Daily Inspiration: Meet Emma Most

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Most.

Hi Emma, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Like most musicians I fell in love with music at a young age. I grew up in a very musical family and my parents wanted me and my siblings to take piano lessons for at least a year. For me that was just the starting point and my journey started at age 7 taking lessons from a dear family friend named Lillian Allen. I did band for a few years in middle and high school and started learning euphonium and viola but piano has stuck with me since my first lesson and I took consistent piano lessons all the way through undergrad. I didn’t start formally exploring composition until my junior year of high school but when I was a kid I wrote a few of my own little songs and I was obsessed with film music from a young age. I think I saw how well the music told some of my favorite stories but I didn’t connect the pieces until much later. I think my journey into composing actually came from a place of burnout ironically and it was on one of the many occasions I considered quitting piano to focus on sports that the idea to actually learn how to compose was born. I immediately knew I wanted to write for film and some of my biggest inspirations starting out were the scores for How To Train Your Dragon (like every other young film composer I’ve met haha), Narnia, National Treasure, Secretariat, Star Wars, and like every 90s-2000s animated Disney movie. The melodies for those films have always jumped out at me and I knew I wanted to learn how to write music like that. I grew up in a super rural area of Colorado so there already weren’t many musical opportunities around me but my community was very supportive of the arts so I had a lot of great teachers come alongside me and help me leading up to college. I did my bachelor of music degree in composition at The Master’s University and had the opportunity of studying under Grant Fonda, Gary Kuo, and Ben Mason during my time there. I poured myself into many different musical opportunities in undergrad, all of which shaped my musical abilities in ways I’m still discovering. I was a part of multiple performing ensembles and did a piano teaching internship. After undergrad I went on to do my master of music degree in film scoring at Eastman School of Music and studied under Mark Watters and Dave Rivello. I saw a tremendous amount of growth in my writing and understanding of composition in college, especially at Eastman, and I owe a great deal to all my teachers for all their instruction and encouragement. I’m only a couple years post grad now, and only at the beginning of my career so I do my own freelance work, some piano teaching, and I’m also an assistant to the amazing Grant Fonda.

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?
Every industry has its ups and downs but I feel like creatives often have more challenges due to the uniqueness of our work. Every week looks different for me and I love the variety, but it certainly comes with its challenges. All of my work as a composer is project based and every project looks different and pays different. Freelance music work is pretty unreliable as a steady source of work and income for almost every musician when they’re starting out and most musicians I know work multiple jobs or have a day job outside of music to help support them until freelance becomes more steady. I’ve definitely seen a certain level of shame in that because many people see that as a sign of failure but I’ve really started to try and help break that stigma. Working a day job doesn’t make anyone any less of a musician or creative. Since the creative industries are rooted so heavily in building relationships and making connections it’s bound to take some time to be able to build a freelance career. Trust and communication has to happen first before collaboration does. It’s always more fun working with your friends and that’s no exception when it comes to building career connections. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do music full time right away, but I do work multiple jobs and while I really love the variety that brings, it’s definitely hard balancing everything sometimes. I love the perspective that every experience is a learning experience. Only I can decide how much I want to learn and grow from it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Film music is all about storytelling and I love writing melodies. Melody is what got me into this crazy journey in the first place and it’s always at the forefront of my work. My greatest inspirations are composers who can write really great themes that the average listener can hum back after hearing once. Melody really helps capture the emotion of the characters in a way nothing else really can and it brings a new dimension to the story. My favorite part of the process is crafting themes for the story I’m working on. I know I’ve come up with a good theme when it has a sort of familiarity like it’s always existed and I’ve just unlocked it. I always start projects connecting with the director and finding out more about their perspective on the story because it’s crucial to how the themes and score interacts with the story and with the viewer. It really paves the way for a collaborative process to help tell the story better. My motto has sort of become “everyone has a story to tell” because I see my job as a collaboration first. Film music isn’t meant to be the star of the show, it’s there to elevate the story and largely be invisible. Storytelling takes a village of different perspectives and pieces of art.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am the furthest thing from a risk taker and I actually think I approach life and work too cautiously sometimes. Most of the time I play things safe and stay in my comfort zone. I definitely classify myself as a very detail oriented perfectionist which I joke is a blessing and a curse because I tend to beat myself up if I don’t do my job perfectly. Being more adventurous and trying new things are definitely areas I’m working on but it’s definitely a growth that’ll happen over time (as much as that infuriates my impatient self haha). There are always plenty of opportunities for me to throw myself into the deep end because there’s a lot of risks to be taken in creative work. Grant has really encouraged me in this area in my work with him and we joke that he constantly throws me off the deep end, which has helped my growth as a composer and a human tremendously.

Pricing:

• I set my rates by project so if you’re interested in collaborating shoot me an email or dm!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emmamost.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emma.the.most/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emma.most.9
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emmamostmusic5936
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/emmamost
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11733632/?ref_=fn_all_nme_1

Image Credits
Erich Camping