Marie Douglas on Composing for Film, Freelance Music Careers, and Building a Sound That Blends Everything
Guest: Marie Douglas
Titles: Composer; arranger; educator; musical director; conductor; freelance creative
Episode Theme: What it takes to build a career as a Black woman composer and why preparation, musical range, and real relationships matter in film, TV, and beyond.
Why this matters right now: Composers shape how stories feel, but they are still one of the least visible roles in entertainment. In this episode, Marie Douglas breaks down how she found her way into composition, what filmmakers should understand before hiring a composer, and why Black women need to be seen, supported, and heard in every part of the industry, including the score.
Marie Douglas is an award-winning composer and educator whose work blends classical, hip-hop, trap, spoken word, and electronic influences. Raised in Atlanta after being born in Buffalo, she came up through church, marching band, and a deeply creative household before stepping into leadership at FAMU and later earning a doctorate in composition. In this episode, Marie talks about learning trumpet, becoming a drum major, navigating music as a Black woman without many visible role models, and building a freelance career through preparation and in-person relationship building. She also shares real talk on contracts, pricing, DAWs, and the difference between digital and live music-making in screen work.
What we talk about
Growing up in Atlanta and early musical roots (00:02:20)
Band, trumpet, and finding leadership (00:05:29)
FAMU, leadership, and musical discipline (00:08:47)
Contracts, composer rates, and protecting your work (00:19:28)
DAWs, composing, and Marie’s creative process (00:26:38)
Why you’ll want to listen
How a composer career can start from band and church (00:03:04)
How filmmakers should approach and budget for composers (00:22:20)
DAWs and the basics of modern music production (00:27:48)
Freelancing and advocating for your value (00:25:27)
“You were right, keep going.” (00:33:28)
About the guest
Marie Douglas is a composer, arranger, educator, and musical director whose work spans live performance, freelance composition, and screen-based storytelling. Raised in Atlanta and rooted in a musical culture shaped by church, marching bands, and Black Southern traditions, she developed a sound that moves across genres while staying grounded in craft. She has contributed to a Grammy-nominated album, worked with Live Nation’s Big Femme Energy live experience, and continues to create music for artists, projects, and collaborators looking for bold, fusion-driven sound.
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Introduction
Fanshen Cox [00:00:00]: Welcome back to Sista Brunch. We're the only podcast that's building the largest archive of the stories of Black women and Black gender-expansive people who are thriving in Hollywood and beyond. Entertainment, media, all of the above. And we are doing it this season from this incredible studio. Our guest was just commenting on what a beautiful studio it is, and we're so proud to be with UPodcaster in Hollywood this season. There's another reason that I am so excited tonight which is we've got a couple of firsts this season. So, uh, you'll be hearing from Kelly Harris, who is a location manager. We've never had one of those on before. And we have tried, I am promising you, every single season to get a composer on the podcast, and we have finally done it. Shout out to Charlie Savage, Charlie Savage, our associate producer this season, who introduced us to our guest today. Welcome, Marie Douglas.
Marie Douglas [00:01:01]: Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure. I'm honored be the first composer to pop up on the scene, you know, bring some more through next year.
Fanshen Cox [00:01:08]: We're going to learn so much from you. And I think that's really, you know, a big part of what we want to do. One is to uplift you and let people know about who you are, but also educate our listeners, our viewers to understand what it takes to do what you do. So with that in mind, we're going to take you back to the beginning, as far back as you'd like to go. I've got some notes here on all that. You are an award-winning composer. Across the US and Canada. So you are international. You blend classical, hip-hop, trap, spoken word, and electronic. You're gonna do some spoken word for us tonight?
Marie Douglas [00:01:44]: I'll speak. Okay, but it won't be the, uh, rhythmic.
Fanshen Cox [00:01:48]: Okay, all right. Well, we might bring you back. We might have to bring you back for that. Um, you served as musical director for Live Nation's Big Femme Energy live experience. Contributed to a Grammy-nominated album. We want to hear about that. You're an educator. Love myself some educators. I'm also a longtime teacher. Atlanta roots, born and raised in Atlanta.
Marie Douglas [00:02:10]: Raised, definitely born in Buffalo, but raised since I was 3 years old. Never. Right.
