For this student spotlight interview, I interviewed Edward Barton. Edward is a fellow class of 2015 Music Composition for the Screen student and a talented singer/songwriter.

What were you doing before you before you came to Columbia?

Actually right before I came to Columbia I was working as Music Director at the Nantucket Dreamland Theater. It’s on this small island off the coast of Massachusetts, and I write music for children’s productions and I teach kids music age 5-17. Great, crazy summer job. Before that I was living in Brooklyn, piddling around and playing with my band.

Was there something that surprised you about Columbia that you didn’t know while applying?

That’s a good question but I actually don’t really have an answer. To be perfectly honest I’ve been really happy with how much of it has been exactly what I imagined and wanted it to be like.

What do you love most about film composition?

Well I’m not really sure. There’s a lot I love about it, but it’s connected to what I love about cinema itself, namely it’s intense collaborative nature. It’s not like I grew up thinking about film music. I cultivated a love for cinema that was parallel to my love for music, and now I’m attempting to cross the streams like a Ghostbuster.  I like the idea of using music to manipulate, to enhance the experience of the movie. It’s such a subtle craft, and I love how high the stakes are.

Where do you find your inspiration?

The nice thing about film music is you kind of always have something provoking a reaction in you. It’s not the same as your other music where you might be working in a vacuum from the start, just a blank, black hole you have to create in. In those cases I have no understanding of where my “inspiration” comes from. Any good idea I’ve ever had seemed to just appear fully formed, with no real labor or sophisticated line of thought. Very much a subconscious thing. But film music provides a context; The footage suggests conventions, which you can apply or subvert, however you see fit. It’s a wonderful art for that reason. You have to understand the language of film or you’ll be inspired in the wrong way. You have to serve the director.

What are you working on now?

I just released an EP of 5 songs called “Let It Lie” under the name “BoxB”. Listen to the full EP . For school we’re all over the place; Getting into notation work, imitating Bernard Hermann, scoring for all types of footage, playing music editor, adventures in electronica…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNODZwz8NjA[/youtube]