Meet James Newberry

Today we’d like to introduce you to James Newberry.

Thanks for sharing your story with us James. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began writing music for myself and my friends while in high school. I am a percussionist so most of my music was for marimba/percussion ensemble and some marching band pieces. It was mostly for fun as I was heading to my undergraduate studies to pursue a Bachelor’s in music education. I’d end up finishing that degree in Cleveland, Ohio at Cleveland State University.

While there, I would take a private study in composing for film with a great professor who taught music history but had a background in film scoring. I had pretty much decided I wanted to compose music for film during this time and began to put together a portfolio for graduate school and write music for some local films in Cleveland. I eventually got into NYU’s film scoring graduate program and met a lot of great filmmakers in the city. I worked on many short films that would screen at Tribeca, NYFF, and many other festivals and I maintain relationships with those filmmakers to this day. In about 2019, my wife and I moved to LA and settled here in Palos Verdes. I’ve been composing full time for about five years now, which includes my own work as well as writing additional music and recently co-scoring some projects with composers like Saunder Jurriaans & Danny Bensi, who are just the best.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It hasn’t been exactly smooth, I suppose, but definitely not rocky. Basically, I was just broke after graduating from NYU in 2016 and relied on writing for my income. It picked up, though, when I started writing additional music with Saunder and Danny and got some bigger projects for myself. Since then, it hasn’t been bad at all. It’s been great, actually! I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else for my day job, so that’s good.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I sit here all day and write music. That’s it! Not sure what sets me apart, but all I can say is I do my thing and I do it well (I hope). I’m a percussionist from the jump so rhythm, pacing, flow, experimental sound palettes, and unconventional approaches are my specialty (or at least what I like to do!). I have many great friends who are fantastic musicians and record my work as I really hate using sample libraries for anything. Live players and alive electronics is what you’ll usually hear.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Most of it, I guess. Luck is almost everything in most businesses and situations. Yeah, I work hard, but I don’t fool myself. It’s Hollywood, baby. I’ve had the fortune of meeting extremely talented people who just happened to have wanted to work with me. Without them, I’d just be writing for nothing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://james-newberry.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/0_james.newberry_0/?hl=en

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.