Fanshen Cox [00:02:16]: Well, let's get into it then. So born in, you said in Buffalo?
Marie Douglas [00:02:20]: Buffalo, New York. You know, born up there. Didn't ever really get to know it. My parents moved down to Atlanta and We never moved back, never looked back.
Fanshen Cox [00:02:32]: Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:02:32]: You know, a lot to unpack with that, probably. But I don't know the details that my parents know the lore. But they haven't told us yet. But, but yeah, so spent my whole life in Atlanta and grew up in the metro area, a lot of different parts of the South Side, and then within the city limits. And also, you know, just grew up as a kid outside playing and all that and feeling like the culture and growing up directly right up in it, you know.
Family Creativity and Early Musical Roots
Fanshen Cox [00:03:04]: Was it— did you have a musical family or was it just more you were—
Marie Douglas [00:03:07]: They love music, you know.
Fanshen Cox [00:03:09]: Yeah.
Marie Douglas [00:03:09]: My parents, one thing they did instill in us is just this undying love for like music, for, you know, for production, for art, you know, just for doing something at a high level creativity. My mom is— super creative. She used to like make our clothes and stuff. I mean, we didn't like them.
Fanshen Cox[00:03:32]: But you had to wear them. And I'll bet if you look back now, you're like, those weren't so bad.
Marie Douglas [00:03:34]: I commend her for it.
Fanshen Cox [00:03:38]: Yeah.
Marie Douglas [00:03:39]: And I think it probably wasn't that bad. It just wasn't good for me. It wasn't like, oh yeah, she wasn't looking at me like, oh, this is how it's going to be. You know, she was just like, let me try this right quick. But yeah, we, you know, she made clothes, she, she decorated the house however she could, you know, whenever You know, she would make every place we lived in some kind of decent home as far as, you know, even if it's just putting potpourri up. But, you know, she was just, she is extremely creative. And so that's kind of where the roots of my creativity come from.
Fanshen Cox [00:04:10]: Okay, and then was it, I mean, 'cause composer, like we said, not only, I mean, a lot of people don't even know about composers, period, but to be a Black woman doing it, You didn't, you didn't have role models, I'm imagining, right? So how did you— was it, was it kind of like enjoying music first and then eventually realizing that you could do it for film and TV?
Marie Douglas [00:04:32]: Well, my uncle played in the church, you know, so, you know, I had a lot of family down there in Georgia, and we go to church, and my uncle was, you know, one of the musicians I would see often. You know, in one of the churches we would go to.
Fanshen Cox [00:04:49]: What did he—
Marie Douglas [00:04:50]: did he play percussion, you know, keys, you know, different things? And he would, you know, he told me, you know, you gotta learn how to read music or something. Like, he was like, don't let— you know, one day if you ever do music, don't let them take advantage of you, stuff like that. So that's where my mental, like, baseline comes from of, uh, kind of just my mindset as it relates to my approach to the field. But like, going— make sure I actually learn how to read music, not just— I want to make beats, I just want to be a producer. But my uncle would say stuff like that, and it made me like take it more seriously. Yeah.
Fanshen Cox[00:05:29]: How did you start to learn how to read music? Like, did you take classes, or—
Marie Douglas [00:05:35]: Well, I was, uh, I grew up in Atlanta. Like I said, I grew up outside. I grew up athlete. I grew up playing basketball around, you know, I was more known for that. When I did go off to school, I was probably more known for basketball than I was for music. But, um, at some point they messed up my schedule at, uh, school, and so, um, I was able to finally like get in band. But, uh, so I got in, you know, I just wandered into the band. It was like, why don't you join band? Nobody ever said that. Previously, when I was trying to join a band, they were like, oh, we're full, we don't got no, you know. So, you know, this time I got lucky, and, um, that was kind of funny. Already play an instrument or play a thing?
Fanshen Cox [00:06:20]: So when you joined the band, were they, were they, how did they determine what you would play?
