MONDAY MORNING HOLLYWOOD
As the singer and guitarist of punk band The Briggs by night and Hollywood sound mixer by day, Jason LaRocca is intertwined with music from conception to completion in every facet of his life. Sound mixing was an incidental job that came out of wanting to be a musician with the skills to record his own tracks. Jason began his mixing career at eighteen and has successfully balanced his Hollywood career and punk rock inclinations ever since. He’s has played with bands like Bad Religion, Flogging Molly and Rage Against The Machine and had a hand in mixing CSI Miami, The Mechanic and the TV series Crash to name a few. Jason’s latest project is Gavin O’Conner’s Warrior, which hits theaters on September 9th.
What was the first job you ever had? I worked as an assistant for my dad doing home inspections. We would go through a home for a buyer and tell them what the condition of it was. My job was carrying the ladder and flashlight.
What made you pursue a career in Hollywood? It's funny, I never really felt like I pursued a career in Hollywood. Other thanbeing in a rock band, I really wanted to be a sound engineer so I knew that I wanted to get a gig at a studio – mainly just so that I could learn how to record and mix my own projects. It just so happened that the studio gig turned out being in the film world so that's the world I learned.
What was your first job in the movie/TV business and how did you get it?
My first "business" job was working as a studio assistant for film composer Mark
Isham. I was eighteen. A friend of mine had the job before me. He called me up
to take over the position when he decided to leave.
Do you have a favorite story from the trenches? Well, this is a bit of a silly one, but one very late night when alone at my studio mixing The Crazies, a horror film, I walked into the restroom and the faucet was running on its own. Someone had to have done it earlier that day or something and left it on, but I was actually pretty freaked out.
What is your dream job? Inventing cool toys like Tom Hanks in the movie Big.
What do you do on a typical day off? I write music, play the guitar and watch movies with my wife. French films have been our genre of choice as of late.
What inspires you? When someone achieves something others said was, “impossible."
What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers? If everyone is telling you that you are crazy, you are probably onto something great.
What are you doing now?I am preparing to record and mix the score for the new ABC TV show Once Upon a Time, and the next season of Chuck on NBC.
What do you hope to be doing ten years from now? Writing a film score!
To learn more about Jason visit http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1103924/
To watch the Warrior trailer visit http://www.warriorfilm.com
Comments