Joel Cooper

Ngāi Tahu

Joel Cooper is a Wellington-based composer, producer, musician with a passion for scoring music to visual media including film and TV.

His work involves composing and producing music for many different areas of media, including scoring to animation and film, right through to producing for pop artists.

Although his passion lies in composing, he also arranges, mixes, records, and is an accomplished performing musician with a background in jazz piano and a love of playing as many instruments as he can get his hands on.

Because of his passion for music and the self- admitted obsession therein, he believes that the power that music holds on the human condition is emotionally extensive and often used as a way to buffet some of the many storms of life.

He has a distinction award that he received for the China Crossing composing competition in 2022 at Te Herenga Waka.

Joel has a bachelor of music at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington) where he majored in instrumental and vocal composition. He is currently working toward his masters in fine arts (creative practice) with a focus on film scoring.

Projects

“To My Friend” and “Don’t Rain On Me” Part of my role in my position at Indigo 555 was the producing and assisted writing of two songs with Grace Clarke (a local artist) and another producer/singer. I sing and play a range of instruments throughout the two songs. These songs are being released at separate times during 2024. The Gist

I was contracted by Moor Animation to compose, produce, and mix the music for an animated ‘explainer video’ for their client, eHaus. This was an eye-opening experience and helped to give me an understanding of what work in the industry truly involves. I came to grasp certain ways of working, the processes that come with composing for animation, and completing projects to specific deadlines. The Gist of Passive House Explained by eHaus neon nights

I have attempted many YouTube composing competitions over the last few years. Although I have not ended up submitting many of these, the most recent one I saw through to completion and submission to the Ryan Leach Composers Competition in January 2024. The concept was to create a composition based entirely on the provided picture that fit within a 90 second time-frame. I am proud of what I composed. neon nights MFA Showreel

I created a short showreel for my MFA(CP) application, and this shows a few of my short compositions to film. Two of them are from assignments that happened throughout my University years, and one is The Gist MFA Showreel

Education

Bachelor of Music Instrumental and Vocal Composition Te Herenga Waka -- Victoria University of Wellington 2020 - 2023

Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) Film Scoring and Composition Te Herenga Waka -- Victoria University of Wellington 2024

Experience

Moor Animation Composer, Mix Engineer 2022 I had a contract with Moor Animation in 2022 where I was to work with the animators in creating an ‘explainer video’ for a passive house design. I composed the music, a few sound effects, and also mixed it all before giving it over to the animator to put to the final picture.

Indigo 555 Producer, Musician 2023 I was contracted to work with a local artist and another producer to help finalise, record, and produce two of her songs. I took on a leadership role within in this production. Think3

Software Engineer 2018 - 2021 My background before beginning my music degree was in software engineering, working in automation and data collection. Therefore my work process can often be logical and processed in an almost codified way.