Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Lemmon.
Hi Zach, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I can’t remember how I started in music. It’s something no one else in my family does. But once I knew what a guitar was, I wanted to play it. Maybe it was hearing Van Halen on the radio, or Stevie Ray Vaughn playing from cassettes that caught my ear early on and gave me the music bug.
After waging a years-long campaign of asking my mom for a guitar, I achieved success at age 11 and began lessons. I played it all the time, practiced not as much as I should, and became more interested in coming up with my own songs than playing other people. I caught the composing bug.
As I was finishing high school, a friend was making a film and asked if I would write music for it. Despite not knowing anything about that, I confidently agreed. That experience opened my eyes and ears to the awesome world of film music and the power of writing dramatic music to picture. Playing a great guitar solo was cool but somehow this was cooler.
After completing high school and obtaining a jazz studies degree, it was time to get out of Dayton, Ohio. Music careers are hard enough and small cities can make that harder. I decided to apply to film music programs in music cities as the way out. I had the fortune to be accepted into USC’s ‘Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Program’ and with that, my ticket to Los Angeles.
My time at USC set me up with experience and other composing friends to navigate the not-so-easy task of building a music career in LA. With the thrill of the struggle and cheap happy hours, I worked under other composers, took on any projects that would have me, and helped out my friends on theirs. Little by little, a project would lead to something slightly bigger and eventually would give the fantastic experience of recording with brilliant musicians and orchestras in historic studios around Los Angeles, Nashville, and London for films, TV, video games, and commercials. It has been an incredible journey so far and I’m fortunate to have the bit of success I have.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has definitely been a little bumpy, but not as rough as it could be. Everyone knows LA is a tough place to be when starting out, given the cost of living and the amount of great talent around, so that was certainly part of my experience as well.
However, given that, there is a certain thrill/romanticism to really going for your dream in a place that can make it happen -at least in your 20’s anyways! No matter how things would turn out, it was exciting to have the opportunity to make a living making music in LA. I never would have guessed this is where I would end up.
But to answer more specifically, Santa Monica parking tickets were a big part of life the first year after USC which I could’ve done without!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I write and produce music for films, television, video games, and commercials. Being able to bring that extra bit of emotion to a project that connects the audience that much more to the story is a fantastic job to have. Whether from writing a classic orchestral score full of memorable themes and motifs down to a more contemporary minimalist score of carefully chosen, unique sounds to connect to characters and ideas, there’s a lot of variety that’s always keeping me interested and able to create something special. There’s also a good challenge in each project as each one has its own specific needs for how music works within it and finding the right overall tone. From horror scores to arranging gospel music, and everything in-between, I’ve found a lot of variety in the work I do.
One of the films I worked on was the Blumhouse/Tremendum Pictures found-footage horror film, “The Gallows” (dir. Chris Lofing, Travis Cluff). Originally only an indie horror feature, it would go on to have a worldwide release with Warner Bros in the summer of 2015. It’s a crazy feeling to be able to go to the theater down your street and hear your work, even if it was only end-credits music. Fortunately, I was able to contribute a full score and credits song for the sequel, “The Gallows Act II”.
An experimental short film with a Katy Perry pop-inspired score, “In Love” (Dir Candice Nachman), was shot on Super 8 film, edited entirely in camera, and would go on to have a world premiere at the Cannes film festival. The goal of the project was to join music and video together for the first time at the festival so I had to score the film about teen love with a dark twist without actually seeing it. I definitely wouldn’t have thought something like that would end up at the prestigious film festival but glad it did!
I also write music for licensing and have been lucky to have music in shows like FX’s “Atlanta”, HBO’s “The Rehearsal” and “Hacks”, Netflix’s “Cobra Kai”, “Black Mirror”, Apple TV’s “Mythic Quest”, and many others. A song I co-wrote with composer Alexander Rudd was featured in a commercial for Aston Martin and would also pick up a “Best Use of Music in Advertising” from the Production Music Association.
In addition to writing, I also co-produced the orchestral recording sessions for video games like “Ori and the Blind Forest”, expansion packs for “Minecraft”, “ARK: Survival Evolved”, and others, including co-composing on games “Primal Carnage” and “The Mean Greens”.
It’s certainly been a fun ride so far.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
It’s best to reach out through the contact info on my website or email. Always happy to help those interested in music for their projects and share my experience with other composers and musicians.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.zachlemmon.com/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zachlemmon
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DqlgYeGygYV43IWmrISKA?si=1ypq4U1AR-uExWqt-M5mPw
Image Credits
Christina Naguib Benjamin Ealovega
