What made you interested in pursuing film music and what were some of your first steps in the industry?

I became interested in pursuing film music in high school which was around the same time I had started learning piano. I’d heard a few soundtracks that really featured the piano like Corpse Bride and Amelie, so at first I just started learning pieces from those movies for fun, but it immersed me in the soundtrack world. I would sit there for hours and download a bunch of music from other soundtracks and soon became pretty obsessed. It was pretty much all I listened to. (That, and Shakira). Then one day after seeing the same names come up over and over again it suddenly clicked, “wait…this is a job??” So I googled “how to become a film composer” and “where to study film scoring” and I never looked back! I somehow managed to get into Berklee College of Music, which at the time was the only college with an undergraduate program for film scoring in the US. I had the time of my life there and learned so much and met so many of the amazing people who would help me launch my career. 

After I graduated, I got an internship with We Are Walker, a music licensing and supervision company led by the most amazing women. It was a great place to get started and a perfect introduction to the industry. After that internship, I then worked as an assistant to a few different composers which taught me so many things, not the least of which is that there are infinite paths to working as a composer. 

It is so inspiring that you started music only in high school, and after five months of lessons, you got accepted to Berklee College of Music, and even won the Alan Silvestri Film Scoring Scholarship Award! Knowing how brilliant you are, I am certainly not surprised, but very curious about how you managed to have such a quick and successful entry to the world of music. Could you tell us about it?

I had been playing piano for 2 or 3 years before I began formal lessons, learning mainly by ear, but it’s true that I only had 5 months from the time I started those lessons until my Berklee audition! I owe my admission into Berklee (and therefore my entire career) to my former piano teacher, Kathleen Theisen. Before we found her, I had been turned away by several piano teachers due to my unconventional background and an insane 5 month deadline – I had come to her having just learned Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor by ear but not being able to sight read Mary Had A Little Lamb, so we had a LOT of work to do in a very short amount of time. She was able to meet me exactly where I was and help me prepare some awesome audition pieces while also filling in some of the major gaps in my foundation in an incredibly efficient way. She believed in me while most others thought that what I was trying to do was impossible and I’ll never forget her generosity and encouragement.

Your new album “What Lurks Beneath”, which was released in Fall 2024, was recorded in London at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios: every composer’s dream. Massive congrats! Could you tell us more about how you prepared for this triumphant milestone in your career and the role(s) you played in the sessions?

Thank you!! Getting to record in such an iconic space was truly one of the greatest highlights of my career thus far. As you very well know, there are a lot of people involved who help transform the music in my DAW into magic. After everything was composed and approved, Tracie Turnbull helped orchestrate and prep the written scores for the live musicians.

A day or two before the session, I reviewed and marked up the score for passages that I wanted to spend a little extra time on or remind myself to listen to in the room that might translate differently when played live. During the session, I mainly played the role of co-producer along with some of the Audio Network team, giving feedback to players and making sure we were achieving the sound that was in my head. I’m so pleased with how it turned out and it was an honor to have the opportunity to work with so many talented people.

When creating the delightfully unsettling tracks for this album, where did you draw inspiration from? 

Sci-Fi psychological thriller is my absolute favorite genre of music to write because even though the goal is to create a sense of otherworldliness, the emotional core of it should still feel very familiar and true to life. There’s a rawness and a vulnerability in the unsettling moments that goes beyond just “creepy.” I think we’ve all had moments in our lives where even though there’s nothing acutely wrong, and there’s no tiger running towards us that we have to fight, we can sense when something feels “off” in a situation and we can sense when there might be danger around the corner waiting for us. For this album, I wanted to focus on those types of internal tension – the moment before the jumpscare, before the battle begins, before we open the mysterious door to see what’s behind it. So I definitely drew from general life experience for a lot of the emotion, using the live piano and strings to help heighten that. And to achieve some of the sci-fi elements, I incorporated heavily processed percussion, vocal FX, and synths like the Korg Minilogue XD combined with eerie harmony. Musically, I’m a big fan of shows like Severance and Westworld which achieve those emotions seamlessly so those definitely served as inspiration for me as well. A show like those would be my ultimate dream to score! 

It looks like you will have an on-demand feature in 2025: a neo-noir femme fatale film called “The Long Game” based on the acclaimed short story by New York Times bestselling author Janet Fitch. How exciting! What can you share about the score and your collaboration with director & writer, Jace Anderson?

This score was really fun to write because I got to experiment with a new genre. The goal was to create a modern sound while still paying homage to classic noir films. They had put together this gorgeous Bond-inspired opening credits sequence which we decided to accompany with a classic sound that incorporated some of our themes and modern elements while also using more jazz instrumentation like fender bass, muted trumpet, brushed drums etc.

Jace was an absolute joy to work with. She had a clear vision of what she wanted this film to be and after we zeroed in on what our main characters should sound like musically, the whole process was super smooth. 

What advice would you give to your younger self? 

I would remind her to stay curious. It’s the best way that I know of to foster creativity, avoid burnout, and to just have fun in life. Because as it turns out, there’s a whole world out there outside of the studio!

Interview by Esin Aydingoz

Check out the directory page for Jessica Jarvis!