Meet the Hans Zimmer Wants You!! Contest Finalists

Congratulations to the three finalists of the Hans Zimmer Wants You!! contest on SoundCloud. We first announced this exciting contest back in January. After receiving more than 6,000 entries, Hans Zimmer and the Bleeding Fingers Music Shop have announced the three finalists:

• Daniel Suett from London, England
• Ryan Taubert from Port Neches, Texas
• Eirik Røland from Stockholm, Sweden

Hear their final submissions here and get to know them more in each of their audio interviews below:

Daniel Suett is a 22-year-old composer from London who comes from a musical family as his father was a jazz trumpet player. “I would often listen to the things he was playing and work them out on a small keyboard I had when I was a child. From then on, I was always writing little phrases and it grew from there. I never took it seriously, however, until I was about 19.”

Daniel says the contest’s constraints made it the perfect creative challenge for him to utilize different musical styles. “I mostly tried to list all the genres and musical styles that some of the stems lent themselves well to, particularly the solo vocal as it had the most potential in terms of diversity. From there, it was a lot of playing around on the piano trying to see how fragments of the stems could be harmonically manipulated, and then matching up certain harmonies and colors with appropriate genres and styles.”

Stats on SoundCloud have been valuable to Daniel in reaching his audience and connecting with other musicians globally. “To be able to see such detailed statistics on your music and how you are connected over the globe is a very valuable tool. Thanks to SoundCloud, I now think there is no excuse for anyone who makes music to say that they don’t know how to reach an audience. When you have the available tools and flexibility, it makes you want to utilize it.”

Texas-born composer Ryan Taubert was 10 years old, watching Jurassic Park when he knew he wanted to be a composer. “It felt unlike anything I had heard before. By the time I got home I wanted to sit at the piano and try to play the score by memory. Ever since then I knew without a doubt I wanted to do that for the rest of my life.”

“Throwing everything on the canvas” was Ryan’s approach towards creating his submission for the contest which he says was “representative of a new season in life and a new golden opportunity.” “Once there was so much stuff randomly added in the session, it then became a process of elimination. It was like putting a puzzle together or molding clay. In a sense the track would reveal itself to me through an idea and then I just ran with it. I tried to create a world that I could step into, whether it be dramatic or comedic.”

SoundCloud has been pivotal to Ryan’s career and the way he interacts with other musicians. “I think SoundCloud has helped create a culture of artistic freedom. Having so many artists networking with each other and showcasing their music to the world has changed the paradigm in a sense that it’s allowed artists to connect directly with fans expressing themselves with the music that they enjoy creating.”

Eirik Røland is a freelance composer from Stockholm, Sweden who recently graduated from the Royal College of Music with a Master’s degree in sound design. He started playing violin at the age of 5 . He ultimately got interested in composing film music once he started creating symphonic metal music.

Eirik says his approach towards creating the contest submission was simple. “It was very easy actually, I went with my first impulses in the intro with the trumpet, and I had a good flow from there. One thing led to another.”

Eirik mostly uses SoundCloud as a CV or reel of his work. “I’ve been a SoundCloud user for about two years and I’m very pleased. It’s easy to upload and Its very convenient for me that I can make sets and playlist for my scores.”

The three finalists will be flown to Los Angeles later this month to meet with Hans Zimmer and the Bleeding Fingers team in-person. Stay tuned for updates on the determination of the final winner here on the blog.