Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacquie Joy.
Hi Jacquie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My musical journey started later in life- I was always interested in singing and playing electric guitar and being in a band from a very young age. I used to sing and sketch songs in my bedroom for years. But there weren’t many opportunities around for me in that space and my main focus was on playing sport and studying Physical Therapy at University.
I started working as a PT but still felt I was wanted to explore the music world a little more. I started looking into getting singing lessons and also self-taught myself how to play the electric guitar. I decided to join a music duo and band and played evening gigs (while also working as a PT). It was a busy time, but it was a great musical education as well as being heaps of fun.
From there, I studied every possible “Computer Music” magazine I could find and started learning how to use whatever DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I could get my hands on. I ended up with Ableton Live being my main DAW of choice, and I was off! It was an exciting space to be in – initially, tracks sounded dull and lifeless – but over time, I learned how to add effects and how to mix- so over time, my tracks were springing to life! I worked for years on corporate videos for Expedia -writing mainly world music and learning how to add variation and ‘moments’ into a track.
But I didn’t want to be a film composer, and I wanted to write and sing pop songs… So, in the end, film composing found me (by way of people telling me that I should do it). And when I sat down and wrote my first scene, I was hooked. Then I found myself immersed in the audio generally and started incorporating sound design into my music, and from there, I found myself being given opportunities in the sound design and mixing as well… And the story continues!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’m lucky that it has mostly been a smooth road so far. I’m used to dealing with tough challenges and deadlines, and I am comfortable being uncomfortable!
Main challenge now for me is now making sure that I don’t overbook my schedule – saying yes to a project can keep you busy for many months, so I’ve learnt saying yes to something can inadvertently mean that you have to say no to something else. So, I am now more selective with what I take on and also make sure I’m allowing enough time to work on day to day running of the business as well.
I continue to enjoy working with other composers/sound designers and this is also a great way to distribute the workload for a project as well if there are multiple deadlines that land on the same week (which seems to happen often!).
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a film and TV music composer and sound designer. I work for Primerchord Music (and Fliktrax) which supply music to awesome TV series like Bondi Rescue, Queer Eye and Shark Week. I also do music and sound design work for Tourism Media- who used to do the Expedia Travel Guide Video series for years, but now work involves other corporate focused projects. Most of my work over the last 5 years, however, has been in the indie film world though, learning how to score most film genres and also developing my sound design skills. Moving forward, I have nearly finished wrapping a lot of my freelance lower-budget indie film work and am looking to work with a couple of amazing LA and California-based production houses freelancing as a more boutique composer/sound designer, which I’m very excited about. I’m particularly interested in doing more work in the crime, thriller, and horror genres.
Main achievements to date are five Hollywood Music in Media nominations in 2020, 21, 22, and 23 – for categories including world music, horror/thriller, dramatic/crime, and also one was for co-writing and producing a song for a film. Also, Hollywood Independent Music Awards nominated me in the best mixing/engineering category last year for a retro pop/EDM style track that I produced with the talented LA singer Nomi Abadi.
I don’t come from the traditional composer/sound designer background, but playing a few thousand live gigs taught me how to deconstruct songs and gave me a valuable education in songs and music of all eras, which has helped me become a better and more flexible composer. I tend to have a ‘loop based’ approach too which is why I still gravitate to writing songs as well as scoring. I love considering the whole ‘audio space’, which also led me into sound design work – this has helped make me a much more flexible and contemporary sound artist.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see the industry continuing to grow strongly – there is a huge appetite for online content, and this seems to be continually increasing – so demand for TV and production music will continue to increase. There probably will continue to be a shortage of good sound technicians, so I think there will always be lots of work available for quality sound designers looking into the future.
Like most industries, one big shift in the industry in coming 5-10 years will undoubtably be the AI revolution.
Sites such as Soundraw and Mubert are only a few of the many AI-generated music platforms that seem to be flooding the market at present. However, AI-generated music use currently has quality issues and also terms of use restrictions, so it only has limited applications. I expect quality to improve but think its use will still be mostly limited to content creators, personal projects, and lower quality films/corporate presentations where budget and speed are a consideration and music quality/variation is not a priority or focus.
Development and availability of innovative AI composer and sound design assistant tools is something that is changing dramatically in the industry at present. Most of these tools are designed to help speed up workflow – for example use of voice optimization technology for dialog cleanup, so I think these tools will be an increasing part of our everyday workflow moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jacquiejoycomposer.com
- Instagram: @jacquiejoycomposer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacquiejoy.composer.7
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquie-joy-128148170
- Twitter: @ComposerJoy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacquiejoycomposer
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jacquiejoycomposer
- Other: imdb.me/jacquiejoy
