Today we’d like to introduce you to Carol Kuswanto.
Carol, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born into a musical family and music has been a part of my life since before I was born. My mother is a piano teacher: she told me stories of how I would always be moving and kicking her in the womb whenever she was giving piano lessons. I started playing piano when I was three years old and picked up the violin when I was eight. I grew up as a classically trained, I competed in piano competitions, joined masterclasses and completed the Royal Schools of Music examinations. I was mentored by some of the best pianists in Indonesia and practiced 5 hours daily. Playing the piano had become like a competitive sports and growing up, the pressure was definitely there. People expected a lot from me because my mom is a piano teacher.
As I got older, school got busier. I didn’t have time to practice as much as I used to and I realized how much playing piano and violin had become nothing more than a routine. I doubted my passion in music and for some time, music was just a way for me to show off my skills; I didn’t like myself for that. As I become more open to other musical genres, I started to be more accepting of who I am and discovered other ways to channel my passion in music, including through music composition. Even though I’ve known all along that I’d wanted to pursue music professionally, I had to choose between pursuing a career as a classical pianist in a conservatory or a contemporary music college – it was down to Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and Berklee College of Music (BCM). MSM is my piano teacher’s alma mater and a well-known school in Indonesia’s classical music community for its prestigious program, but more importantly, it was my mother’s dream school. This made BCM the non-obvious choice but for some reason I felt a calling from this school. It took a lot of debating but in the end, I went with my gut feeling and chose BCM.
I entered as a piano performance major in Fall 2014 but later on discovered in my second semester that there’s so much more to music other than performing. I took an Intro to Film Scoring class because of a friend’s recommendation; little did I know, the professor of that class nominated my final project in that class for a departmental award in 2015 and I actually won. I was incredibly shocked and humbled by this award, but most of all, it gave me the final push to realize my passion in film scoring. I realized the passion has been there all along – I grew up loving the art and craft behind filmmaking: I remembered my dad would always take me and my brothers to go see a movie in the theaters every Sunday after Church and it turned into our regular Sunday schedule. I would tear up watching a movie just because of how beautiful the music would be. I declared the film scoring as a major and later on declared music business as a second major. Turns out all the classical piano and violin training gave me the natural sense in composition, orchestration, etc. I graduated with Summa Cum Laude in Fall 2017.
My first job out of college was assisting a music YouTuber, Rick Beato (currently nearly 1M subscribers). He specifically needed someone who has perfect pitch (the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone). He needed someone who would be fast at transcribing music and with my listening ability plus my background in music business, I was the perfect fit for the position. After months of working in Atlanta, I have realized the city is not for me. I decided to move to Los Angeles to focus more on the film entertainment industry. It was definitely a huge step for me to move without securing a job first, but I am lucky to have such supportive parents.
Less than a month into my move (around August 2018), I landed a job at Kraftbox Entertainment with the former president of Fox Music, Robert Kraft. We are currently working on several developments including a biopic about Sylvia Robinson. I am also the coordinator on “Score: The Podcast”, where we interview some of Hollywood’s best composers. Besides my work at Kraftbox Entertainment, I am also freelancing on the side. Some of my work credits include, 88rising’s Joji and NIKI, Wong Fu Production, and a few short films with major film festival nominations and winnings.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t think I’ve heard of any smooth or easy road stories. They don’t exist. Lucky maybe, but never easy. I think we become the person we are today because of the speed bumps. As a musician, insecurity sort of just becomes part of the checklist. It’s important to know the difference between insecurity and being vulnerability. As a human being, we have a disease of comparison, to be jealous of others and to never be satisfied. I consider myself a perfectionist and sometimes that really hurts my process and my craft. I think it’s good to aim for perfection but also I understand that those speed bumps that stop you from going too fast are also important for the process. Competition will always be there and other people will try to ruin your career but it is completely up to us whether or not we act positively or negatively on it. Another speed bump that I had was having to apply for the O-1B Visa, which was truly a challenging and strenuous process. Thankfully, I was approved earlier this year!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a Film and TV Composer, Music Arranger & Producer, and Keyboardist. My education in film music and music business is a great combination for the industry that I am in. When I was preparing for my O-1B Visa application, both my lawyer and I didn’t realize how my portfolio was like a bowl of salad – a mix of everything!
Below is a summary of some of my credits:
Executive Assistant to Robert Kraft (Former President of Fox Music from 1994 to 2012) at Kraftbox Entertainment. Robert is the executive in charge of music for iconic films such as Titanic, Avatar, Moulin Rouge, etc.
Coordinator on Score: The Podcast (Season 2)
A podcast taking you inside the studios of Hollywood’s most celebrated musical storytellers. This season’s guests: Justin Hurwitz (La La Land, Whiplash), John Ottman (Bohemian Rhapsody, X-men) Benjamin Wallfisch (Shazam!, Hidden Figures), Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel), Hildur Guðnadóttir (HBO’s Chernobyl, The Joker), Giorgio Moroder (Scarface, Midnight Express), Kris Bowers (When They See Us, Green Book), and more.
Film Composer for Wong Fu Productions (Yappie, Just Another Day) and It’ll Be Fine (Short Animation by J.J. Anzaldi) – nominated for Best Sound/Music at Largo Film Awards
Advertisement scorer for clients like Amazon Japan and Nescafe China.
88rising
Co-producer of “Slow Dancing in the Dark – Acoustic Version” by JOJI
Music arranger for 88rising’s NIKI live set Head in the Clouds Festival
Pianist on 88rising concert in San Francisco
String arranger in “Sugarplum Elegy” – NIKI
Violinist at Imagination Off The Charts: Jacob Collier comes to MIT (won New England Emmy Award in 2018)
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
No big changes for now! A bunch of things are happening right now at Kraftbox Entertainment that I am not able to disclose at the moment. One that I can share is the Sylvia Robinson Biopic which will be the life story of Robinson, the founder of Sugar Hill Records. The script, written by Tracy Oliver, Malcolm Spellman, and Carlito Rodriguez, details how Robinson became a music mogul after recording 1979’s “Rapper’s Delight” (the first single to introduce hip hop music to a wide audience).
A short film that I composed music on (“Expatriate Dream” directed by Arvin Sutedja) was selected to be played at LA Shorts film festival this past July.
Definitely looking forward to collaborating with more people! Co-producing tracks with producers based in Boston, South Korea, Indonesia and submitting them to labels or production competitions. Overall, I’m just really looking forward to connecting with more people in the similar creative space and hopefully can inspire other people like how my mentors inspired me growing up. I’m also very proud to see the Asian community in the film and music industry is at its strongest and hopefully I have the honor to say that I’m a part of it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.carolkuswanto.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/carolkuswanto
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolkuswanto
Image Credit:
Nattografi, Andrew Susanto
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