Meet Winston Thayer | Composer | Arranger | Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Winston Thayer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Winston, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
My work life balance has changed a lot. Having to go from doing something creative for fun to having it be your job is not an easy flip. I grew up writing and producing music as a fun hobby, and when I wasn’t doing that I was attending school or working my highschool retail job. 4 years later, I am about to graduate college, where I study music, and have to run my own business essentially; It is no longer just a hobby. I think the first real moment where I had to start thinking about my work life balance was when I got my first music job that involved something I wasn’t the most excited for. Everyone has aspects of their job they dislike or don’t look forward to, and I had never encountered that while I was pursuing music recreationally.

I try to think of the balance between my work and personal time like I would a normal 9-5 job. Granted, sometimes music calls for some odd hours, (maybe 9pm to 5am!), but I still like to keep my work time separate from the rest of my life. One thing that helps is I like to schedule my work time. If I am meeting with somebody, it’s not spontaneous, it’s on my calendar. I also know when I’m going to have personal time, and during that time I don’t respond to any work related messages. My personal time can include writing music for fun, so I do still get to be creative and work on something of my own!

I’d say the hardest thing for me personally to separate work and personal life wise is friends. As I am in music, basically all my friends also do music. I’ve found that sometimes it feels uncomfortable to have potentially awkward business conversations with your friends. Something that could start as a fun passion project could eventually turn into a real job that I would need to be compensated for, which can feel awkward. How I have overcome this is to treat it the same way I do my time: when I’m working with a friend, we are friendly coworkers. We are both ‘clocked in’ and it’s always time I have set aside in my day. And when we are hanging out after, we leave work behind!

I think working in a creative field can have some challenges to keeping a work life balance, however, as long as you communicate to the people you work with and allow yourself time where you are unreachable for work related tasks, it can be way easier to manage a ‘normal’ lifestyle.

This is just my solution of course, I’m sure everyone’s situation is different!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a film and media composer, and also a producer/arranger. I’m currently working on the score to a video game, and also recording my reel with an orchestra. I know it’s cheesy, but I got where I was today by being myself. In a job where it’s your job to sell your creativity and IP, employers are not just buying your product but also you! I’m still far from my overall career goals, but I’ve definitely got a huge start!

The biggest thing I’ve done so far is write the soundtrack to the video game Ready, Steady, Ship! I worked with a small indie developer, and it was a huge learning opportunity, along with being the first step in a hopefully much larger career. I also co-developed the annual Rock Symphonic concert at the Frost School of Music. It’s a concert where contemporary bands and artists play original music with a full orchestra. It’s free for anyone to go and entirely volunteer student run! It’s a super large event to coordinate, and it honestly takes up the majority of my year, but I’m very proud of it and how it has expanded over the 2 years we’ve put it on! (stay tuned for this year, @rocksymphonic on instagram!)

I’m also a producer and have worked with a few different artists on a few different projects. I’ve definitely been having a lot of fun working with Katerina Lomis on her last couple songs! I worked on Mr. Adams which is currently at over 300k streams (insane!) I also have been producing Nicole Acosta’s new EP, and can’t wait for people to hear it!

I think the biggest challenge that I had to overcome was learning how to be adaptive and flexible. Collaborating with people a lot of the time means compromising. I can’t read minds, so I might have a different vision for something that an artist I’m producing for or a video game developer would have in mind. It’s definitely important to stay open minded and be receptive to change! It can suck to have something you worked on be scraped, but things usually happen for a reason.

I work in music because I love music! Even on tough days, I still can’t hate it because it’s an important part of who I am. I’m grateful every day that I get to pursue something I love so much, despite its challenges.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m from Minnesota so my recommendations are very typical, but we don’t have year round warm weather where I’m from!

I definitely think the beaches are worth it! You definitely don’t have to go to miami beach during the busiest weekend to have fun; There are a ton of smaller beaches me and my friends go to.

For restaurants, I think coconut grove has a lot to offer. I also think exploring the Vizcaya market on sunday mornings is also fun.

If you are looking for a longer day trip, I recommend key west! It’s very pretty, and the key lime pie is definitely worth it!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve worked with so many great people over the years! Jennifer Phan has been a great friend, but also a fantastic person to learn from. I should also say, the whole reason i’m even interested in music and am able to pursue is because my parents support me. Thank you!

Website: https://www.winstonthayer.com

Instagram: @winstonthayer

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winston-thayer-7a4742283/

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/20aajIooOYvpi7JOv6oCyM?si=B9MGN57lR3mgPAvLKNPDug&nd=1&dlsi=3a64db42a5a5485f

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/winston-thayer/1733097146