Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Mohr.
Hi Jon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’m Jon, and I was born and raised in the general Dayton area. My dad gave me a digital piano while I was in elementary school, but I didn’t take to it for a while. However, in 6th grade, I decided to go from zero to a hundred and learn a piano version of Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark and perform it for my music class (I hadn’t done much practice beforehand, nor had any formal lessons). In the same year, I wrote my first song—nearly 9 minutes in length and very inconsistent in quality—called Genesis Star Ruler. It featured my “singing,” cheesy spoken-word bits, campy pipe organ and drum work, etc. It was all done on my digital piano. I put it down until 8th grade, and then I learned sections from a lot of metal songs I enjoyed at the time. I put down the piano again and picked it up in 11th grade after taking a music appreciation class, and something clicked at this point. I did not understand music theory at all, but that didn’t stop me from brute-forcing simple melodies and chord progressions. In 12th grade, my music theory knowledge increased a lot, and I also purchased a digital audio workstation called Reaper, along with the Silver edition of EastWest’s Symphonic Orchestra. By using this plugin, I was able to get a rudimentary grasp of the orchestra and how it sounds.
Throughout college, I continued working on my music while studying Management Information Systems. My line of work in music was very tech-heavy, and I’d be able to use the business knowledge I’d gain from taking these business Gen Eds. My motivation for music started to dip in 2019 as I was taking some difficult college classes and working in a warehouse which left me with very little time for music. Additionally, my ‘audience’ was barely growing, if at all. Once the semester ended and my time freed up, I re-created Devin Townsend’s song “Why?” with my orchestral VSTs to further study how the orchestra worked and what sounds good.
Into the second half of 2019, I started mentoring with Adam Ivy on music marketing. An essential tool he talked about was Instagram, so I got busy creating content for it. I was never keen on IG, but today I am very fond of it, and it’s played a pivotal role in my music career. Shortly after getting started on IG, I got my first film-scoring gig which was monumental for me at the time. Into 2020, I continued my marketing work and my studies. Then when COVID hit, classes went online which resulted in me having a LOT more time for music, and eventually I got a new job which was 100% work from home which was the perfect situation for me to make music as much as I wanted to (while still being able to consistently pay bills).
Throughout 2020 I met a lot of people through IG. One was Jacre, a singer from the UK, and we released an orchestral pop single called Ghost in the Rain. I also started mentoring with Avery Berman about sync licensing, which exposed me to another huge avenue media composition. Additionally, I created orchestral arrangements for a pop punk artist named 360 Phoenix Flip, which was an exciting challenge for me.
Into 2021, I collaborated with a violinist and fellow film composer from London—Adele Etheridge Woodson—on a track called A Winter Eden which was extremely fun. It allowed us to combine our different perspectives on cinematic music and create something lovely. In the second half of 2021, I started getting lots of film scoring gigs at my university because I was pretty much the only film composer there. It gave me a TON of valuable experience. I also started taking a third-party online course on Trailer Music (the stuff you hear in film/TV/video game trailers, etc.)
Into 2022 I pitched my music to an LA-based label under Universal Production Music (Hypersonic Music) and was accepted to write trailer cues for multiple albums. I also pitched my music to Amadea Music Productions, a similar label from the UK, and was accepted to write for them too. A little later into the year, I learned that my music was being used across the world on channels like ESPN (specifically for the UFC 286 promo), Discovery (a promo for Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail), and on other channels like Eurosport, TV2, and Univision. This was extremely mind-blowing to me.
At the same time, I was working with Adele and a singer from Washington State—Rachel Hardy—on a track called Ocean Infinite. This project was very fulfilling as it allowed me to combine my penchants for both cinematic music production and poetry/lyricism. On top of that, working with live vocals and live violin was wonderful because live instruments always hit different from samples (no matter how good the samples are, in my opinion). In the second half 2022, I was accepted as an Auditor into the Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive, which allowed me to meet a lot of immensely talented composers and also learn about conducting orchestration and composition from William Ross, Conrad Pope, and Angel Velez.
Fast forwarding to today, I am working on an epic cinematic track with Robert Lampkin (a composer from Atlanta who I met from the aforementioned Intensive), some orchestrations for an upcoming metal band from Canada, an upcoming film score, and various other commissions. I also continue to write for Hypersonic Music and Amadea Music Productions.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nope. In person, I am very introverted and also have a speech impediment which can make many social interactions feel extremely embarrassing for me (e.g., taking 5 seconds to say, “I’m good, thank you!”–or worse, taking 5 seconds to say “bye!” as someone is actively walking out the door). Additionally, going through that period of very low motivation in early 2019 is probably where I could’ve fallen off music if I didn’t manage to pull through, thanks to some YouTube tutorials on orchestration I found online by a composer named Alex Moukala.
Thanks to the internet—specifically Instagram and Facebook—I’ve been able to network with amazingly talented composers and musicians across the world. At least 95% of the connections I have are across the world, and I feel that my career as it is now wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the internet. I’m able to showcase my work online and “market” myself that way, which takes a huge load off my back if I go to meet clients in person. If I’m about to talk to someone, they usually already have a good idea about the quality of my work, so I don’t have to do as much heavy lifting when talking with them.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mainly compose music for different forms of visual media—video games, TV shows, films, etc. I also occasionally add a cinematic production to pop music, orchestral arrangements to metal tracks, etc. I do lots of different projects, but a majority of my time is, again, spent composing for different forms of visual media. When I’m not composing FOR other projects, I’m usually composing for myself as practice or just to express my emotions.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
In regards to finding a mentor–honestly, it’s been mostly serendipity. I found Adam through a YouTube recommendation, and Avery actually found one of my Instagram posts back in 2020 and followed me. I then checked out his profile which is where I learned about his mentoring services.
But for actual advice for finding a mentor–put yourself out there. Know where your market hangs out, and create content that appeals to them. Instagram, in my experience, is where LOTS of musicians and composers hang out. So, if you want to meet mentors for cinematic composition, for example, or just other composers in general, post videos of you performing sections of cinematic pieces you’ve written and use similar hashtags like #filmscoring, #cinematicmusic, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jonrmohr.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonrmohr/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonRMohr/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-r-mohr-1612881a9/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jrmohrmus
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jonrmohr
