THE SECRETS OF SESSION MUSICIAN & MEDIA MUSIC COMPOSER, RON KOMIE
Today we’re sitting down with MEGA-MUSICIAN and all-round Mr. PERFECTO himself, multi-Emmy Award-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist, RON KOMIE.
It’s hard to stay calm in the presence of such musical ROYALTY, so while we settle in for our chat, and get comfortable on our beloved RADIOSPARX yellow-orange sofa, we’ll play one of RON KOMIE’S tracks — a passionate FLAMENCO piece featuring Spanish guitar, live brass, bass, drums and percussion, called “HOT TIJUANA NIGHTS” with its classic brass breakdown at 1.09 minutes, and its classical guitar solo coming in at 1.19 minutes.
While we listen to Ron Komie’s divine track, let’s share his bio below, so our readers can get a beat on his talent and musical awesomeness.
“California composer Ron Komie is a multi-Emmy Award-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist whose diverse and versatile music has appeared on hundreds of hit television series, films, trailers and commercials. His works include the DVF film Secret Agent (Karlie Kloss, film by John Lindbergh), The Night Before (Seth Rogan), Click (Adam Sandler), Marley & Me (Jennifer Aniston), Fever Pitch, Duck Dynasty, Jane The Virgin, Shameless, Ink Master, Pawn Stars, Amazing Race, The View, Enlightened, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Coca-Cola and KFC.”
RADIOSPARX: Welcome Ron Komie. It’s so kind of you to spare some time to talk to us. You’re an awe-inspiring part of the AUDIOSPARX-RADIOSPARX tribe, with some 3119 tracks listed with us. That’s some commitment — we celebrate you — and our clients love your musical output, forever providing them with fresh musical content for their venues and their media projects. First up, describe your day composing to us, so we can imagine you at work.
RON K: Thanks RADIOSPARX. It’s great to be here. Great question to start off with. Yes — let’s just say, I’m an early bird. I love getting up before anybody in my family is up, revving up my studio, slapping on some headphones and creating some music.
But, the funny thing is, I’m also a night owl, so I do the same sometimes late at night when everyone else is asleep. I guess, I’m a workaholic, but to me making music is not work; it’s more like personal therapy. Making music just makes me feel great, all the stress of everyday life kind of melts away when you’re in that creative zone.
Beyond that, I usually don’t have tight deadlines so I pretty much create at my own pace. When projects do have a tight deadline, I find having a little bit of that type of stress adds to the creative process.
I’m a self-motivated person so it’s easy for me to get in there and accomplish something, even if it’s just a start to a new piece of music.
So my typical day is I wake up around 7am, grab my toothbrush and big glass of water and jump right into some music. I don’t eat breakfast, so I take a lunch break at noon, quite often working while I eat.
I’m a big exercise person too, so usually around 3–4pm I knock off for a workout of some kind, either basketball with friends, bike riding along the bluffs, or rollerblading on the beach, or a hike with my wife or a friend. I’m really lucky to live in Paradise, so there are a lot of choices.
RADIOSPARX: Oh that sounds lovely. Where’s ‘Paradise’ for you?
RON K: I live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula which is near Los Angeles but also an absolute world away from it. It’s like living on an island but having access to everything LA offers within a half-hour or so, depending on traffic.
RADIOSPARX: That does sound like ‘Paradise’ — how beautiful. What a stunning part of the US to live in. What technology and software do you use?
RON K: Thanks, it is. It inspires me a great deal. My MAC tower is my main DAW. I have two satellite PCs for running all my virtual instruments (I do run a few directly on my MAC as well). I’ve invested a small fortune in virtual instruments and audio plug-ins so I have all the major ones. I also play real, physical instruments such as my guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and keyboards. I have a lot of instruments and amps to choose from when I’m doing the kind of music that calls for that.
RADIOSPARX: Brilliant. Your studio set-up sounds impressive. How do you get inspired to write music, and how does your song-writing develop to the finished product?
RON K: That’s a great question. The short answer is that it varies. I write in a lot of different ways with different approaches when I first start on a project. Sometimes it’s with a guitar in hand, other times it’s a piano, drum groove or cello/violin.
Because I was a Session and Live Guitarist before I became a composer, I almost always compose by playing an instrument rather than postulating in my head or writing down notes on staff paper.
It’s an in-the-moment thing using my hands and my ears to lead me. After that, I’m on my DAW working track-by-track to develop the orchestration and arrangement.
Once I’ve got all the chess pieces in place, I’ll start sweetening the track by adding transition FX, fine-tuning the mix, adding various plug-in effects, and checking levels. The final step is to run a mix and mastering. Once I get a stereo mix I’m happy with, I go back and start creating the necessary alternate and cut-down mixes that most of my clients need, i.e. narration, bed, DnB, 30 sec, bumper, sting; whatever is required for that particular client.
RADIOSPARX: Lovely. We get you! What’s your favorite musical style/genre?
RON K: I really like any music genre or style, at least for creating music. That’s one of the things I love most about my work, every few days is a different assignment and thus a different style to work in. It keeps things fresh and inspires new approaches to composing, which also keeps me from getting burned out. I especially love to do styles that are new to me, love the challenge and the learning from analyzing what aspects define a genre, and then building my own track based on those very specific building blocks.
