You recently premiered Happy, Indeed, Is She!, a work of Christian choral music. How did that project come about?

Growing up in a Southern Gospel church, Christian music has always been a part of my life, from singing in the choir that my mother directed to playing violin in the worship band. Today, I sing in a liturgical Catholic Church choir that is ridiculously talented, and I was honored to have the opportunity to write a piece for them. It was a very unique experience because the ages of the choir members span from 14 to 70s and the musical backgrounds ranged from intermediate to professional. It was an exciting exercise to write something that all people in the choir could sing and could also be challenged by. In honor of the church’s patron saint, St. Clare of Assisi, the prose came from her fourth letter to Agnes of Prague right before St. Clare died. I was also able to write a very involved piano accompaniment with the encouragement of the director Stephen Eros to compose more demanding music for him to play. As he said, “There’s often a race to the bottom for writing simple, easy piano parts. Write something interesting, and I’ll work to play it beautifully.” 

How did you become part of the Alliance for Women Film Composers and how has it helped your career?

In my senior year at the University of Georgia, I was taking an electronic music composition course, and alumni Heather McIntosh came to guest teach a class. She had just finished the score for Z for Zachariah and talked us through the process of scoring a film. That was the first time I realized that film scoring was an achievable career path. My bachelor’s degree was in classical composition, and I decided after that class that I wanted to pursue film scoring, as well. She truly set me on the path that I am on today. She encouraged me to join the AWFC, and once I finished my bachelor’s at UGA then my master’s at the University of Texas, I joined the Alliance. The AWFC has helped me in so many ways. I have attended many of the virtual Inside Sessions and was able to participate in the AWFC Care Program with Alev Lenz as my mentor. She helped me navigate life as a working composer and a mom.

I have never worked with a composer who is living on an active military base. How has the military lifestyle impacted your composing career?

We have moved many, many times, sometimes staying for a few years and sometimes for just a few months. My husband is sometimes home and sometimes not, so having a set schedule to compose is difficult. It creates challenges to prioritize composing amidst the chaos of our day-to-day and our year-to-year. But, it means that when I sit down to write, I am focused, because I know a myriad of things could interrupt at a moment’s notice. I have also become very well-versed in meeting new people and learning how to network in order to set down roots. Living on an active duty military base, there are a lot of people from other countries and cultures that have introduced me to various styles and genres of music. 

Because you have lived in several locations around America not always associated with filmmaking, how do you go about connecting with filmmakers?

Being born and raised in Georgia and having most of our military duty stations be in the South, I have had an amazing opportunity to work with a lot of Southern filmmakers. Networking in the areas around where I live and traveling to film festivals has been crucial to putting myself out there. I have met many directors at festivals, such as the Atlanta Film Festival, the Indie Memphis Film Festival, and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. The rest of my projects I have actually connected with the directors through crowdfunding sites. Knowing that most of the places I have lived and will live are nowhere near film hubs, I have become very creative with finding projects online.

You have scored several sci-fi projects, such as Sirona, Viciously Erratic, and Cold Light. Is that a genre you feel drawn toward?

Definitely! Sci-fi is such an interesting genre because you have the ability to explore sounds that you would not typically find in traditional scores. My favorite starting place is to find ordinary household objects, like shovels, dough cutters, and wooden tongs, and record tapping, bowing, and banging them together, before editing them into new sonorities. Each project’s world is so unique, so it almost forces me to create unique palettes for each one. Thankfully, the directors that I have worked with in particular have been very open to letting me experiment. Sirona: Valkyrie’s Shadow is currently in production, and I’m excited to push the film score even farther and bigger than the first installation.

What advice would you give a younger Rachel?

Put yourself out there. You can’t work on projects if people don’t know you exist. A composition career involves a lot more hustling than you think. Also, don’t always buy the newest and shiniest thing, ie: sound libraries and hardware. That doesn’t necessarily make you a better composer. What makes you a better composer is being fluent with the hardware and software you already have. And finally, don’t be afraid to set boundaries for both work and life. Make sure you stay focused and work hard during your work hours, but when you’re off, focus on the rest of your life.

Interview by Valerie Manahan

Check out Rachel’s directory page here!