Conversations with Ginger Murphy and Stephen “Stevo” Thear

We’re excited to introduce you to Ginger Murphy and Stephen “Stevo” Théard of Sun Soul Orchestra. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation.

Hi Ginger and Stephen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Our story, believe it or not, actually began at Capitol Records in Hollywood. We were both hired to play as sidemen- Stephen on drums and myself on cello- for a special filming session of movie music. A spark was ignited on that day, and we eventually began to create new music and arrangements with our group, Sun Soul Orchestra.

We both started our careers as sidemen in the active freelance scene of Los Angeles after studying music performance in college. I graduated from Northwestern University and Stephen studied at Cal State Northridge. Touring, live performance, recording work for record dates as well as orchestral scoring sessions filled most of our time before 2012. We both enjoyed the diversity of work and sharing the studio and/or stage with brilliant artists such as Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Michael McDonald, Terrence Trent D’Arby, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Placido Domingo and Ariana Grande to name a few. As much as we enjoyed the work, we both had a desire to be more creative. With Stephen’s background in Pop, R&B, Jazz and Rock combined with my Classical orchestral background, collaborations took unexpected turns musically and professionally.

We released our first album “What Matters Most” in 2012. The release of the album ignited some new opportunities. Highlights include getting to work alongside composer Siddhartha Khosla with arrangements of his compositions for NBC’s “This is Us”, feature film “Queenpins” and the Disney short, “American Eid”. We have also licensed original music for use in a Kia Motors international ad campaign, and a few TV shows including HBO’s “Entourage” and “Sex and the City”.

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?
Working in the music world is never a smooth road; our experience is no exception. The industry is highly competitive and challenging, and we’re both extremely grateful for the breaks that have come our way. But we don’t kid ourselves about what it takes to remain active and engaged in the music business. My cello teacher used to say, “you are only as good as your last performance”, and I do agree with that sentiment. We both spend a lot of time with our respective instruments in order to continually evolve and improve as working musicians. It’s a helluva commitment!

Forming Sun Soul Orchestra has been fun for us, but acting as our own marketing and promotions team has presented the greatest set of challenges. As independent artists, we’ve had to embrace roles that frankly do not come naturally to either one of us. We both love to perform and share emotions/ideas with audiences, and we love creating music and coming up with arrangement ideas. We have to push ourselves when it comes to marketing and promotion however, so thanks for reaching out to us with this opportunity!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We perform live on a regular basis, and we also enjoy recording studio work. Both of us do remote sessions at home and I also do orchestral recording work for film, TV and record dates. Together we’ve done some string arranging for other artists, and we’ve also done some work arranging for TV shows.

I believe that our uniqueness stems from the way that our seemingly disparate backgrounds actually complement each other very nicely. Stephen comes from a very large family of New Orleans Creoles. I come from a very large family of Midwestern (mostly) Irish folks. The environments we were brought up in are strikingly similar – our families are both very affectionate, fun-loving and extremely loud!

Our musical backgrounds also complement each other very nicely. Stephen has classic Soul, Jazz, Pop and Rock running through his veins. He also loves Hip Hop, Leonard Bernstein and the classic musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein. I love Pop, Rock, R&B, Jazz and Hip Hop, and I also have a very strong foundation in Classical and Musical Theater. His devotion to groove and my way with a melody have proven to be a very beautiful combination.

I’m most proud actually of some of our original songs that we’ve written together: “Find Myself with You”, “Maybe So”, “Gingerly”, “Hanging by a Thread” and ‘Sweet Dreams” are favorites of mine.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Making a living making music is success. We both firmly believe that, and are grateful that we’re doing things we dreamt of doing when we were kids. How cool is that?!

Beyond the basics of making a living, we both love love the process of coming up with ideas, and then turning those ideas into real things: a composition, an arrangement, a recording, a weekend getaway, a gathering of friends, an opportunity to put other musicians to work… Anytime we have an idea that turns into something real, we consider that to be a major success!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://SunSoulOrchestra.com
• Instagram: @murphy.ginger
• Facebook: Sun soul orchestra
• Youtube: Sun Soul Orchestra
• Soundcloud: Sun Soul Orchestra

Image Credits
Julie Murphy, illustrator