"The best place is to start with yourself and be able to trust your vision of what you want people to hear and feel from the music you have created” - Julian Gamisch
A first glance at Julian Gamisch immediately presents one with a youthful energy that is befitting to his wild eyes and expressions. Intelligent and only 22, he comes across as more worldly for that age. At the time of the interview he has just returned from a 24-day trip through Iceland, a country that has always fascinated him. He talks animatedly about his travels and his step into the “unknown”! However it is his current studies and career path that have got my attention ahead of the Icelandic adventure (which included a couch surfing stint after spending too much time sleeping in a tent attached to the back of a hired car.)
Though adventurous and exhausted from his travels, he has just one constant factor in his life which no matter how harsh the terrain is, it will never wither away. It’s a constant that has a dynamic nature, which fits him perfectly – his pursuit of music.
Music has often been described as the inner essence of the soul, the stuff that made people like Bob Dylan and bands like The Clash famous. It is one of the few mediums that has even bridged the gap between nations and helped create events as epic as Woodstock! Okay so maybe the Clash, Bob Dylan, international politics and Woodstock are not the best examples to illustrate this concept. Maybe it's not the rock star idea that this Austrian born student is seeking, perhaps its something more sophisticated, something more challenging, something that is more fitting – welcome to the life and times of musical composition with Julian Gamisch.
Conjuring a musical score is no easy feat, it’s the recipe and the scripting of the music that takes a lot of ingenuity to muster. Julian is a winner of the 2012 Gustav Mahler Award for Composition and a student at the world famous Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität in the Austrian city of Vienna, seems totally not perplexed by the challenges he will face in his future career. The degree that he is currently pursuing is classified as a Bachelor of Arts in Composition. It is not quite a forthcoming title as it unjustly does not explain all the possible career expansions that it could lead to.
“In terms of composition the best place is to start with yourself and be able to trust your vision of what you want people to hear and feel from the music you have created” says Julian. So why sidestep the mainstream hype of music, and why not venture into the stereotypical world of pop and rock? Surely the hype is appealing to any aspiring musician?
“The backbone to setting up a musical piece I find to being very interesting and open, it means I can interact with various areas as opposed to just a single instrument, which I feel allows me to be more complete in terms of my career,” motivates Julian.
Further Julian states that his intention is to allow his career to be one that contributes to society. He wants the younger generation to understand every aspect of the musical industry and see more to it than just the glitz and glamour that has been popularised in the past decades. The conversation ventures into various career options including the movie industry and how music is the key component to any film production. We also discuss the business end of creating and managing the production of music which is an area that also intrigues Julian in terms of career prospects.
Julian has a different approach to his career than most - he is looking at the overall picture within a specialised field. It is a smart approach to his future and by keeping his options open, his world has become a musical platform that is open to grow well beyond the hype of pop culture that is today’s musical scene!
With a career on the rise and a musical future to take note of…this is the life and times of musical composition with Julian Gamisch.
You can find out more about Julian and his music on his Facebook fan page!