Marie Douglas [00:06:25]: Well, I wanted to play like drums or a horn, you know. My parents always listen to Earth, Wind Fire and all those folks, so it's like You can't, you know, you can't not— that's really how I learned, you know, after I was given trumpet, because they were like, you know, nah, we got enough percussion, we got enough drums, everybody want to play drums. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. But, you know, going home and taking that trumpet and kind of just playing, because my parents were just always— they always had these get-togethers, they always had these parties, amazing. And they're always playing this music. And so I'm back there in the back just practicing, playing licks, you know, playing learn how to play high, learn how to scream on a trumpet, you know. So, but, you know, in places in the South, really, it's like an ecosystem. You can kind of just get an instrument in your hand, at least like a horn instrument or something like that.
Fanshen Cox [00:07:16]: Is it just like you're always surrounded by music? Or I mean, what, how, how, why is it, do you think, different?
Marie Douglas [00:07:24]: Well, I think it is. You're always surrounded by music, like church. Is always going on. You know, if you're, you know, your parents might— we, they had us in church all the time. Um, we always have parades. You know, we, like I was telling, uh, everybody, we were speaking a little bit before. Yeah. You know, um, I was talking about how, you know, you take it for granted, kind of just the— what you have over there, the musical ecosystem. You know, there's all the culture heritage going back to like second line bands and, you know, street bands and things of that nature down in Louisiana. And then, you know, that just trickled all the way over through the South. And so we were surrounded by it and you were just able to kind of just get an instrument in your hand if you were going to school, probably like in a public school system, you know. So I was in every parade, ended up being drum major.
Fanshen Cox [00:08:17]: So we need pictures, we need videos.
Marie Douglas [00:08:20]: I'll find a picture, some pictures. My homeboy, his dad always was walking around with his camera Okay. So I see if he has any footage. Sometimes he just drops it on Facebook or whatever.
Fanshen Cox [00:08:31]: And you're like, "Oh, that's me!" Reminiscing on it. Okay, so then how do you go from doing that in high school, playing the trumpet, then being in the front, you know, leading things, and then you eventually end up here in LA? So what was that journey like?
FAMU, Marching 100, and Leadership Training
Marie Douglas [00:08:47]: I mean, the chance to lead like that, that my teacher took on me, especially as a woman, you know, in the middle of the South, You know, we have dancers and stuff like that. They— that's where I'm supposed to be. But, you know, as much as I love those, I love dancers, I love the whole culture, but that wasn't where I saw myself. And so I was grateful that he saw me there. And that's what started cultivating really my leadership abilities and not being afraid to go out in front and, you know, tell folks what to do. Went to college, I went to FAMU, Florida A&M University, HBCU down in Tallahassee, Florida, was lucky enough to march in the March 100. My second year there, I had— I was thrust into leadership and was having to do things that definitely a second year and a woman in that scenario would not have been able to do.
Fanshen Cox [00:09:43]: Let's talk about that point. It wasn't— it wasn't just happened to be right, because that it— maybe it was in high school when you were first getting started, but at that point, you were doing things right for them to see a leader in you. What do you think you were doing?
Marie Douglas [00:10:00]: Showing up?
Fanshen Cox[00:10:02]: That helped.
Marie Douglas [00:10:02]: That's the number one thing.
Fanshen Cox [00:10:03]: But it was more than that. Other people were showing up. What else was it?
Marie Douglas [00:10:08]: Showing up, practicing, you know, taking, taking the craft seriously, you know. I use a lot of my athletic training to fuel my musical training because I wasn't getting private lessons. I wasn't, you know, necessarily being So that's what I used, you know, just kind of the repetition, you know, the things that were necessary in order to doing the same things over and over again until they became just like, you know, my right hand.
Fanshen Cox [00:10:35]: Yeah. Great. Okay. So you're at FAMU, you're running things, you're in the front. And then what happens? How do you end up here in LA?
Doctorate, Big Dreams, and the Move to LA
Marie Douglas [00:10:48]: Um, just happenstance, you know. Um, I always wanted to do something like this. Like I mentioned, I always wanted to compose, but I ended up getting on that, uh, Fit Me Forward tour while I was working on my doctorate at University of Memphis.
Fanshen Cox [00:11:01]: What?
Marie Douglas [00:11:02]: Wait, oh, that's not— that's not on the bio. Yeah, I have a doctorate in composition.
Fanshen Cox [00:11:08]: You have your— how— I, I— this was not in the bio. Do I need to be calling you doctor?
