Zeoli takes new direction on music as film score composer

By Kara Patman
Staff Writer

You may know him from the Sax Pack, the Mira Costa Muscle or even the Costa marching band. Senior Derek Zeoli has taken his musical talent to a whole new level as he is now the man behind motions.

Zeoli began composing about four years ago, but has gotten much more serious about his work over the last two years. He likes to compose music for films in different styles and instrumentations, ranging from a full orchestra to someone hitting a glass jar with a drum stick.

“I got into composing when I was sitting on the couch waiting for my family to watch the movie ‘The Italian Job’ and the cut scenes that play during the main menu were playing over and over again,” Zeoli said. “I remember thinking to myself that that was the best heist music I had ever heard. It opened my eyes to film music and I fell in love with it.”

When Zeoli is asked to compose for a movie, he takes specific steps in order to reach his final goal. He first watches the scene a couple times to get a feel for the tempo of the scene and figure out the style and the general instrumentation for the music. Afterwards, he maps the hit points with the tempo. He finishes by putting the song into Logic, a software for writing music, where he can match the song up with the scene.

“I love when a piece is finally done,” Zeoli said. “I feel relieved but always just a tad bit uneasy when I finish a project. I always want to go back and change something to make it that part better.”

One of Zeoli’s pieces, “The Night That We Danced”, was made with the use of mandolins, strings, metal cans, glass jars, and other obscure drums.

“I love composing because I love music,” Zeoli said. “I love composing for film because film music is pure emotion, and it’s fun to manipulate music to trigger emotion.”

Currently Zeoli is working on a jazz rock fusion piece and hopes to compose for major motion pictures, especially action and adventure films, in the future.

“I am scheduled to compose the music for a couple of my friends films over the summer,” Zeoli said. “I have already composed the music for my friend Bridger Hart’s short film “Wolf” and am going to compose his next thriller film as well.”