Hello there!
I would like to take a minute to properly introduce myself and tell you a little bit about me. My name is Adam Gifford, though friends call me Simba. (But that’s a whole different blog post) I’m guessing you already know that I’m a composer but to me it’s more than that.
I am a storyteller.
Stories have always been an important part of my life. I remember when I was little my favorite thing to do was play with my friends and become characters in stories we would create. It was always a collaborative process to figure out how we were going to keep the story going and what would be the most interesting “twist.” (You can imagine the kinds of plot twists that 7-8 year old kids could come up with.)
I also spent a lot of time with my mom watching movies. If I ever got in trouble and had to have some kind of time alone the only thing I would want to do when it was over was watch something with my mom. Usually it was the old Wonder Woman TV show. She was a professional seamstress and she would often have some kind of movie on while she was working. While she worked I watched.
As a teenager I became even more engrossed in stories. I was always the rebellious teenager. You know the type, those kids that have a bedtime of 10:00 or 11:00 and they stay up till 3:00 just to read books. They always wake up early in the morning just to watch PBS shows about certain stories. They read screenplays before they ever watch a show. I was that kid.
Video games also played a big part in my passion. I rarely played arcade games I never felt like there was enough of a story to explain why Pac-Man needed to eat the little dots. But if there was a good story I was hooked. A good story was always what I looked for in any kind of recreation. I even remember spending 3 hours in college telling a story I was making up on the spot.
It wasn’t till I was about 13 that I realized there was something else I was obsessed with: Music
My mom studied music in college and always taught us how to appreciate music. I learned a lot about the basics of music from her. But more importantly, I learned a lot about the stories that music can tell from her. She would often buy cds of movie scores, broadway shows, and operas and listen to them while she was sewing. She knew exactly what was happening in the story just by listening to the music. I don’t think I ever appreciated learning that skill from her until recently. Honestly, if it wasn’t for her I don’t think I would be making music the same way I do today.
But here I am.
I have grown to love the way that music can express an emotion that you can’t put down on paper or visualize on a screen. It’s almost like your ears are the quickest way to your heart. (Heavily debated with myself about saying that, I know it sounds like one of those pictures you see in Facebook with the sunset in the background and the quote in the foreground.)
I hope you all enjoy these I get to create stories as much as I do. Because I don’t think I’ll ever stop.
Till next we meet,
Adam (Simba) Gifford