Ep 17: Cool People Attract Cool People (Matthew Carl Earl)

Matthew Carl Earl is the talented composer for Hexany Audio, a one-stop video game audio shop in Los Angeles, California.

Matthew has worked on several AAA titles, including Kingdom Craft and Moonlight Blade (the largest MMORPG in China).

Check out this video where he and audio director Richard Ludlow talk about their experience writing for the game.

We talk about his work with Hexany and some of the benefits of full-time employment vs. freelancing, but also talk about some really organic, practical ways to build relationships and ultimately get paying work as a composer.

My favorite quote from our conversation:

“No one [would] hire me, but I never really understood why. Looking back, I realize you need to have the appearance of a professional working composer before anyone will hire you. It needs to be very easy for people to just click play and say ‘wow, this sounds awesome.’ You need to give off the aura that you’re a working, successful composer in order to become a working, successful composer.”

Some other great takeaways are:

  • His philosophy on gear and favorite sample libraries
  • The wrong way to prospect yourself to clients
  • His organic approach to building meaningful business relationships (“Cool people attract cool people”)
  • Practical tips for building an online presence that draws people in and helps you land gigs (check out his awesome website!)

In other news, Composer Code now has a Patreon!! If you’d like to help support the show or just learn about my goals for the future, check out my Patreon here.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to give me a rating in iTunes, if you would be so kind. It helps a lot with visibility.

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