Interview with Sid De La Cruz

I graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Music Composition. There I studied Classical music, jazz, Latin jazz, African Drumming, Asian Gamalan, Electronic music and of course all the essential music courses such as, music history, music theory, conducting, ear training, etc. After graduating, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was offered a scholarship at Claremont Graduate University. There, I received my Master’s Degree in Music Composition. During my last semester at Claremont, I was attending UCLA’s Film Scoring program, where I was the fortunate recipient of the BMI / Jerry Goldsmith Film Scoring Scholarship.

Tell us about your career
I started off by composing music for short films. Later, I interned at Remote Control Productions, Hans Zimmer’s studio and I also interned with Trevor Morris. I was eventually hired and started working with Trevor. I learned a lot working there. Then I began working on feature length films and well… here I am.

Did you study music or film scoring
I actually studied both. I studied music at San Jose State University and Claremont Graduate University then I studied film scoring at UCLA.

Describe your process as a film composer
like to watch the entire movie so I can understand the story, the characters, etc. As I am watching the movie, I am thinking of musical ideas and taking mental notes. Once I get an idea of the overall movie, I start composing. Some composers like to start writing music at different points / cues of the movie. I like to start from beginning to end. That helps me stay organized.

Who is your greatest inspiration
I am a fan of all types of music so inspirations comes from all over. I enjoy listening to classical music, jazz, Latin jazz, rock, pop, dance, hip-hop, country, foreign music (world music), film music. I think it’s a good idea to be familiar with a lot of genres. There are different types of movies that call for different styles of music. Learning differently styles of music will help you in the long run.

How would you describe the influences of your work
My influences come from a lot of places. Depending on the type of movie I am working on, I like my music to be full of energy. I love working with rhythms, harmonies, and melodies. Dealing with these aspects of music, I feel that my rhythms come from jazz, Latin jazz, hip-hop, dance, foreign music, my harmonies and melodies come from classical music. That is not to say that my music only sounds like these genres. My influences are inspired by these genres and many more.

Star Wars The Froce Awakens Kylo Ren Vs. Finn Re-Scored by Sid De La Cruz from Sid De La Cruz on Vimeo.

What books do you read, do you talk at seminars
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of free time to read a book. I wish I did. Any free time that I get, I try to learn more about music so I can improve and get better or I am at the gym. I love working out. The gym is a place where I like to go and clear my thoughts. It’s just me and my music. I don’t take my cell phone to the gym.

I have not given any seminars; however, I have recently been invited to Mexico to give a seminar at the, “Universidad de Guadalajara” on film composing. The date is to be determined.

How do you go about a project
It depends on the project. Every project is different. Some filmmakers like to have a lot of control over their movie and other film makers like to give me a lot of creative freedom.

Tell us about your near misses, failures and successes
haha my failures, there are too many. Without my failures, I feel that it would be difficult for me to achieve any level of success. I truly do learn from my experiences. There was a movie that I was not able to finish the entire score. I felt really bad because I felt that I left everyone down. Fortunately, everything work out in in end but that is a failure that I do not ever want to repeat.

A success was, when I was at the premier of a movie I worked on and at the end of the movie, a lot of people came up to me and congratulated me on the score. These were people that I had no idea who they were but they knew who I was. They knew my name. It was an amazing feeling. At that moment, I knew that the score was a success and it did it’s job.