Pursuing dreams in LA

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Correspondent
 
Obadiah Brown-Beach had dreams that would take him far past the small town, rural life of Newcastle and catapult him to much bigger opportunities. The 2005 Newcastle High School graduate lives and works in Los Angeles – living his dream of making music a career. 
“I’m working full time as a composer,” Brown-Beach said. 
Brown-Beach works at Hexany Audio, where he composes film and game scores. 
During his time at Hexany, he has worked on many intriguing projects, he said, and he’s written a plethora of gaming scores with a variety of styles and genres. One project he worked on was for Tencent Games. What started as a seemingly small venture for a game called Honor of Kings, Brown-Beach said, turned into something much bigger, including 22 minutes of orchestral music that he composed and then had recorded. His work was submitted for awards, and he won a Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards and was nominated for Best Song/Score for Mobile Video Games at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. 
But a lot of hard work and trial and error have gotten Brown-Beach to where he’s at now. His initial interest in music was in performance and writing songs. When he was 13, he was given the Star Wars Trilogy soundtrack because he was interested in film scores. His interest only grew from there, and he knew he wanted to make music a career, Brown-Beach said. 
After completing his undergraduate studies, in pursuit of his dream, he moved to Seattle, where met many artists. He eventually decided to pursue scoring, Brown-Beach said, and returned to school at Berklee College of Music to pursue his master’s degree in scoring. This took him to Spain through a program catering specifically to composing music for films and video games. 
After earning his degree, Brown-Beach returned to Seattle. When things didn’t work out quite as he hoped there, he headed to Los Angeles to interview for an internship for a popular composer, Bear McCreary, at Sparks & Shadows. McCreary had written scores for popular films. 
Brown-Beach was offered the internship shortly after his interview and moved to Los Angeles in 2015. After interning, Brown-Beach did contract work and also worked with friends before landing the job at Hexany Audio.
“I feel lucky to be where I’m at now,” Brown-Beach said. 
But his journey wasn’t always easy or
promising. 
“It’s been kind of a crazy experience trying to make it happen,” he said.
Trying to make music and composition a full-time career is challenging, Brown-Beach said, and there’s times where one feels like giving up. 
“You face a lot of rejection,” he said. 
Although he has had some difficult and discouraging times during his journey, Brown-Beach said that he had reached a place where he either had to give up or keep pushing himself harder. Not giving up won out. Brown-Beach said that he learned the importance of working hard to realize his dreams, even in the face of adversity. He said that success is even sweeter when it takes a lot of grit and determination to reach it. 
Music is something worth fighting for, according to Brown-Beach. When he first started writing songs, he used it as an emotional outlet that allowed him to express things that were too difficult to express with mere words. Although film and game scoring doesn’t allow as much personal expression, he said, that doesn’t stop him from trying to still express himself. 
“I still try to put a bit of me into it,” Brown-Beach said. 
He also tries to compose in a manner that intrigues him and others, he said. There’s a huge amount of potential in the world of music, Brown-Beach said, and he enjoys challenging himself. His work has a wide range, from compositions that include bagpipes to a singer-songwriter tune with Russian lyrics. 
Although Brown-Beach has entered a big world with big possibilities, he hasn’t forgotten Newcastle. He said that he misses the space, the sky and the calm atmosphere in comparison to the hustle and bustle of city life. 
“(Newcastle) gave me more appreciation for space, sky and outdoors,” Brown-Beach said. 
He also noted that growing up in a small town doesn’t mean that people can’t find opportunities and pursue their dreams.