Marie Douglas [00:11:14]: You don't have to.
Fanshen Cox [00:11:15]: What? Yes, I feel like I have to. Dr. Marie. At least Dr. Marie. Yes.
Marie Douglas [00:11:20]: I feel like that's amazing. It's just not medical, and the world needs more medical doctors.
Fanshen Cox [00:11:26]: I'm sure.
Marie Douglas [00:11:27]: I kid, I kid. But no, I appreciate that. You know, I don't say it a lot because it's like, it doesn't really matter. It's really, you know, it's a great thing to have. It's really, it's given me so much. I've learned so much.
Fanshen Cox [00:11:44]: But in a lot of it demonstrates that, that commitment that you're talking about, the reason, right? The reason that they recognize that in you, you are so committed to this. And it, you know, I mean, I think when you love it, and you, you know, have a passion for it, then sometimes it might feel easy. But to a whole lot of people, that is not— that is not—
Marie Douglas [00:12:06]: Yeah, definitely wasn't easy. It was some craziness. We can have another podcast.
Fanshen Cox [00:12:11]: Yes. Okay. Next, next.
Marie Douglas [00:12:13]: It was so much, you know, it was a lot to do. And working at the same time through most of my degrees that I've done. So it's like—
Fanshen Cox [00:12:21]: What did you plan to do when you were working on your PhD? Was that— was it to eventually— I mean, were you thinking about composing for film and TV during that? Okay, so—
Marie Douglas [00:12:31]: Yeah, as long as I've been like thinking about doing music, I've been wanting to do composing for film, being like Quincy Jones, being like John Williams, or you know, what have we. Yes. But it could be film. It's, you know, just anything. I tell folks all the time, you want me to depict the grass and the cows mooing, and I don't care what it is, we can write some music. I compose anything. But, you know, just in between, my husband got the job at USC as one of the directors of the marching band. And so, yeah.
Fanshen Cox [00:13:12]: Okay. Wait, wait, I got to hear. So was this like one of those love stories? Like y'all were in the band together?
Marie Douglas [00:13:19]: Yeah.
Fanshen Cox [00:13:19]: Yes. Oh, that's so sweet. I love it. What did he— so was he—
Marie Douglas [00:13:25]: he was the one up front. He was the one that was bad. He was band president.
Fanshen Cox [00:13:28]: You took his job.
Marie Douglas [00:13:29]: I didn't take his job. I did. I wish. I wish. That would have been so fun because I— but, um, no, I was just a section leader. I was leader of my, you know, you know, we did a lot of— they had The FAMU band is something to explain. It is a— it is huge as far as training people for the entertainment industry and for, you know, teaching music ed jobs and things like that. It's a machine, it's a factory.
Fanshen Cox [00:13:57]: So it's like, you all, like, that's okay. So really, if this is something you want to do, that would be a good place to go.
Marie Douglas [00:14:03]: It certainly would be, especially coming up out of the South. If you're looking for something that's close to your home, that's going to give you like, uh, some real-world grit and experience, you know, and the audacity that you kind of might need to kind of do outlandish things if you're a risk-taker. Yeah, it was a really great experience for that. But like, uh, you know, in the, in the band, you end up taking on these responsibilities because it's like a student-run organization, you know. It's not a bunch of staff. It's an HBCU, so it's understaffed actually. So students get a lot of chance to kind of do stuff. And so that's where A lot of the initiative that I've taken and experimentation that I've done, and foresight comes from that. And, you know, going to— knowing to go to further my education and keep going to school and stuff like that. You know, that's stuff that I garnered, you know, kind of working with BrightFam, you study in there.
Grammy-Nominated Work and Career Opportunities
Fanshen Cox [00:15:00]: All right, let's talk about— so you worked on a Grammy-nominated album, you worked with Live Nation. So either one of those or both, how did those things come to be?
Marie Douglas [00:15:11]: Oh, okay. So, um, once again, my husband was working at LSU for a period of time as a director there, and they did an album with the Marching Band, uh, and some of the arrangements— they need some folks to write some of those arrangements. Uh, the album ended up getting nominated for Grammy, uh, and it was really awesome. It was a great experience. Uh, this cat Sean Ardoin, Ardoin, He's like a— uh, uh, I always forget how to say this. Uh, Zydeco is the name of the, uh, genre that he performs in, and it's really cool. You know, it sounds like old school, uh, rock and roll, you know, in the earlier—
Fanshen Cox[00:15:54]: is it out of Louisiana? Is Zydeco from Louisiana? Okay, okay.
