Meet Taisuke Kimura: Film and TV Composer

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

Hi Taisuke, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
“Regretting not doing something or regretting doing something. Which one would you choose?” I always ask this question to myself when I have to make big decisions. Taking risks and getting out of our comfort zone are scary but it gives us new ideas, a courage and a confidence after we take an action. When I was at the early 20’s, I had a huge car accident and had to be hospitalized for 1 month. Through this experience, I realized that I should focus on what I want to do in my life because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We live only once. I didn’t want to regret not doing what I’m interested in. So I made a big decision 10 years ago. My first job was completely non-music related and I was just a sales guy at a company back in Japan. I was pretty happy with the salary that I was getting and was enjoying what I was doing there too. But working in the music industry was always my dream and I didn’t want to regret not trying it. So I quit my job and moved to the US to study music at Berklee College of Music at the age of 27. There were many hardships such as language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of music skills compared to musical genius students around me at school. However, taking risks and being out of my comfort zone definitely made me grow. It’s been 6 years since I moved to LA from Boston and I’ve worked on Film / TV / Advertisement projects for The Walt Disney, Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and Vice Media as a composer. This never happened if I didn’t take a risk 10 years ago. So if you have something what you want to do in your mind, I recommend you to take a risk and grab the chance! 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It was not easy at all to get to where I am today and I’m still in a process of learning. But personally there are a few things that I always keep in mind. 1: Knowing who we are (Background and strengths, and what we are really interested in). 2: Having a good community and helping each other. Making music is very similar to cooking in my opinion. Even people are cooking same foods, the foods will taste different because of their different personalities (For example some people care about the details but some of them don’t) or the different food cultures they grew up with. Music is similar. Even people are playing the same piece of music, they will sound different because of their different personalities or the different music background they have. So knowing our background, personalities, what we are good at reflects our music. So I always try to keep it in mind who I am. Having a good community is very important to me. The first 2~3 years after I moved to LA were very hard for me but my friends helped me out and I always got motivated and inspired by them. We sometimes collaborate together or even share the projects. So without them, I wouldn’t be here for sure.

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?
LA has many great places for entertainment but also beautiful natures! Since I love going camping, hiking and surfing, I would love to take my friends to Point Dume in Malibu and Los Liones trail for hiking (Amazing view from the top of the hills) and Angeles National Forest for camping. Nature always give us a great energy and also inspirations as well. So I highly recommend to go into nature!

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?
There are many people I would like to dedicate my shoutout to. But especially I would like to thank my talented composer mentors, Daniel Rojas, Ian Honeyman, and Julian Scherle. When I moved to LA 6 years ago, I didn’t have any connections and also I didn’t know how this film/music industry works. But Since I met them, they’ve been helping me and inspiring me a lot and also brought me into the community/industry. Without their support, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So I can’t thank them enough!

Website: https://www.taisukekimura.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taisuke_music/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taisukekimura/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taisukekimuramusic
Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/taisukekimura

Image Credits
Tommy Saegusa (Tomikazu Karl Saegusa)