Ionics Music est un compositeur et sound designer qui nous vient d’Israël, on va donc faire les présentations en anglais ?

Who is Ionics Music? Where are you from?

Ionics Music is Leon Riskin. I’m a 36 year old composer and sound designer from Israel, working in from my home studio.

Why did you start to compose music?

I’ve been composing music since the age of 6. I’m a trained classical pianist and found my way to the music production world only after finishing sound engineering. Only then I found the way to combine my playing and the tech possibilities, allowing me to produce the melodies and songs I’ve been scribbling for years. Basically, music is something I can’t stop thinking about, especially when I have to do something different. The mind automatically switches to new melodies and harmonies.

Can you live only with your music or do you have another job?

My main and only work is music production and sound design. I compose royalty free music for stock, work on custom soundtracks for various projects and design sound effects for games and multimedia productions for web and television. I’ve been doing that as a freelancer for the past decade.

What drives you to compose music?

Deadlines are a good motivator to get your job done. Sometimes time pressure squeezes out interesting results out of me. I usually have multiple track beginnings and move from one to another when I get stuck. So each time I finish something and start working on five different tracks altogether. Sometimes I get the chance to see my music in various interesting projects and that’s a great motivator to create more and experiment with genres.

From your point of view, what is your best success as a composer?

The fact that I can call it my day job. I think most people don’t understand how composing music can be someone’s main gig. As a teenager I was wishing to do exactly that in the future. I’ve been working for six years as an audio post production engineer in major studios in Israel and leaving that to become a full time self employed composer is probably the best success story I can think of.

What is your greatest wish as a composer?

Not to lose my « MOJO ». To continue having new ideas for music.

Could you tell us a story that happened to you in a musical context?

I was searching for a new vacuum cleaner online one day, checking out reviews and commercial videos of the models I liked, when suddenly I heard something familiar – it was my music in one of the commercial. You can never know where your stock music will end up. Also, I’m often bidding on music related projects posted on Freelancer.com and there was one time when I was shortlisted to compose the national anthem of South Sudan. Eventually the project was cancelled, but nevertheless, it was a very unusual opportunity.

Why did you choose to create music under Creative Communs or royalty-free licenses?

I found out about royalty free stock music market places 10 years ago and saw it as a great opportunity. The thought that I can post my music online to be sold as a digital product was amazing. I think that royalty free music opened the stock music world to a wider audience and it’s a good place to be, as a composer.

What is your motto?

Work only with good people, at all cost. Avoid projects with tight deadlines.

Anything to say to conclude?

I think that it is an amazing time to be a composer. The possibilities are endless, the tools and instruments we have are amazing and the digital world allows you to get to every corner in the world with your music. It may feel sometimes that the market is saturated because home studios are blooming, but good ideas and hard work will always shine.

Thanks Leon for this interview.

Pour découvrir les productions de Ionics Music, rendez-vous sur sa page sur beMYsound !