine. I work with seven other composers and two mix engineers in a studio. We split our time between writing trailer albums (high intensity, unified vision, aiming at tent-pole movies), underscore albums (smaller scale, usually more intimate), customs (projects requested from clients for upcoming movie trailers with no guarantee of placing, usually high risk/high reward), and client projects (mobile games such as Call Of Duty Mobile, full buyout deals). We are known for writing high-quality industry-leading music. Since many of the musicians that play on the tracks are also composers in the building, and we have in-house mix engineers, we are able to deliver fully mixed and mastered tracks very quickly, allowing us to adapt to the ever-changing market.
What sets us apart is that we try and record live on every project. This could be as simple as a solo line on top of virtual instruments or a full orchestra replacing all virtual instruments. Recently we recorded a fantasy orchestral album at Abbey Road and this was a huge dream come true, as well as an incredible learning experience. I am excited to hear these tracks out in the wild (hopefully on movie trailers).
In the past five years working here, I have had the chance to learn various instruments, including Mandolin, Tenor Banjo, Ronroco, Irish Whistle, Bodhran and most recently Nyckelharpa. We are encouraged to explore and learn, and we are given the time and space to do so. I am grateful to work for a company that values quality over quantity and allows us the freedom to take our time.
What I am most proud of is that I am able to make my entire living off of music, and I am able to stay healthy doing it. I understand how difficult it is to have a life in the arts, and I am grateful to my support systems that allow me to quite literally live the dream. I hope to eventually be in a place in my career where I can foster a community to support other artists’ dreams.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me right now is connection and integrity. I want to connect with what I am doing and not let my mind run on autopilot. I want to be present. I want to connect with people, my friends when they are going through a rough time, or my co-workers as we celebrate each-other’s victories. Since we have to spend so much time on our phones/computers in order to do the job, in the time between I try my best to connect. I wish to live a life full of integrity, from the smallest moments of speaking honestly to the legacy I hope to leave. I have a lot of work to do, but that is what I am trying for. To be honest, one of the deeper reasons why I love folk music is because it really comes down to people in a room making music together and being present. It doesn’t work any other way. I enjoy the intimacy that naturally occurs when people lock into the same musical idea.
I am also passionate about teaching, I really love teaching people how to stay creative. Whenever I have the opportunity to share knowledge, I try to do so in a way that allows the student to integrate the new technique into their creativity, rather than force them out of the exploratory mindset into a rigid system. My hope is that they continue being themselves, just with a deeper understanding of the skill it takes to do just that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.benknorr.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/BenKnorrMusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenKnorrMusic
- Other: https://search.audiomachine.com/tracks?composers=benjamin-matthew-knorr-652235266
Image Credits
Roman Soto
