There is no such thing as luck. Put yourself in the happening places, stick your neck out, and eventually—so long as you've got the goods—you'll get what you're after.
As a grad student in Gainesville at The University of Florida, starving for anything music/film-industry related, I splurged on expensive tickets to meet the great film composer Elmer Bernstein (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Ghostbusters, Airplane!) at the Sarasota Film Festival in January of 2003. Also there to meet Elmer was legendary record producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, Patti Smith, John Lennon). Jack and I hit it off based on our mutual admiration for Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Vertigo, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir).
After persistent follow-up calls to remind him of the CD I sent him, Jack asked me to do arrangements for Aerosmith's Honkin' On Bobo.
The success on that project has lead to more work with Jack, including work for Marina V, Danielle Evin, The Trews, Hanna, and The New York Dolls.
I currently assistant film composer Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) as well as Marcelo Zarvos (Hollywoodland, The Good Shepherd).
Jack and I recently completed the score to Luke and Jeremy Jackson's Highway 61, featuring Tobin Bell (Saw) and are together producing an album for Weston Cage, the firstborn of a certain A-List Hollywood actor...
