Today we’d like to introduce you to Noah Baldwin.
Hi Noah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in the Bay Area, California and got involved in the performing arts scene when I was six years old. I attended Oakland School for the Arts for seven years where I graduated in 2015. During that time, I had became serious about filmmaking as well as writing and performing music. There were several instances where my band at the time would drive down to LA and perform at the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Blvd (We even played their 50th anniversary bill with Buckcherry!) Since then, music and Los Angeles went hand in hand for me. Once I graduated high school, I went on to study filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago. I always loved listening to the soundtracks of movies and thought it would be incredible to explore the world of film composing. My next step was to move to LA and look for work as a Production and/or Composer’s Assistant. I partnered with a monthly film challenge called Project 321 where I wrote and composed the music for six of their films. I love to take in the neighborhood of Hollywood every day and draw inspiration from it for my compositions.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think my biggest obstacle for the longest time was I couldn’t read sheet music. Not having that universal language under my belt really made it challenging to work with other artists. I used to beat myself up and say my music wasn’t ‘legit” enough to be considered a real composition if I couldn’t put it on staff paper. However, the last couple of years I took it upon myself to learn how to read music. It’s truly unlocked so many doors for me. But even when I couldn’t read music, I always had this instinct of following what my ears felt sounded good. I think it goes to show that even for someone with very little to no formal music training, following what you think sounds good to YOU is the most important thing. It reminds me of this quote from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top: “Learn to play what YOU want to hear”.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I split my time working as a production assistant on the set of a music documentary as well as write and record original music for short films. I specialize in film scores that use unique and unconventional sounds and performance styles. I’m known for using a violin bow on a Fender Jazzmaster to create eerie droning sounds as well as a polyphonic synthesizer to create otherworldly textures. Don’t get me wrong, I love to compose with piano and strings as well. I just like to create music that contains unique motifs and sounds that relate to the script and the performances. Each score is tailor made to act as a separate character in the scene without being too intrusive. The project I’m most proud of was Project 321’s short “April” where I wrote and recorded an original song. It went on to win several awards in the festival circuit and will be featured in a “quarantine-made” selection of films.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I actually started a TikTok series where I take Top 40 songs and re-record them as though a classic band or music group had done them (I.e What if Led Zeppelin had recorded “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish) it’s been such a fun exercise for composition and music production! In terms of a weird “out of the box” thing…my friends and I have this insane hobby of sneaking into fancy hotel hot tubs. We literally plan elaborate schemes around cool hotels we want to visit. We’ve even worn suits before… It’s kinda bad… but we’ve discovered and explored a lot of cool locations in our neighborhood this way!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noah_fence21/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noahbaldwin.composer
- Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/
ZMJ38ALqd/
Image Credits
Joanne Cimarosti
