From Hollywood-to-Classical, Cross-Genre Composer Danielle Eva Schwob Redefines "Composer" Today
My guest today is Danielle Eva Schwob. The New Yorker hails her as a “notable cross-genre composer”, who writes concert works, experimental electro-rock, and film scores.
I think many listeners should care about her work because she is redefining what it means to be a "serious composer". Notable presenters have featured her work, like Lincoln Center and Le Poisson Rouge, and she has received commissions from the American Composers Forum and New Music USA.
But unlike many composers who run in these circles, she has her finger on the pulse of music for big name Hollywood movies. She's worked on the music team for Manhattan Night starring Adrien Brody, and the film Mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence.
She has also worked on projects in conjunction with major entities like Google, IMAX, Hulu, and CBS.
As I like to do in these podcasts, I ask artists about where they find inspiration, how they retain energy for success, and what they're currently working on. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Danielle Eva Schwob.
The below transcript is edited and reduced for clarity. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms.
Finding Inspiration from Immersive Art
Jonathan Eifert: Let's talk about your style icons and where you derive inspiration. I was watching some of your videos online and they are really beautiful. I'm assuming you probably have quite a lot to say in terms of aesthetics and where you find inspiration.
Danielle Eva Schwob: We're essentially creating for the internet. I think music is attached to visuals, perhaps even more so than ever before. We rarely really consume sounds anymore without some kind of imagery attached to it. And I suppose I started becoming interested in it purely because it was necessary. I was starting to release music and we had to have visuals to go along with it in the way of photos and little animated pieces for socials and videos. And over time, I came to think of it as a means of expression and world-building.
Looking back, I've always been very influenced by film and by large immersive productions that people put together that really bring an audience in and take them somewhere outside of their day-to-day life.
I think that was something that I was really trying to hone within my own visual language. I don't know whether I've been successful at it or not yet. I think it's starting to coalesce into something that is along the lines of what I envisioned.
I grew up going to art museums. My parents dragged us to a lot of galleries and museums.
My mom was a fashion designer and so there were always interesting bits of design and art around.
JE: So there's been a lot of different threads of inspiration in your life?
DES: I find it so funny now that it's really only recently that people have wanted to talk to me about any of the visuals that have been built around these projects. And I think when I was in the trenches making everything it was always putting these pieces together purely to serve the music.
Then over time it's become something that's its own entity.
JE: Why do you think that is? Do you have any kind of theories on why the visual aspect attached to the music is gaining attention?
DES: That's just how we consume music now. It's all made for the internet. It's as much in front of your eyes as it is in your ears. I think the funnier thing is just that I never really intended to do this. It just happened accidentally. So the question for me, that I'm still trying to wrap my head around is exactly how this happened or why.
JE: Have there been specific design/fashion movements or aesthetic theories that have really influenced you?
DES: I think every once in a while you encounter a piece of art or a piece from a designer or something that really changes your perspective.
I'm very interested in installation art like immersive and experiential -- projects where you enter into a space and you're really transformed and taken somewhere else.
At Tate Modern in Britain, there was an installation where everything was red -- a red couch, a red clock, a weird red ink stain that sort of spilled around the corner and led to this black nothingness space. There was a red telephone...
It sounds funny when you recount it, but when you're actually in that space I feel like those pieces make you think about what reality is and what spaces can be.
When you're going about your day-to-day life, you sit in your apartment, you go to a cafe. All of these things look very conventional and repetitive. When you enter into a really creative installation, it makes you think, why do the things that we do everyday look the way they do? Why can't they look like something else?
Another piece that had a huge impact on me was the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach. I got to see the touring production of that in 2011 or 2012 at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
I think fashion designers influence me, too. I went to see the McQueen retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was another exhibition that really was very impactful. And I've always liked Vivian Westwood, Gareth Pugh, and designers who are on the avant-garde side of things, but still have pieces in their collections that are very wearable.
I like those people because they push the boundaries of what clothing can be and where the line is between art and function.
I just like people who aren't afraid to really do something different and have a vision and the guts and the conviction to follow through with it.
Pan's Labyrinth had a huge impact on me when I saw it. I like things that just take you out of your day-to-day life and place you in a world that is somewhere else.
Wellness Through Nature and Meditation
JE: Let's talk about wellness and your dream day, your happy place. What do those look like?
DES: I like to be in nature. If I'm working, I'm happiest when I'm somewhere that has a view of the trees. I tend to get up, meditate, and make a smoothie. Then maybe sit outside for a few minutes. I go inside and write in the mornings. I find that my most productive hours are before noon.
JE: How about energy? Is there anything in particular that energizes you that really brings you focus or excitement about life and wanting to go on?
DES: I find this when I'm meditating regularly. I don't mean sitting for hours and hours a day. I just mean when I'm in the habit of getting up every morning, spending 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening just centering myself, feeling focused, and quieting the chaotic stuff that kicks around in your brain when you're someone who lives in the city and is busy.
Success is Like a Goalpost that Keeps Moving
JE: Success. What does that mean to you?
DES: I think the honest answer to that is it's a fleeting thing. I feel like most of my musician friends, or my friends who are in creative industries feel the same way. The goalpost keeps moving. So whenever you achieve something, you feel really great about that for a few days or however long.
We're in a world where it's perpetually like what's the next video? What's the next record? What are you doing next?
I feel we've all come a long way and that we should be very excited about what we've done, but always be moving forward at the same time.
I think success has to do with being able to walk the line between the stuff that you really want to do -- your own passion projects -- and the things that you need to do in order to be able to support those.
I think I'm happiest when I have a balance of the two and you're perpetually swinging back and forth. I think both of those pursuits feed off one another, too. I Success for me is just having all of that in balance.
JE: I get that. Balance is the key. Otherwise it can be very difficult and you don't find peace.
DES: And of course it's just being able to support yourself and consistently put out work that you're proud of. And for me, explore different areas of music, too.
New Album, Out of the Tunnel
JE: Let's talk about your new album just released, Out of the Tunnel. Give us a rundown of what this is all about and why people should listen?
DES: The album title is named after the string quartet I wrote, which is the centerpiece of the record. It’s a project that I did in collaboration with PUBLIQuartet, which is an incredible string group who are as at home, playing jazz and improvising as they are playing a beautiful Phillip Glass string quartet. It's been wonderful working with them.
While the project centers around that piece, there are other works on the album. A lot of harp pieces that I've written in collaboration mostly with Ashley Jackson, who's a harp player that I work with a lot. And then there are a few trios for harp, solo piece, and a duo.
There's also a set of three solo pieces that are actually inspired by the self portraits of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and David Hockney. To bring things full circle and start talking about visuals again, there are three distinct chapters of the album that really underscore the concept of self-reflection.
I called it Out of the Tunnel because that piece was written just after I had moved to LA, which after having lived in New York (for around 13 years), it was quite a turbulent experience. It felt very much like an intense chapter of personal change and transformation.
But I knew that if I stayed the course at the end, I would come out as a different person, change my life, and experience new things. I guess that's what I thought of the tunnel as representing. It was that process of going from here to there knowing that perhaps things are a little turbulent for the time being, but there's light up ahead and that you're coming out of it.
I think that also wound up being broadly applicable to the pandemic, because I think we've all been in a bit of a tunnel.
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Listen to Out of the Tunnel, available now.
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