Marie Douglas [00:15:57]: And it's like, you know, it's a really cool thing. And for me, like, that's my thing. Like, I want to capture and make, you know, understand and just experience all of the musics that we brought forth as Africans from, you know—
Fanshen Cox [00:16:17]: The diaspora, right?
Marie Douglas [00:16:19]: All of it.
Fanshen Cox [00:16:20]: Yes, yes. I mean, which is pretty much all music if you really think about it, right? Yeah, yeah.
Marie Douglas[00:16:25]: Point blank, period. And it's like, so that was something I couldn't turn down because of my philosophy. you know, wanting to help preserve those things. So I was lucky enough to get on that, and the rest is history, you know.
Fanshen Cox [00:16:40]: This is part of my question of having a composer here. I'm imagining it's mostly freelance, right? Like, you're not necessarily set up at a studio. You are going from project to project. So how do people find you? How do you find projects to be on?
Marie Douglas [00:16:55]: I do a lot of, real in-person relationship building. Go to conferences and seminars. I had, you know, me having been a conductor, you know, active as a conductor, I hang around a bunch of conductors, people that need music, you know, and I'm always at, you know, I'm just always in the place wherever I can pop up and be. Okay.
Fanshen Cox [00:17:21]: So Hollywood, I mean, that's what you get. It really is. It's it's kind of age-old story. But again, so are there hangouts for composers in particular or is it really just kind of expanding your network to filmmakers, et cetera, to plant seeds with them? Right, it's like kind of all of the above.
Marie Douglas [00:17:41]: All of the above. I mean, you just, everything that I've done has been like, oh, you were there and you said something about that you did music and then they took a chance on you. Yeah. It's just, you know, kind of like lucky things that have occurred, you know.
Fanshen Cox [00:17:57]: Yeah, I know, this is the second time you say it just happened or lucky, but we know that's not—
Marie Douglas [00:18:02]: the preparation is one thing. So that's, you know, to be prepared to receive the lucky thing. Yeah, is the thing. So it's like, you know, that's where, that's where I believe is the biggest thing, you know, being prepared to even take on something when somebody— yes, luckily somebody hit you up about some stuff. But I also, you know, I don't— I'm not downplaying my ability.
Fanshen Cox [00:18:27]: Yeah. Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:18:28]: It's a very unique skill set. You know? Yeah, I know. I know.
Fanshen Cox [00:18:32]: It's not luck.
Marie Douglas [00:18:33]: That's not luck. I worked on this one here.
Join Us on Patreon
Fanshen Cox [00:18:36]: Yes. Yes. Yes. If you are enjoying this episode of Sista Brunch, you have got to join the whole community. And we are over here, all these conversations we have on Sista Brunch, you will be able to do this with us weekly, even daily, on Patreon. So you can find us at patreon.com/sistabrunch. You can join us for free. I mean, if you've got funds, we appreciate that too. You can have a monthly membership or join us for free. You're gonna get, uh, behind the scenes. You're gonna get some sneak peeks at episodes. We've got merch. We've got conversations going on over there that you can't see us having publicly, really. This is our place to really talk about All the things that we talked about at those original Sista Brunches in person, we are doing over on our Patreon. So join us there.
Marie Douglas [00:19:24]: Hey, everybody. My name is Marie Douglas, and you are watching Sista Brunch.
Let’s Talk Finance
Fanshen Cox [00:19:28]: Okay, so we have a segment on financials. And again, this is why I'm so curious about this role in particular, because, you know, we, we've had a lot of filmmakers that talk about, like, working at scale and understanding what the union fees are and what you can ask for. So is there anything— do you have a guild or a union? And then How do you know what you can charge?
Marie Douglas [00:19:51]: There isn't necessarily, uh, something that protects composers. There's songwriters, like certain things like that, which you can join. And there are blurred lines as it relates to, you know, instrumental composer or person that's composing pieces versus someone who's literally writing songs for the industry to consume. And for, you know, for, in a literal sense, in that way.
