Find Luciano at
Soundcloud
Bandcamp
BREIF LIST OF CREDITS:
Pursuit of Truth, OverDose, Catathrenia, Shadow of Cicero
Tell us a little about yourself and what you do for a living?
Hi, I’m Luciano Giacomozzi, I’m a composer and a devoted family man for a living. I write music mainly for films, television and video games but have been known to produce and write for bands and other artists from genres of all kinds. I also tutor music and graphic design occasionally. I am one half of the up and coming trailer/film music studio, Divine Deed Studios with good friend and fellow composer, Tom Stoffel (great and very talented guy! Check him out! Seriously.)
What is your niche or speciality, that makes you stand out from rest of the audio professionals?
My speciality is writing music that is influenced by years of traveling in Europe, inspired by times I’ve spent listening for hours to music of fiery fiestas of Southern Spain and music blared from Ford Fiestas in London. I’m a huge fan of melodies and I think that reflects in my music. All I really do when I write music is transcribe my emotion to audio. I feel that’s pretty niche, as everyone has slightly, if not completely, different emotions even when faced with the same view.
Can you give us a brief summary of the equipment you use regularly?
I use a Mac Mini with a dual screen set up. I have a Tascam US-144 mk II with Fostex PM0.5 MKII monitors and sub woofer, beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones and an old casio keyboard (yes, an old casio keyboard!)
What are your go-to plug-ins and software? (virtual instruments, audio processing etc.)
I run Cubase 5 (hell yeah, I’m old school!) with Kontakt 5 and Reaktor as my main go-to sampler/synth. My go-to Virtual instruments are Spitfire Albion I, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, SoundIron’s Olympus Elements, Eduardo Tarilonte’s Forest Kingdom (hoping to upgrade soon!), Embertone Chapman Trumpet, Cinesamples CineOrch, VSL Epic Horns and Strings, Strezov’s Storm Choir plus millions of little extras from SoundIron, 8Dio, Embertone, Waves Factory, CineSamples, Strezov Sampling, Sonokinetic, SimpleSam Samples, Spitfire and a whole host of others, I cannot think of! For audio plugins, literally such a vast amount, it’s always whatever sounds best with the track.
When do you find you are most creative?
I find I’m generally at my most creative when I have had an eventful week. If I’m ever writing and I get stuck or it just stops flowing, I take time out, spend time with my family or go for a walk in the beautiful area of England in which I live. The wonderful atmosphere helps me rekindle that creative flare. I don’t believe that I should be tied down to solely writing music during a day and getting out to do something really helps pace the imagination.
What is your usual process for creating audio content for games, films etc.?
If it’s scoring to picture, I usually watch the film through several times and the music just flows depending on how the film makes me feel. For other things, I find the concept art for the area in the game that evokes the most passion and I write music with that. I’ll start with a basic template, but I like to pick and choose the instruments at the beginning of a project, then use the instrumentation throughout the game or film by creating a template from that initial track.
Are there any particular secrets to your creativity?
I could tell you… But as they say, a musician never reveals his secrets. Truth be told, I just compose or put together whatever comes from the emotion. My imagination leads me into battle!
Do you have any audio creation techniques that resulted in something interesting?
I’ve created a few very interesting booms, stings and reverses using nothing but a bass guitar and an old chinese serving dish. Ran them through many filters, including amplitude and a host of Cubase’s built in plugins.
Any specific “lessons learned” on a project that you could share?
I started on a film when I had just ventured into composing which was a great film, small budget short but amazing. The problem occurred when I turned in the first tracks. The director asked me to completely change some aspects of what I’d written. I was a little angry but I did. I came back with new tracks and then he told me to change something else. This pattern happened a few more times before I got extremely mad with the whole thing, I took offence and felt this as an insult on my own talent, not wanting to copy the temp track. I decided to leave the project and left them, wishing them good luck. In hindsight, with so much more experience under my belt, I understand that as a composer, I needed to respect him and help him achieve his vision. It just the director explaining how they wanted their imagery to sound. I learnt from that and I feel that you should never give up and try to understand the director as much as possible.
Any tips, hints or motivational speeches for the readers?
NEVER try to force creativity but ALWAYS hammer home your work to companies and individuals, persistence will always pay off no matter how hard you try. Once you have a lead, keep at it and the rest will follow. Secondly, never compromise your morals or your ethics for anything. Always keep them firmly at your forefront and if any project tries to make you put them aside for money, leave. There will always be another project.