RADIOSPARX: We can feel your enthusiasm Ron. It’s so lovely to hear you talk about your work. Tell us about your life, in music, growing up, your influences, your loves and any people who impacted you greatly.
RON K: I grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and Chicago, playing trumpet early on and then switching to guitar at age 13. Robert Lamm from the rock group CHICAGO, who wrote the single track “25 Or 6 To Four” — especially the guitar solo — inspired me to take up guitar, and I still love that track today.
Early influences were Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Rush, Jean-Luc Ponte, Alan Holdsworth, Led Zeppelin, Yes, The Eagles, Chicago, Rolling Stones, Lynard Skynard, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robin Trower.
I moved to LA after attending the University Of North Texas Music Program, where I majored in Jazz Guitar Performance. In time I became an in-demand session guitarist, recording with Smokey Robinson (One Heartbeat), Frank Sinatra (Duets, his second to last studio album), Dionne Warwick (Reservations For Two), Asia (Anthologia), Dolly Parton (misc. projects), David Cassidy (David Cassidy) and more.
I also played on dozens of TV shows and commercials, including Quantum Leap, Highlander, Full House, Coca Cola, & Wrigley’s Winterfresh Gum. I performed live at the Grammys with Bette Midler, lit up The Arsenio Hall Show with David Cassidy, and toured the U.S. & Japan with Keiko Matsui.
I began making the transition from studio guitarist to composing/producing for television, film and media in the early 90s. Within a few years I was composing for shows like Guiding Light, Grace Under Fire, Hang Time, and USA High. I also composed most of the TV & radio ad music for Six Flags theme parks and Speedway convenience stores, along with a myriad of projects for traditional and boutique library companies.
I definitely was deeply influenced by my parents. They had an amazing work ethic and taught me what it means to work diligently towards a goal. Beyond that, there was a guy at UNT that I met a few times in the student union. I was a Freshman and he was a Senior (I don’t even know his name), but he showed me this mind-blowing concept to learn and master every inch of the guitar fretboard. That really opened up my mind to mastering guitar. After college I was playing in a local top 40 band in Dallas and the trumpet player for the band suggested I move to LA, he thought I’d do well there. That was great advice, and when he said it, something clicked. Within a couple months I was on my way to LA and never looked back.
RADIOSPARX: WOW, Ron, we’re really in the presence of MUSIC ROYALTY talking to you. It’s fantastic hearing your story. These must all be such wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing them with us. Can you tell us how you approach the business side of your composing life?
RON K: Thanks, yes — they were good times. On business in Music, I used to always be marketing myself, making new contacts and networking. I remember when I moved to LA, I asked everybody I knew at UNT if they knew any musicians in LA, and by the end I had a list with about 100 names on it.
When I got to LA I started calling people on the list, and out of those 100 about 10–15 were receptive, and 3–5 turned into career changing mentors or friends.
One in particular, Pat Coil (an amazing pianist living in Nashville now) helped me break into the LA recording scene. These days I don’t do nearly as much networking, but now and then I do reach out to new people and try to build new relationships. I’m at the point now where I’m trying to just enjoy life more and let things come to me. I do try to stay on top of new trends and styles, figure out what genres are being used the most in television programming, and analyze my royalty statements to understand what’s getting used and what’s not so I can adjust my priorities here and there.
RADIOSPARX: It sounds like you are living the life, Ron. Wonderful. What would you advise a young person getting started in the music industry? How can they be different yet authentic in an overcrowded yet amazing industry?
RON K: That’s a good question. The industry has changed so much since I started out! Even back then you needed to have entrepreneurial skills but I think in today’s music world it’s even more critical.
Of course, social media is probably the most important marketing tool young musicians have at their disposal, but if I were young now, I would be looking very closely at utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in whatever way possible. As far as style, always stick to who you are and what you do best. If you try and please everyone you’ll please no one. Try to find a way to be unique, nobody wants generic music because there’s already a ton of mediocre generic music out there. Do something bold and different, yet find a way to make it work in the medium you’re in.
RADIOSPARX: That’s fantastic advice Ron. Really helpful and inspiring and we agree with you. Are you on the side of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in life and music? It sounds like you are. Can you elaborate a little bit more on using AI in music. Should musicians embrace AI to aid their composition of their music?
RON K: It’s not even a question of being for or against AI, because AI is happening whether we like it or not. You can either bury your head in the sand and ignore it or embrace it as another tool to use in your workflow. I choose the latter. I recently researched the available AI music tools out there and, at least for composing, the technology isn’t there yet. But I’m sure that in a few months that could all change so I’m keeping on top of it.
RADIOSPARX: Thanks Ron for sharing your life in composing with us. We love your enthusiasm and your tracks — all 3000 plus of them — are superlative in their quality. You’re a natural born composer-performer, and a storyteller too. Fantastic.
Check out RON KOMIE’S portfolio of tracks below, and license him for your MEDIA PRODUCTIONS at AudioSparx — https://www.audiosparx.com/RonKomie
And get his music for your business venue by signing up for a 14-DAY FREE TRIAL. https://www.radiosparx.com/RonKomie
‘In Conversation’ is the RADIOSPARX magazine on MEDIUM. Check out the RADIOSPARX — About Us Video here: Change Your Music, Change Your Life with RADIOSPARX.
