1. First of all, we’re very grateful that you shared your compositions with us. What was your inspiration to compose music like this? Do you remember why you started composing in the first place, or did it just kind of happen?

 

     I've always been interested in music and I picked up a composition program one day and started writing and it sounded really good. I've always been a fan of Owl City and this song has always had an impact on me emotionally so I thought I'd arrange this one just to have, and then I got the opportunity to share it with everyone and that's really cool.

 

2. Can you tell us anything about your music experience outside of composing? How have these experiences affected your own arrangements, and to what extent does music affect your everyday life?

 

     I play trumpet in Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Marching Band, so I’ve been exposed to all kinds of music. I’ve written a lot of different styles of music because of that. I’ve worked on transcribing, like with Vanilla Twilight, and I’ve done a few marches, some slower pieces, and the occasional rock tune. Music is big for me. I’ve always been able to connect a lot of songs I listen to with some part of my life, and honestly music has made the biggest impact on who I am as a person, outside friends and family.

 

3. What was your process while writing this piece (Vanilla Twilight)? Did you have a structured method to how you arranged this, or was your method more improvised?

 

     I had to get the chords done first. That was the most important part. I needed a little outside help with that, but once I got that done everything else just fell into place. I made the melody switch between the trumpet and clarinet voices because Vanilla Twilight is basically a love song (lyrics here), and I had the voices “talk” to each other back and forth like they were both singing the song in different places and the song is switching back and forth between them, similar to the way a music video would. That was something I thought of in the middle of arranging it, like “You know what would be cool...?”

 

4. Lastly, do you have any plans for future arrangements? Do you see your style changing much in the future, or do you plan on it remaining pretty constant for the time being?

 

     Most of my pieces I come up with on the spot or from something I played on the piano that sounded cool, so I don’t plan out anything really. Most of my compositions are on Noteflight, an online music writing community under the usernames "JJ Lubs" and "JJ Lubs 2" and I just get feedback on everything I share to help my music writing skills grow. I don’t really have a “style” since all my songs are different so if I do change it’ll probably be me deciding on one type of music to write, but I don’t really see that happening.