Field Notes Interview #24: Beautiful Eulogy, Marmoset Artists

NW Hip Hop ensemble, Beautiful Eulogy have figured it out — they’ve managed to create a sustainable career out of their music. 

Composed of well-respected producers, Courtland Urbano, Braille and Odd Thomas, this ensemble conducts their music career as a 9-5 working life, both serving as musicians and owners of their label Humble Beast. They’ve fulfilled both roles to create a driven and dedicated career for themselves. Their soundtrack work is also a force to be reckoned with, and with works like their recent collaboration with Max Esposito’s Raising 7, their music leaves a powerful, emotional presence  in film.

We got a chance to chat with them about their lives as artists, producers and label owners. As well as their thoughts on the important role of music in picture.

M: When did you start writing music?

BE: We’ve been individually creating music for most of our lives, having all started roughly around the teenage years. It’s only been 4 years since we started making music collectively as Beautiful Eulogy. Our pasts are rooted mostly in the hip hop genre, and though our music still has that foundational element, it’s definitely now more of a hybrid including many different musical genres and influences.

M: What does a day in the life of a working musician look like for you?

BE: It looks very much a like a regular 9 to 5 for us. Beyond making music as a group we also have the daily tasks of running our record label, Humble Beast. This includes overseeing and producing other artists’ albums, A&R, mixing, mastering, marketing, etc. So our work really has to be planned out to accomplish all these things in an orderly fashion. When it comes to our personal music pursuits, we always start out with a concept. Most of the time, album titles and track titles are created before we even start the music making process, so that we have a clear idea and objective. We believe this helps give us a direction on how best to communicate the emotion of each song, much like a film score, how the visuals can direct the mood in which the music should be made.

M: What role do you feel music has in film?

BE: Music has a way of culminating an emotional undertone to the viewer of a film like no other medium. It has the ability to express multiple emotional characteristics simultaneously, much like our personal lives do, engaging the viewer’s senses on a multitude of levels. We believe music’s main goal in the context of film should be accentuating the object or narrative of the film; living in a harmonious relationship with one another to capture the attention of the audience.

M: How do you feel your song complimented the Film Lab’s Reel?

BE: It turned out beautifully! When watching it, there’s a sense of seriousness and passion to their creative work, and we believe the music played a great role in conveying that emotion for the reel. We’re fans of their ability to visually communicate, and we hope to supply more musical accompaniment for them in the future.

M: What are you excited about for the future?

BE: We’re excited about the upcoming albums we have on Humble Beast’s docket, which includes our third full-length album as Beautiful Eulogy. We are also excited about the possibility of having more of our music licensed by visual creatives and film makers. We believe the way we approach our music fits incredibly well with the storytelling of visual arts.