Meet Brandon Dalo | Composer

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

Hi Brandon, how do you think about risk?
There’s a lot of risk involved in quitting the responsible path, leaving your friends and family behind, and moving across the country to pursue what you love. Moving to Los Angeles for your career is also to know that you are entering a highly competitive environment and one of the most expensive in terms of cost of living.

I know many people move here to pursue their dream, like I did almost seven years ago now, and so that part of my story isn’t particularly unique or special. But no matter who you are, it is a big risk, especially when you put your everything into making it happen. Many people give up quickly, some a little later, and the few persevere. But personally, I wouldn’t trade having taken that risk for anything. Even if in the end, I ultimately failed to realize my biggest dreams here, I wouldn’t regret having risked everything for it. The regret would come from having not tried it at all.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve learned as a composer my job is to facilitate the vision of the filmmaker I’m working with. It’s not really about me and there’s something about that which is quite freeing in some strange way. I love the process of collaboration, of helping to tell a story through music, and to help give people an escape from all the craziness going on in the world through storytelling.

I got my start in documentaries and still am doing quite a lot of them. My music for those was often of a more darker tone, and over the years the music has attracted many projects that continue that dark and thrilling feeling so I often find myself writing in that style. But over time, I’ve also had the opportunity to branch out in so many different directions, working in the music department on many of the largest projects of recent times as well as composing for features, shorts and podcasts. I’ve worked with sample library companies and wrote production music for music libraries as well in many different genres.

I realized recently that I’m coming up on my tenth year since I started scoring media (crazy) and yet I’m still loving every minute of it. I can’t wait to see where it takes me from here!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ah, there’s so many great places! After they’ve done all the typical stuff like the Santa Monica Pier and the Hollywood Sign, here’s a few I’d recommend to a friend coming in from out of town:

I love the view of the Los Angeles skyline at night and one of the best places to view it, in my opinion, is at the rooftop bar/restaurant Cara Cara in downtown. It’s a great atmosphere, the food is great and priced reasonably, but the view of downtown is just fantastic from up there. Afterwards, I’d walk them a couple of blocks over to Rhythm Room, which is an awesome jazz club.

I’d also show them around the historic Sunset Strip, stopping at the infamous Chateau Marmont for dinner and going to the one and only Comedy Store for a comedy show afterwards.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
When it comes to giving a shoutout to people who have helped me along the way, I immediately thought of some mentors of mine who taught me while in college and have continued being there for me after graduating. These mentors all had decades of real world experience and were not afraid to be brutally honest in their feedback and advice which helped me tremendously to grow as a composer. But possibly more importantly, as time went on and I progressed, their warmth and individual attention to me made me feel respected and seen which gave me a confidence that I didn’t have before them. Almost all of them have either hired me directly after graduating or recommended me for a job and I can’t thank them enough for the friendship over the years:

Craig Richey
Jordan Cox
Tom Villano
Adam Fligsten

Website: www.brandondalo.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandondalo/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandondalo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandon_dalo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.dalo/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYPIMlWpmPNbqAAEX8ibnzQ

Image Credits
Jeremy David Creative https://www.instagram.com/jeremydavidcreative/