I'm an American composer for film, television and video games, and a session and live drummer for radio and records.
As an international speaker and author, I'm passionate about talking to Creatives about the convergence of art and business and the strategies behind building a thriving and profitable creative enterprise as an artist.
I'm the founder and editor-in-chief of SCOREcast, the popular online consortium of worldwide film music and post-production professionals.
I author the creative resource The Conversation, which is distributed monthly to more than 550 subscribers across all disciplines of the creative arts space.
My company, Deane Ogden Creative, Inc., is a global organization that handles my music projects and advocacy endeavors, and also administers my Imaginator Music production library throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
My buddy, composer/producer Steve Ouimette (who I recently sat on a panel with at the 2012 NAMM show), initiated a conversation a week or so ago on Facebook about the legendary rock band Queen. In particular, he referred to the recent rumors that eighth season American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert might be fronting a few upcoming gigs for the group. The reaction to this news, as you might imagine, has been mixed. While Lambert certainly has a fanbase, the majority of comments are coming from longtime Queen fans, and especially fans of the late Freddie Mercury, the band's original lead vocalist and co-writer of some of Queen's greatest hits. Upon the news breaking in a UK newspaper two weeks ago, people all over the globe have weighed in on the social webs, calling Lambert's alleged appointment everything from "sacrilegious" and "an absolutely horrible choice", and making statements like, "Freddie is...
Today, I officially started preparing for the gig of my life. When I was younger, I thought the gig of my life would be to play in a rock band and tour around the planet. Pretty hilarious. After that, I thought the gig of my life would be to score a primetime network television show. Then I thought the gig of my life would be if I could somehow manage to convince someone to let me score their feature film. And then... and then... and then... We are an ever-hopeful people... we Creatives. "The next one" is always going to be the one that is going to make it all come together for us. That's not a bad thing... as Creatives, we are wired that way. Creators don't tire of creating. If we do, then we aren't really balls-to-bone Creators, we're hobbyists. Totally different. The gig of your life might be...
Something interesting took place in a Facebook chat last night with a friend of mine who is an accountant at a big tech firm in New York City. In other words, he's a non-Creative. During a discussion about US politics, he said to me, "You are an artist, though. Everyone knows that artists are highly uneducated about national politics, and if you say you are, then it's only from the perspective of your left-leaning media bias." As an artist, am I uneducated? Ill-informed? Ehh… I wouldn't say that. I know what's going on. I know what's up. I pay attention, I listen, I watch—and probably more than a lot of people do, artistic or not. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I am "uneducated" about issues. However, I will say that I do tend to be fairly detached from such goings-on. Put more simply: I don't really give...
I'll get back to the composer tips tomorrow, but I wanted to sneak in a recap of what I've been up to creatively this last year. 2012 is already poised to kick 2011's lovin' ass right out of memory, so here's what's unfolded over the last 12 months around here... Deane Ogden Music » Asia I spent nine months out of 2011 in places like in Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Argentina, Singapore, and even Amsterdam expanding my music company to international world markets. I launched DOM/Asia this year, and we are now producing music for shows that air on both the StarWorld Asia and AXN Asia networks, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the talented people who are partnering with me to build this new extension of creative output. Jabang Tetuko One of the more extensive and rewarding projects of my year was "Jabang Tetuko"—the world's first interactive wayang theatrical performance—which combined live action,...
I once heard film composer James Horner in an interview defending the notorious allegation that he often reuses his own material. As his defense, Horner chose this statement: "There are only twelve tones. Eventually you are going to have to use combinations of the same ones again. It is inevitable." I've always found that to be an interesting way to think of it. I'm not sure I agree—while theoretically possible, I don't suppose we are likely to run out of possible musical combinations using the tones available, at least in our lifetimes. If you were to start thinking about semitones, incremental musicology, and (my personal favorite) polyrhythms, it's just not that likely. But a discussion of those variables in music isn't what I want to focus on today. The Thread One of my mentors (and a core member of my brain trust) says, "The most important part of creating something...
