Today we’re excited to be connecting with Doug Rockwell again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.
Doug, we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
Sure! It’s always so weird for me to talk about myself, ha! But hi, my name is Doug Rockwell. I’m a songwriter/producer out here in Los Angeles, CA. My work is primarily in TV/Film. I’ve written songs for shows like Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Marvel Rising, Netflix’s Julie & The Phantoms, Nickelodeon/Paramount’s The Loud House, and Disney films such as Sneakerella and the Zombies franchise to name a few. I originally came out to LA from New Jersey to write songs for pop artists, and that’s kind of what I was doing for a bit. I had a brief stint working along side John Feldmann adding production to records for bands like 5 Seconds Of Summer and Sleeping With Sirens. That job was very short lived and left me somewhat lost and stranded in LA without even enough money in my bank account to get back home. Everything was starting to fall apart around me, I still had a girlfriend at the time who was living back east and was basically like “so you’re gonna come home now, right?” Something in me knew that I needed to be out here though. Mind you, this was all within the 1st year of me moving out here. I set a goal of signing to a major publisher before I turned 30 (I was 29 at the time). I met everyone I could, I wrote with everyone I could, I did as much free work as I could, and 2 weeks before my 30th birthday I signed my first publishing deal with Disney Music Publishing. It was the biggest sigh of relief, because it was proof that I wasn’t crazy for following this wild dream of mine. For a few years I was writing with a lot of their pop artists, but eventually realized this wasn’t what I wanted anymore. It was a pretty intense identity shift. It’s a very hard pill to swallow when you find that the dream you painted in the forefront of your mind years ago no longer fits the person you are in present day. I found myself being more inspired by some of the tv/film musicals I had worked on and felt a heavy pull towards focusing on things like that. I finally decided to make the shift, and the moment I did, EVERYTHING in my life changed. It’s amazing how the universe opens up for you once you let go of your ego. As far as career highlights go, there are a lot of them in what you just read, but some REALLY fun ones were winning an Emmy last year for a song I co-wrote called “Finally Free” for HSM:TM:TS, getting a Gold Record for “Flesh & Bone” from the Zombies 2 movie, and.. well, the two biggest highlights are probably how this musical journey led me to meet Tova- my wife and co-writer on everything, and having our amazing son come along for the ride with us!
Great, so let’s jump into an update on what you have been up to since we last spoke. What can you share with us?
There are a few things I want to add here, but I can only give vague details since a lot of them haven’t been announced yet! But we’re currently developing an animated musical feature with a dream production company of ours, which has been so exciting for us. We’ve also started our journey onto the stage and are developing an original musical with Tony-winning producer Eva Price who is one of our favorite people. We’ve got music in the upcoming Zombies 4 movie that’s set to release this year, and I’ve also been working on production for the Descendants/Zombies Worlds Collide tour which is going to be huge. We were also nominated for another Emmy this year for a song called “Speak Out” from the last season of High School Musical which we are very excited about!
Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.
- Favorite Movie: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
- Favorite Book: The Alchemist
- Favorite TV Show: Game Of Thrones
- Favorite Band or Artist: If you look at my spotify playlists, every song is a different artist so it’s so hard to say! I’ll keep this one a mystery strictly out of indecisiveness.
- Sweet or Savory: Savory!
- Mountains or Beach: Mountains
- Favorite Sport (to watch): Hockey
- Favorite Sport (to play): I’m bad at all of them
- Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Before I discovered music, I played everything – basketball, soccer, baseball, street hockey, I was also on the swim team – and I was actually pretty good. Then I started playing guitar and any sports related skill I had went downhill from there.
- As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: I wanted to be a rockstar. Green Day was the band that inspired me to pick up guitar when I was 8, and I wanted to be exactly like Billie Joe. I was obsessed with them, and from the second I saw “Basket Case” on MTV (yes I’m old), I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
- French Fries or Onion Rings: Oooooph. That’s like making me choose between my children. How could you ask such maniacle question? Water gun to my head I’d probably pick onion rings.
- Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: I have no idea who these people are. Lets go with Guy Fieri.
- Favorite Cartoon growing up: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rocko’s Modern Life, Doug (no relation), Angry Beavers.. all the classics
- Favorite Childhood movie: Home Alone 2 and Space Jam
Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
I truly believe that anything is possible. Persistence is key. You can have people all around you give up on their dream, which can be discouraging to watch, but the only reason they stopped is because they chose to do so. So if you really believe in what you’re doing, and in yourself, don’t quit. Because things do happen. There are no shortcuts, no matter how many times you try to take them. You just end up with so many shortcuts it equates to the same length as one long road. Also, I’ve found the hardest thing about big life decisions is not the consequence of that decision. It’s the decision to MAKE the decision itself. That’s the scariest part. But once you decide to make a change, you’ll quickly realize it’s not so scary. When we’re uncomfortable, that’s when we do our best work, whether its on ourselves, or the art we’re creating. And at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is love and happiness. Because if we aren’t happy, then what’s the point?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rockwellandlitvin.com
- Instagram: @dougrockwell