Fanshen Cox [00:20:22]: Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:20:22]: Okay.
Fanshen Cox [00:20:22]: So actually let's say that again because, so even just to define composer, it means different things, right? So one could be creating actual songs or then there's other, like I think about John Williams. I mean, it's songs, but it's not lyrics, songs with lyrics, right? So what, yeah, what are the kind of different kinds of composers you could be?
Marie Douglas [00:20:48]: There's so many, there's like, you can get licensed for film, of course, but not just film on, on the screen, on the big screen, there's, you know, TV, film, right, you know, so commercials and things like that. So, you know, there's, you can be someone who writes strictly music in that way. And that's a very lucrative method, you know, getting your things licensed. Um, something that I do pretty often is, uh, just composer for hire in general. And then, uh, in that scenario, what protects me would be contracts, right? You know, and in any of these, you know, scenarios, like, you want to get something written down. You want to, you know, especially if it's not somebody that you're constantly already collaborating, y'all have a relationship, you know, it's definitely want to get things written down so that things are defined and clear.
Fanshen Cox [00:21:45]: Yeah.
Marie Douglas [00:21:45]: But, and that's the biggest thing, you know, my mom taught me a lot about making sure that I was protected in that way.
Fanshen Cox [00:21:53]: Are you comfortable talking about, even if it's ballpark, like, let's say someone approaches you to compose a feature film. Do you have a place where you would start in the negotiation? Would you say like, okay, you know, I don't take any lower than this, or and/or if you don't want to say the amounts, what would factor into you deciding how much you would start with?
Marie Douglas [00:22:20]: I guess what factors into me and my asking price is what you need. You know, and what— because if you're needing something that you're not even coming close to the amount with the pay, then I know that you're going to have a hard time.
Fanshen Cox [00:22:39]: You're right. You may be— Right, because they say, oh, I need this. And here's how much I have.
Marie Douglas [00:22:47]: And if it's too far off, then it's not going to work out no matter how much I do to be nice to you. But feature film, as in like, what's the budget of the feature film? That's, I mean, you know, I guess that, that would be the biggest thing, right? What are they working with? Because, you know, I've seen people complain a lot right now about, you know, get the million-dollar budget for the film, they're trying to pay the composer $5,000 or $2,000 or something crappy. Right. You know, like, that's, that's not gonna cut it.
Fanshen Cox [00:23:21]: Okay. Okay. So there, there is a— there's a—
Marie Douglas [00:23:24]: if it's a million for the film, 10 or so can be going to the music if you're trying to have— yes, if It depends. It depends on the genre of the film.
Fanshen Cox [00:23:36]: Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:23:36]: If it's like a sci-fi film, um, that's going to cost a lot for you to make.
Fanshen Cox [00:23:42]: Okay. Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:23:43]: So it's like, how much are you going to be able to donate? I mean, you know, put towards the music. What kind of music do you want on your sci-fi? Do you want it to be that orchestra vibe like John Williams? Do you want the Hans Zimmer with the mix? You know, like, what do you want? Yes.
Fanshen Cox [00:23:59]: Yeah.
Marie Douglas [00:23:59]: So all of these things are factoring into what I'm gonna say.
Fanshen Cox [00:24:03]: Okay, so that's good for filmmakers to know too, when they approach you, is to already have in mind. So it's not when they first approach you and they're trying to get a price, then they need to say what they're looking for, what genre it is. Do they even tell you kind of what instruments they'd like in it? How does that part work?
Marie Douglas [00:24:24]: Some, some people do, because some of them know, but a big part of, you know, Being a composer for someone is decoding their language and what they mean, because it's like they're saying something and you went and you learned all these theoretical words of how things are supposed to be said and blah blah, but somebody's like, I just wanted to be like, toot toot, right there. You're supposed to say like what? Like, right, you're supposed to, you know, you're supposed to figure that out.
Fanshen Cox [00:24:52]: Okay, okay, okay. Um, and y'all I'm remembering right now we have had a composer on. I was like, now that we're talking, I'm like, oh my gosh, Tamar Colley. She worked on Pariah. Oh my God. Because I would— because I remembered the financial question. And she said, closed mouth don't get fed. So she was like you, and she was in a place where she could have her agent ask, right? And so So obviously that's always nice too, to put it off on somebody else.
