Meet Pieter Schlosser

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pieter Schlosser.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Pieter. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
As a musician, It’s always hard to definitively answer when one got started. Was it when I first showed a real interest in music at age seven and stole my mother’s tapes and records and took them to my room to listen to when we lived in Guatemala? Or was it when I formally started playing an instrument in Austria (it was the piano and voice and I was 11)? Or was it when I first started composing in Costa Rica (I was 17 and about to graduate high school)?

At any rate, the short version of my story is this: I was born in Guatemala to a Dutch mother and half German, half American father. Both my parents were and still are big fans of music. As mentioned earlier, we moved to Austria, Panama, Costa Rica because of my father’s work and after high school, I went to Berklee College in Boston to study Music Production and Engineering and Film Composition.

After Berklee, I moved to L.A. and worked at several studios as a runner and eventually landed a job at Hans Zimmer’s studio where I worked with Steve Jablonsky for five years before going on my own. That was 11 years ago!

That brings us to now where I’m scoring my own projects writing music mostly for television and video games.

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?
Nothing is ever a smooth road and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Then again, it’s not supposed to be that way anyway. How else will you learn unless you fail over and over again? As my friend AJ likes to say: “Fail faster”. We are so afraid of failing a lot of people don’t ever really even try. Just start.

The initial struggle for me after college was figuring out how to stay in the United States as an international student. Legally speaking, I had one year of what’s called ‘Optional Practical Training’. In other words, getting a job in my field of study. Getting a job in music wasn’t the issue. The issue was trying to get said job to sponsor my work visa so that I could stay in the U.S. (My half baked backup plan was to move to the Netherlands).

As fate would have it, I met a girl, fell head over heels in love and got married and I got my green card. 17 years later, we are still married, have 2 beautiful daughters and we even still like each other! That turned out quite well, I’d say!

As far as struggles as a composer? Well, I think they never truly go away! To some degree, we all suffer from impostor syndrome. The difference is I’ve somehow managed to use that as inspiration to be better every day as opposed to letting it cripple me. Whether I’m doing a good job at it is still to be determined! However, I keep getting hired to write music so the joke’s on them! Of course, I kid! I’m very very grateful for the opportunity!

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a composer working mostly in television and video games over the last few years. The very first cue I wrote for television was the ABC show ‘Desperate Housewives’ when I was working as an assistant for Steve Jablonsky many years ago. I went on to write lots of additional music on that show for the eight seasons it was on the air. It was an amazing experience where I also got to conduct a small string section every week!

Along the way, I worked on a few other high profile projects like the Transformers films, the SIMS and Gears Of War video game series to name a few.

Eventually, I ventured out on my own and worked with other composers and wrote additional music on their television shows where I learned to be really quick at writing as well as learning to not get too attached to the music and be able to address any changes necessary as requested by the producers. Eventually, this led to having my own projects which is where I am now.

I think a lot of this adaptability comes from having moved a lot as a kid and living in different countries. You really learn to adjust quickly to different situations.

I’ve been working on music for the video game ‘Destiny 2’ and I’m scoring a new series for Disney+ called “Sulphur Springs” which will be out very soon!

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
As Obi-Wan once said: “In my experience, there is no such thing as luck”. (Did really you think we’d get away with not quoting Star Wars in this interview?). I also subscribe to that belief in the sense that you prepare as much as you can and you show up! Say yes and then figure it out. None of us really know what we are doing anyway. Once you figure that out, you just give it all you got and it all ends up being about grit. The magic is finding the joy in the process regardless of the goal.

I believe this to be especially true for this career in entertainment where there is an incredible amount of rejection. It’s an ultra marathon so put on a good playlist or a podcast and start running slowly and consistently and learn as much as you can along the way.   Keep your focus on being better today than you were yesterday in all aspects of your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pieterschlosser.com
• Instagram: pieterschlosser

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