Meet Noga Kedem | Film and Theater Music Composer

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

Hi Noga, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
For me personally every moment of my career was a risk. Nothing was promised, if not even – was assumed to fail by many people among the way. I had a weird and even unsuspected path, slowly covering my voice and earning my skills. It was with the help of the specific people who believed in me that I decided to take one risk after another and spend all my resources towards this goal of writing music for the screen world-wide. In a way risk is Inevitable when it comes to art of all kinds, there’s no one path you can take and for sure arrive. But with me I feel like at many points for an outside watcher there was no reason to believe in me, until I put the work, believed, took the risk, and surprised them and even my self of how capable I actually was. I always tended to say yes to projects I understand almost nothing about, knowing that my way of thinking and analytical thinking will lead me through. Well – not nothing – but, thinking back, projects I wasn’t already ready for, but actually learned a new musical style or a new work method throughout the project and not before. Always just jumping right in. That pattern repeated many times in my career, and mostly brought success. Risks drive me.

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 Music tends to be, in many cases, heavy and dramatic. And by that I don’t necessarily mean big – but deep, like it’s caring a baggage. Through my music I have an outlet for my feelings and thoughts I cary with me from my past. In my best pieces you can hear them come through even if I didn’t plan on it. I’m mostly passionate about topics that matter, specifically topics that I relate to, but also any other social movement or story that should be talked about and should be out in the world. I learned so much myself while growing up from TV series and movies I watched, many times a story from a series was my only source of inclusivity, and made me feel less alone, mostly regarding LGBTQ and teenager’s experiences. Today I also feel deeply passionate about contributing to art related to peace and human rights, and talking through music the consequences of war, that I experienced as a child.
My path was never easy at all. I’m the fighter kind, I always felt that everything is so hard when it comes to me but I kept going and ended up in a very respectful spot with great achievements for my age. Many people didn’t believe in me but also many people supported me and believed… I started as a classical choir singer, so I don’t have the background of a piano player or a violin player. I slowly learned to play the piano and the guitar in different stages of my life. I also had a progressive metal band through middle school and high school and the style influences my music to this day. When I was 19 I stopped singing opera and decided that I wanted to *make* music and not just perform for my career – like I did in my band, and I want to make music that’s more relevant to our time. I started writing songs but very quickly realized that film music is my best direction to go with, it’s what I do best, and what I’m curious about the most.
If I need to sum up the way I got here – I will say that it’s all about luck but you have to be ready for when you’ll get lucky. So I studied a lot, and practiced a lot, seriously A-Lot. I’m the hustling kind when it comes to film music and musical theory. In a way, I had to, since I’m a singer in my past. But I do believe that for anyone this field involves a lot of studying and practice.
One more thing to say it that I always worked through meaningful human connections and found my next project through that. Where I really fit – I flourish. And where I didn’t I didn’t push it. The true good friendships are the moving force of this industry, since art is about people.
I would want the world to know that I put everything I have in. Always. I moved across the ocean, I took the biggest risks. I’m also fun but mostly I’m all about doing anything it takes, working closely together, and getting to the root of a story, a movie, a score, to make it really precise and unique. No compromises.

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?
Ok so for a morning coffee we would definitely do Lo/cal in Santa Monica on Pico Blvd., as a start for the day. There’s a back yard super quiet and sunny. Then we would take a nice touristic bike ride at Venice beach. Lunch will be Tu Madre – Fusion Mexican, and for dinner with the best cocktails, we’ll go to The Wellesbourne (W Pico Blvd.).
If my friend is here for a week we’ll also probably choose a drinks place on Main street Santa Monica.
I also really like “Button Mash” and “Bar Henry” – just next to each other. Also if the friend is a musician then Shoutout to all SCL events – we’ll probably find one to go to.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Wow so many people!!
Do I have to choose one?
If I have to choose one it’ll be Mark Yaeger, the amazing composer and partner for creation, for believing in me, and being the most amazing example for professionalism, hard work, and enjoying the ride. he’s a giver, and also very talented, breathes and eats and sleeps music, and dedicated to collaborations and letting new talents in. A filmmaker working with Mark will enjoy the best of the best of professionalism, dedication, and heart.

Under the same umbrella – there are so many people who I seriously owe my career to and should have a giant shoutout. So I’ll give just one more to Sharon Farber – a mentor and a friend, super talented composer. Shoutout for standing up for women in this industry, and for being a super-woman and super-composer, a problem solver, nothing can stop her, always on the optimistic side.

Another one to Varun Vaibhav – Varun is a film producers, an omnipotent, a man with endless solutions and endless time even when he has no time at all. No person will bring your project to life like him. Thank you for walking this path with me.

and of course – shoutout to the Scoring for Film program in Berklee Valencia. Thank you so, so much.

Instagram: noga_kedem

Other: noga.kedem@gmail.com

Image Credits
Valerie Mok, Tato Baeza, Mark Yaeger