Meet James Fabio | Horror and Sci-Fi Composer

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

Hi James, how do you think about risk?
To me risk and creativity go hand in hand, especially with music. If you approach a score the same way every time and stay within your musical comfort zone with choices such as instrumentation or genre, you’re limiting your own potential, creative spectrum and creating a sonic ceiling for each project. Eliminating those limitations is a risk though when it comes to time constraints or pleasing your audience. Sometimes there isn’t much room for experimentation with sound and you have to know ahead of time what will work and what won’t based on experience, but that still involves a level of risk. For example, the score I created for the sci-fi/thriller “Chimera” was heavily electronic using synths, distorted sounds and techie, ethereal textures. That in itself was a blend of multiple genres I was unfamiliar with, but I also added a soft and emotive piano in these very intimate and human scenes, a direct contrast from the electronic score, to convey the somber and desperate nature of our character. Despite potentially alienating those scenes with the introduction of piano, it became a balanced juxtaposition to show our character’s emotional state amidst the bleak world around her.
Pushing the boundaries too much in a score can break that suspension of disbelief for an audience, but without added creativity there is a risk the story will hold less emotional weight and an audience won’t connect as strongly.

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.
What’s most enjoyable about my role in the music industry is the amount of parts I get to play in various projects and the creative input I’m allowed. Primarily I work in the music licensing field, providing music to television shows, networks and other media. We handpick or create custom tracks to be used in programming and advertising, provide music supervision services and get to represent music and artists from around the globe. I’ve had the opportunity to help update music on shows like Northern Exposure, pick tracks for Xbox advertisements and write cues for true crime shows like Dateline and 20/20, allowing me to have tracks I’ve personally written used on over two hundred episodes of television. Beyond that is the excitement of directly scoring projects and working closely with directors and supervisors to express their vision. The collaboration and teamwork involved with a filmmaker helps push a score to a higher level, intimately binding music to picture and makes it the most satisfying aspect of composing. Getting to this point however was a journey. It took moving across the country leaving family, friends and a music job I loved to pursue a career that wasn’t guaranteed. Among the success was many rejections, opportunities closing and experiences I had to learn from, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

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?
I’m a sucker for good food so I always recommend Smorgasburg in DTLA on Sundays where you can get a bunch of great tastes from local spots. Griffith Observatory gives you a nice overlook of the city plus a cool space museum I like to visit every now and then. The Brainwash museum in Beverly Hills is a fun and interactive trip mixing famous art pieces with some funky and satirical additions. And Malibu and the Pacific Coast Highway is always a beautiful drive up the coast with a lot of hiking spots and restaurants to choose from.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Ooh there’s a few people I would need to credit! First would be both my parents who were alway supportive of my interest in music. They endured so many drum lessons and house-shaking band practices, shuttling me around to shows and performances and sending me to all sorts of music and performance camps. They were so encouraging to create my own music and always enthusiastic to introduce me to the music they loved, finally sending me off to music college and then giving me their blessing to move from New York to Los Angeles. Second I owe a big thank you to my college professor Steve Ward, who taught me over multiple classes in my college career. In his courses I learned to appreciate many different styles, he taught the ins & outs of electronic music and stoked my initial interest in underscoring. He then fostered that interest with extra curricular projects and writing assignments before spring-boarding me into the music licensing field after graduating.

Website: https://www.lunarsoundproductions.com/

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

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lunarsound7562

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6fTEVTxneuSZ3ypypRPF6c?si=-_rRQlZdQaubjjLkSEMm5A