Creator Spotlight with Music Composer and Artist Marc Soucy
This week, we are pleased to introduce music composer and artist, Marc Soucy. Marc creates hybrid electronic music that is eclectic and mainly instrumental. After you read his Spotlight Blog, follow him on Instagram and check out his YouTube channel.
What was the inspiration behind becoming a creator? What do you enjoy most about the creative process?
I started taking piano lessons before I had even turned four years old. My mother played and I was mesmerized by this and just had to do it. Once I had been playing for a dozen years or so, I started hearing my own melodies and musical ideas in my head and began working them out. By the time I was in my late teens, I started composing songs and instrumental pieces. That has never stopped. What I enjoy about this is the pure emotional content that can be conveyed in music itself, with or without any lyrics. I have in fact embraced instrumental music as my own chosen direction because of this ability. Focussing on that requires… exactly that: focus. I feel that a lot can be communicated through notes, melodies, sounds, and arrangements that words may cloud. This might seem strange or even offensive to certain people, but it is my guiding principle in my current direction… that is to occasionally use words only as a little “spice” on the otherwise purely musical work.
Can you talk through your creative process? How long does it take? Does everything you produce make money?
My creative process feels both chaotic and disciplined at the same time. It comes from many different directions and to me it feels spontaneous, even though I know very well that I’m being guided deep down by a long history of musical studies, practice, and most of all, listening. Any given piece of music I’ve created can happen within a matter of days, or over the course of years. I often revive something I worked on years ago to breathe new life into it, so to speak. One recent piece I’ve released was the result of a piano idea I wrote in the late 1990s, with a violin melody I came up with around 2015. The two worked so well together, I did a full orchestral arrangement with some ethnic elements during an interlude for the final piece. Making money is a goal certainly, but I don’t compose anything that would draw a huge following, so I am not depending on popularity as an income source. If it happens, I believe it will be the result of the earnestness and intensity of my work. I’ve heard over and over that my work belongs in film and TV. Time will tell.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about your line of work?
That people are simply born with talent and they can walk into a room and perform the way they do. Creativity and musical talent are a huge mystery to many people. Sure, talent does exist, but there is no secret to it: You have to dedicate a substantial part of your life to it, usually sacrificing other aspects of life in the process. You get good by spending a lot of time on it, and not looking back. “Prodigies” are extremely rare. Most people who start very young—like myself—just know what they want and are willing work at it.
What is the best piece of advice that you would give other creators in your field about copyright and how to protect themselves?
Cover yourself in every way possible. With today’s technology, it is too easy to have your work stolen. Being influenced or inspired by a work is one thing. Outright copying portions of it for repurposing is very sketchy to say the least. Sampling and copying are simply stealing, pure and simple. Everything I compose is copyrighted formally and registered for copyright protection. Using watermarking and registering with every intellectual rights society on earth is at least what you CAN do. I lived in fear of this for years, and finally came to the point where I simply have to get my stuff out there. So it is really a challenge you have to tackle.
How has AI technology impacted your works and career?
AI technology is not a factor in my work. I do not plan to ever use it myself. I don’t need it, and I consider it a violation of the human spirit. There, I said it. AI might play a great role in research, documentation, tech support, and other areas but I don’t believe it should be used in the arts. Creativity is precious and needs to be kept isolated from this. I hope others feel the same because the creative process is in danger at this point. Regardless of what happens, I’m going to continue without it.
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