Rhythm Couture is home to many talented musicians, and Jen-Shuo Chen is the latest up and coming artist set to make big waves within the music licensing industry. We recently sat down with him to discuss his recent signing with Rhythm Couture, and got to know him on an up close and personal level.
What is your name, and where are you from? Hello! My name is Jen-Shuo Chen, I’m from Taipei, Taiwan.
When did you start in the music industry, and what type of music do you create?
I started as a bass player 7 years ago, I played metal, jazz, funk, indie and almost any kind of music. After playing in several bands and recording sessions, I decided to move to film scoring in 2015. Which combines 2 of my favorite things, music and movies! So I prepared for a year and got into UNC School of the Arts to study Film Music Composition and got my master degree. Those experiences from band to classical make me able to analyze and write in almost any genres, being able to do this is one of my goals as well, because you’ll never know what your client wants for their films. As a TV composer in Taiwan, being able to write in different styles definitely helps a lot. For my personal projects, I recently wrote a lot of orchestral classical and electronic hybrid minimalism, ambient music.
What do you feel is the importance of music in today’s media, such as YouTube, television, film, etc? Music is a part of storytelling in films for almost a hundred years. The music style has changed so much after these years, but giving the emotional support for film is always the main role of film music. No matter from YouTube video to blockbuster movies, music is always a nice carrier to convey the emotions and subtexts. But in the meantime, music should not overtake the scene, the main character should always be the film itself, unless it's on purpose. For production music, from my music editor experience, I think it’s important to have sections in your music, it’s much easier to edit with one track with several sections, instead of puzzling so many different tracks and trying to make them sound like a piece of music.
What would you say is your biggest accomplishment and why? I majored in transportation management in college, after I graduated, I changed my path to a totally different direction: music. In these 7 years of studying in the US and transferring to the music industry is the best journey that I ever have. I met a lot of people, learned how to refine my writing, tried so many ways to build my brand and get clients. Most importantly, I finally realized what it feels like to work with passion. Until now, I got invited back to Taiwan to write music for TV series, also be part of Rhythm Couture, and make a living with my favorite job. I’m very happy where I am now and excited to see where this journey is going to take me!
What upcoming projects are you working on, and any last words for the Rhythm Couture audience? I’m writing music for an upcoming thriller series from Taiwan. TV thrillers are very rare in Taiwan, and they let me experiment with so many soundscapes ideas, so I’m very excited to see how it turns out! Rhythm Couture always keeps a close relationship with we composers and songwriters, and they really value our works. I'm really happy to work with them! Since they treat their collaborators so well, they will definitely serve your projects like their own baby and give you the best music options to help you! And we composers are dedicating to upload much more and more music regularly, so you will always have new music to pick up from here!