Meet Anthony Baldino | Artist, Composer & Sound Designer

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

Hi Anthony, what role has risk played in your life or career?
For me, one of the biggest risks in a creative career is refusing a new project. I say to myself, “I’m
turning down money and a possible opportunity”, which quickly morphs into “I will never get work
again”. That’s just not true.

My perception of risk changed when I made a commitment to complete my first record. I was
working on freelance projects full-time and struggling to find the time and energy to create
personal music projects. A very close friend listened to me rant about how I wished I could just
pause all my work and make a record. I was putting 100% of my efforts toward work and it felt
terrifying to put freelance work on hold. When my friend asked what it would feel like to put 5% of my
effort into myself and my own music, That sounded like a low number and didn’t feel so great, so I said
“10%. 10% feels safe”.

I implemented a plan of action, and my work balance quickly became a 40/60 split. It felt safe; I
was working and making progress on my record at the same time. And thanks to this mindset my
second record is close to completion.

So, to me, risk, at least in the creative sense, means investing in myself. Turning down paying
work to work on your own vision can be a good risk. It’s important to find what amount of risk
feels right for you while keeping all your endeavors moving forward. Might be small, might be
big. It’s different for everyone.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My work is deeply grounded in electronic music. I became obsessed with it in the early 2000s when I first discovered artists like Telefon Tel Aviv, Richard Devine and Venetian Snares. I was also studying classical and film music at the time and discovered composers like Milton Babbitt and Karlheinz Stockhausen and on to Wendy Carlos and Morton Subotnick. All of this lead to my curiosity in merging sound design heavy electronic music with cinematic music. Fast forward a few years later and I moved to LA and had started working in film music and furthering my electronic music explorations while performing on a Eurorack modular system. Each one fueling the other, it all kind of built up to me releasing my first record, doing several remixes for contemporaries and some of my heroes, and being invited to help create the sonic landscape for some truly amazing scores such as Tenet, Wakanda Forever, Venom and getting to write additional music for Transformers. A lot of the film work has taken priority as of late and often difficult to find balance so I’m looking forward to dedicating the rest of the year to finishing up my second artist release.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Truth be told, I love getting out of the city. But if I was to take a day or two to hit some of my favorite spots, the list would include Little Tokyo for sushi, ramen and all things amazing. I’d also gave to add Moo’s BBQ and Thunderbolt for drinks. Aside from that, I love a good walk in Topanga Canyon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Obviously my parents deserve the biggest credit here but I’d like to shoutout Chris Lane, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Chris is insanely talented, has one of the sharpest minds and by far one of the biggest hearts. He’s always made time to be a sounding board for my musical highs and lows as well as life’s curveballs. I wouldn’t be where I am today with his honesty, compassion and support.

Website: https://anthonybaldino.net

Instagram: @anthonybaldino2600

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-baldino-7164691a9

Image Credits
Dean Paul De Leon & Cynthia Archuleta.