Meet Corey Wallace: Film and Television Composer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Corey Wallace and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Corey, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
As a film and television composer, knowing whether to keep going or give up comes down to 3 things for me: Love, Hope, and Belief.
I keep going because I still love my work, and I still have passion for creating music and telling stories.
I keep going because I still hope that the next project will be my break.
I keep going because I still believe that the music I’m creating now is the best I’ve ever done, and I still believe that my best work is still in front of me.

Love:  The saying “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life” has never made sense to me.  When a passion becomes a career, it becomes work, and lots of it.  Finding success in commercial arts, like film and television scoring, is so much work that it can often distract from the fundamental reasons I got into this business in the first place. When I started out, everything about film scoring was magical to me, and I’m fortunate, almost 20 years later, that I still sometimes get feelings that are every bit as pure as the first time I heard my music played by an orchestra. When I’m working on a new score, there’s always a moment that lets me know I’m on the right path. This excited, adrenaline-filled fuzziness in my head and stomach reminds me of why I love what I do, and as long as I still feel the love, I can keep going.

Hope:  I was enjoying a relaxing Sunday with my wife when my phone chimed.  Glancing at the email subject, I said, “Let me read this, my life might be about to change”.  My wife responds, “Do you think that a lot?”, and I simply said “Yes.”.  I can’t move my career forward by wanting and wishing, but I can hope that at each turn, each opportunity can bring me something that pushes me in a positive direction.  There’s so much about this industry that we can’t control and there are no guarantees, so I have to reserve some amount of hope that good things will happen.  As long as I have hope, I can keep going.

Belief: At any point in my career, I was able to look back and see how far I’d come. There’s always something in each new score that is my very best to date, and the belief that I’m doing my best keeps pushing me forward. Knowing that I’m better than I was yesterday has given me much needed confidence, which is especially important when earning the trust of directors and producers (whether it’s getting a job or keeping a job). By that same token, every time I learn a new technique or discover a new sound, I get anxiously excited at the prospect of capitalizing on that knowledge on the next score. Maybe it’ll be time to hang it up when I think my best days are behind me. For now, I believe I’m doing my best work and my very best is yet to come, and the drive to fulfill that potential keeps me going.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m an LA based Film and Television Composer. Recent projects include the orchestral score to CLAW, the “symphony of broken instruments” score to the horror film ARTIK, the Virtual Reality Action film AGENT EMESON, featuring world class cellist Tina Guo, and the jazz-age score to the biopic documentary BEYOND THE BOLEX.

Upcoming projects include the storm-chasing action film SUPERCELL, starring Alec Baldwin, with long-time collaborator Jamie Winterstern, as well the third collaboration with Dan Glaser on his Viking horror film AFTERWALKER.

I’ve also contributed additional music to Blumhouse’s THE FIRST PURGE, and I’ve worked on AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD, TNT’s SNOWPIERCER, ABC’s AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., and ABC’s QUANTICO.

I fell in love with film music in the 90s when it was all about the orchestra, listening to the greats like John Williams, James Horner, and Alan Silvestri. I studied composition and orchestration in college and came to LA to study at USC’s Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program. While orchestral film music may not be the standard it once used to be, I’ve been lucky to find directors that appreciate the orchestral aesthetic as much as I do. My first full feature orchestral score was for the Family/Fantasy film THE HYBRIDS FAMIY. It gave me a great opportunity to showcase my ability with melodic themes and colorful orchestration, and I’m proud that it won Best Soundtrack at the 2018 Oniros Film Awards.

A big part of my portfolio has been Animation scoring. It’s a good fit for my personality because it usually requires very dramatic, expressive, sometimes aggressive, and colorful composition using big musical gestures, often with the orchestra. After being nominated for Best Animated Short Score in 2019 at the Hollywood Media in Music Awards, I’m proud that I won the award in 2020 for MIME YOUR MANNERS. Other notable animation projects include the Student Academy Award Winners THE WISHGRANTER and DIA DE LOS MUERTOS.

The orchestra may be my first love, but in adapting to modern film score aesthetics, I have fallen in love with the process of creating music in my personal studio. Over the years, I have developed a unique voice that explores organic sound development, treating the studio more like a laboratory. I love experimenting with sound sources from conventional instruments, synthesizers, field recordings and everyday sounds. One day, the alarm in my building went off continuously for 45 minutes, so I got a microphone out and recorded it. By pitching it down 8 octaves, it transformed into a beautiful, serene instrument. My studio continues to grow with tools and toys, both vintage and modern, used for sound manipulation, transformation, and even mutilation. The latest addition is a 1970s reel-to-reel tape machine that I can use to impart old-school color and create authentic tape delay. It’s extremely satisfying to feel I’ve created something new and unique, and the process of discovery is equally as satisfying as the end result.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Rachael Cohen-Wallace, Mom and Dad, Dr. Daniel Brame, Christopher Young, Jamie Winterstern, Matthew Arnold, and Ilya Rozhkov.

Website: www.coreywallace.com

Instagram: corey.composer

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-wallace-7b72282a/

Twitter: @coreycomposer

Facebook: @composercorey