Meet Austin Hammonds | Film Composer

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

Hi Austin, what role has risk played in your life or career?
In all honesty, If I wasn’t as much of a risk taker I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today. Taking risks is and has been core to my personality since I was younger. I have always valued the concept of risk versus reward, and think it’s important for skill to work on for any young creative or entrepreneur!

While I have always loved film music, it was in college that I made the decision to pursue film scoring as a career. I went to Morehead State University in Kentucky for undergrad and we didn’t have a composition program. I knew I wanted to write music, but my family wasn’t in a position financially to transfer me to another school, so I knew I had to stay and find a way to make my dreams work.
Originally majoring in Music Education, I took the risk and got my Bachelor’s of the Arts in Music. I also got my minor in the same field, staying in music and arts with Arts Entrepreneurship. This gave me less chance of finding a job after graduation, but more time to focus on my passion for music composition. I learned and wrote so much in that period of time, and I have to credit it to my supportive and encouraging professors for creating endless opportunities for growth.
Fortunately this risk payed off, and the music I wrote during those four years got me into graduate school to actually study composition with Carlos Rivera and Chris Boardman at the Frost School of Music in Miami.

Fast forward a few years and I again took a risk and moved to LA to attend USC’s Screen Scoring degree program. Like many other students I took out student loans, I personally saw the debt as a true investment in myself and my abilities as a film composer, even knowing full well I didn’t have the money to stay in LA long after graduation without a job.
Fortunately enough, just after graduation Russell Emanuel reached out to me to come on board as a composer at Bleeding Fingers Music. Perhaps my biggest risk met with by biggest reward yet, which opened a whole future of opportunities. Russ and Sony have since sponsored a diversity scholarship for the USC program, making that same risk just a little easier for those to come.

Risk taking encourages us to do the best with what we have, and to make things work when there sometimes isn’t an alternative. I couldn’t be happier with the fortunate outcomes of the risks I’ve taken, and I look forward to the opportunities future creative and career risks create.

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.
Film scoring is this wonderful crossroads between music and storytelling where composers get to help bikes fly and dinosaurs come to life! While I may have loosely stolen that from Steven Spielberg, it truly is a magical responsibility we have in capturing the emotion of a scene with music.

For me I have always been inspired by the music of the John Williams, James Horner, and John Powell. More specifically, I love the way these film composers utilize the orchestra in their scores. Orchestral music has always captivated me, and I think that’s clear in the scores I write. It would be naive of me to say that this makes me stand out in some way, but I do believe my musical taste will influence me in unique ways that develop into a signature sound with more time and practice. Composers are like fine wine, we get much better with age!

I am always trying to create rich orchestral passages and textures that carry the tone a film needs, while still addressing what the directors and producers are looking for. While this isn’t always easy, compromise is always necessary when working and collaborating with a team, and especially when your job is to serve the directors vision!
Most recently I had the fortune of writing the theme for and co-scoring BBC America’s Eden: Untamed Planet with fellow composer Denise Santos. Both of us having a love for orchestral music, we worked together to score over 5 hours of music for the series, mostly all heavily featuring a full orchestral palette.
It was a huge challenge to maintain our personal level of quality across the entire score. Working to do so taught me a lot about teamwork, workflow, and efficiency.
Having been my first major project, I learned so much from Denise and the rest of our team! When you work on a body of work like that you are able to really refine a sound within the project. Denise and I were able to really dig in and have fun with different themes we wrote, motifs we placed, and characters we infused with musical personalities. Great teamwork is essential to a great finished project, and I couldn’t have been luckier to have worked with such an amazing team!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh wow what a fun question! You can probably tell from my IG (@austin.l.hammonds) that I am a bit of a foodie, so most of my recommendations are food related. Growing up in Kentucky, Nashville Tennessee was spitting distance from home. However, it wasn’t until I came to LA that I had Nashville hot chicken! Easy to say that Howlin’ Ray’s is at the top of my list! Tacos Por Favor is another must for me. Koreatown is a great place to find some killer KBBQ spots!

Now that Covid restrictions are becoming a bit lighter as more people are getting vaccinated, I am finally making it out to a few bars in town. I have to say the concept of a hidden bar is very new to me, but they are EVERYWHERE here in LA! I once found a hidden staircase in a pizza restaurant and found a bar that made the best Kentucky mule I have ever had!
Perhaps my favorite bar isn’t so much hidden as it is located in a galaxy far, far away. Scum and Villainy Cantina in Hollywood is just a great place with a cool Star Wars atmosphere. I highly recommend the Black Widow!

The Los Liones Trail near the Palisades is a great hike to get a nice view of the whole of LA. I can see my house AND my studio at Remote Control from there all in one view!

And the beaches of course!

There are countless other recommendations I could make, but we’d be here for hours…

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I must send a shoutout to all of the incredible educators and mentors I have had over the past years: the unwavering confidence my saxophone professor Matt Taylor had in me, the constant encouragement to make mistakes and grow from my USC professors Patrick Kirst and Eric Schmidt, the mentoring of Carlos Rafael Rivera and Chris Boardman at Frost, the companionship of my dearest friends, and most importantly the love and support of my amazing mother Janaya. I am nothing without the people who shaped me, believed in me, and pointed me in the right directions at the right time. Thank you!!

Website: https://www.bleedingfingersmusic.com/austin-hammonds

Instagram: @austin.l.hammonds

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-hammonds-59b588120/

Image Credits
Main Picture (Close Up) – Credit: Karl Ritcher / Cynical Smile