Robert J. Kral

Birthday:
July 5, 1967

Birthplace:
Medindee,
South Australia

Occupation(s):
Music Composer

Quotes:
A life lived in fear is a life half lived.  (Strictly
Ballroom- 1992)

Favorite Food:
Roast lamb dinners, hot fudge sundaes.

Favorite Book:
The Neverending Story

Most influential
person in my life:
Alison Houghton Kral
(my wife!)

What is most important:
God, family and friends. And skiing whenever possible!

Other Online
Interviews with
Robert J. Kral

Northern  Sound
Source

City of Angel

BBCi

Part One

1. Kathy: How did you get started in this line of work? How did you train, and what was your first job?

Well, it's been a long and difficult road. I wanted to create moods and atmospheres and started hearing music in my head at about age 14. At 15, I forced myself to write music for full orchestra, because I already knew that the best job for me would be film music--creating moods and atmospheres for the audience. Of course, to do that, I'd need to learn to orchestrate, so I dove into the deep end and taught myself. The very difficult thing for young composers is the inability to hear your final work since orchestras do not come cheap! They are also busy with the classics and aren't usually interested in new material, as I found with our local Symphony.

I decided to get a bachelor's degree of Music at Adelaide University. It wasn't exactly film music training, but it was the best next step. Luckily, Tristram Carey, a film composer from the UK, was teaching part of the degree, so I began some of my training with him. The University was not very encouraging of this career and was more interested in Academic styles (read contemporary, atonal music). I adapted swiftly to this by making sure everything I wrote had "wrong notes" in it and they loved it. Actually, it is fairer to say they did teach me a lot about atonal* music and I did begin to hear it "properly." The lack of encouragement at University was difficult, however, whereas encouragement in High School was, well, high. That was a very good thing, because in Australia, unlike the States, kids decide their careers in Year 10, choose their subjects for year 11 and by the final high school year they are concentrating only on their "major," which doesn't happen in America until further into University!

So, the pressure is on at age 16 to decide. Anyway, after the degree I was, of course, unemployed, and found small music projects for video production companies. They got bigger as they went along, plus I worked in the sound departments of the South Australian Film Corporation and Channel Nine where I learned live mixing and more about sound recording. I was extremely fortunate to get both those jobs through word of mouth; a total answer to prayer, literally. These helped me to raise money to come to the States to study film scoring at USC, which is mighty expensive!

My first gig in the States was writing for another composer who was a teacher at USC. This is how I met Chris Beck, who was also writing on this show, and most of my work in the States stems from knowing Chris initially.

*Atonal refers to music that lacks a tonal center or has no dominant tone or diatonic scale associated with it. Atonal music is often considered disconcerting by those who are accustomed to "traditional" harmonies.

 
2. Rekka: What was the first instrument that you played, and how old were you when you became interested in music? Were you a "good" music student, or were you forced to practice from time to time?

My first instrument love was the drums! I remember being about four and seeing a drummer in a band and thinking that was amazingly cool. I started learning at five, but swiftly changed to the piano, because we'd watched a Liberace special on TV and I thought that was really cool too! I was a fairly good student, but progress was slow. I didn't know at the time, but then a High School music teacher and Piano trainer at our Church met me and realized I was way behind in my abilities considering the years I had put in. It came down to the fact that the first few teachers I'd had over the first six or seven years weren't so great. This new teacher crash-coursed me into 7th grade piano -- boy was it tough.

I don't know if you could have called me a good student. I am sure that teacher thought otherwise! I saw the progress other students made and they flew past me. I wasn't too bad, but not great, and the 7th grade exam terrified me (I never took it). I tried very hard and practiced a lot, but it seems performance was not my talent. Once the tunes came to my head, that's all I wanted to do (well, more than play someone else's music anyway).

Yes, I was forced to practice a lot. Toward the end (I was about 16), it just got to the point where playing difficult pieces was a chore. I wanted to create music, not learn the robotics of playing other people's music. I guess my Liberace inspiration wore off. I had something far more exciting to pursue as far as I could tell.
 

3. AlvaFan: Which instrument/s do you prefer to compose on, if any?