Don't stay in your lane!

17 December 2022

I’ve been re-listening to the soundtrack of the Netflix original series Maniac. The composer Dan Romer absolutely nailed the tone and spirit of the show, and I’ve been trying to learn more about him and his approach - which lead to me to listen to an interview he did on Score: The Podcast S4E9

It’s a great discussion, but this segment particularly stood out to me:

“I get the question fairly often, ‘I want to be a film composer, what do I do?’ The thing I always say is, just learn to be a musician. Learn to do every part of the music process. Don’t look film scoring in the eye.

I never intended to make film music. If you say that all you want to do is score films or video games or TV, those jobs aren’t everywhere - especially for aspiring composers. So you need to figure out your jobs. You might not become a film composer,… but you might become something else.

It is a lot better for your life, career and creativity to say, ‘I just want to make things. It’s going to happen however it’s going to happen, but I can’t control that so I am just going to do my best whenever I can.’”

I love where he advises not to look film scoring in the eye, but to simply “make things”. This reminded me of a snippet from Keep Going by Austin Kleon:

“Job titles can mess you up. Job titles, if they’re taken too seriously, will make you feel like you need to work in a way that befits the title, not the way that fits the actual work.

Job titles can also restrict the kinds of work that you feel like you can do. If you only consider yourself a “painter,” then what happens when you want to try out writing? If you only consider yourself a “filmmaker,” what happens when you want to try sculpting?”

This thinking translates to product design where I see the best designers, PMs, and engineers borrow thinking and processes from other disciplines. The way to mastery is not staying in your lane!