Marie Douglas [00:25:27]: Yes.
Fanshen Cox [00:25:27]: There was a long time where I didn't— when I was finally in a position to be able to negotiate a salary and I made up an assistant who would email and say, here's what she wants. Right? Because that way it's coming from somebody else. Someone else is the bad cop. But someone— you need someone to advocate for you. So on that note, too, are there agents that then advocate for your salaries? Or are you really—
Marie Douglas [00:25:56]: certainly some people are represented by, you know, the different, you know, entities. Personally, not yet.
Fanshen Cox [00:26:05]: Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:26:05]: It may be someday.
Fanshen Cox [00:26:07]: No, not somebody. Okay. So if y'all are listening, this is, this is why we do this for real, right? Is like for exactly that reason. So you do— you want representation, obviously, that, that doesn't hurt, right? Okay.
Marie Douglas [00:26:23]: You know, because it is— I do, you know, like to do the freelance thing. So, um, okay, I wouldn't mind somebody helping out with finding more freelance.
Fanshen Cox [00:26:35]: Yes. Okay. Okay. I love it.
Marie Douglas [00:26:37]: Awesome.
Let’s Talk Tech
Fanshen Cox [00:26:38]: So now that I remember that you are our second composer, and still in 7 seasons, that's still not a lot. So Truly, because that's the thing, really, at the start of every season when we're talking about our guests, we're like, we have to get a composer. And it always feels so difficult, which we don't have to tell you because you know that you are one of the only ones. We want to make more. We want to make more. So this is our Let's Talk Tech segment. And the other thing I was remembering about when we had Tamar Colley on is she was talking about in Pariah, they use diagenetic music. And I was like, what is diagenetic? So that was hers. And we didn't even do a Let's Talk Tech segment at the time. But I was like, that's a perfect one. But do you have a term, you know, or even like a technical, you know, I don't know, instrument, something like that, that, that somebody who's not a composer who doesn't do music, especially in film and TV, if they hear that word or that thing, they don't know what it is?
Marie Douglas [00:27:48]: A literal technical thing they hit? Oh, maybe a DAW. Do you know what a DAW is?
Fanshen Cox [00:27:55]: No, how do you spell it?
Marie Douglas [00:27:57]: D-A-W. A doll?
Fanshen Cox [00:27:59]: No, I do not know what a DAW is. Oh, oh, there we go.
Marie Douglas [00:28:03]: So that's a digital audio workstation. Like, okay, uh, you can— it's several of them. Um, you got like Pro Tools, that's the most famous one, you probably heard of that. Fruity Loops. It's probably called something else now. FL Studio is what that's called now. Okay. But I use Logic Pro.
Fanshen Cox [00:28:22]: Okay.
Fanshen Cox [00:28:23]: It's like an Apple software, comes, uh, you can buy it on Apple. Um, but you know, usually it comes with a few virtual instruments already inside of it that you can compose with it. It's really a spot where you can make demos. You can also like record into it. You know, it's like a studio in a box.
Fanshen Cox [00:28:44]: So is it— it's like a pro version of GarageBand? Because I have heard GarageBand is kind of—
Marie Douglas [00:28:50]: Okay, that's not a good one.
Fanshen Cox [00:28:52]: You know about it for free with the Apple Pro— no, I don't know. Is that a DAW? Is GarageBand—
Marie Douglas [00:28:57]: GarageBand is a DAW. That's, that's really the first DAW that I started on, like, in, uh, probably like— okay, back in like— I'm aging myself, dating myself.
Fanshen Cox [00:29:06]: Like, you should, you should be proud of our ages.
Marie Douglas [00:29:08]: 2006, 2005, 2004. 3, 2, 1.
Fanshen Cox [00:29:12]: Uh-huh.
Marie Douglas [00:29:12]: Uh, I downloaded, uh, Fruity Loops on my brother's computer. Couldn't figure it out. It didn't make any sense to me. The XY axis was not making no sense. Uh-huh. But, uh, later on though, my husband got a Mac and we were— he was like, here, try this GarageBand. I was like, eh. Tried it out. It was very like intuitive and made sense, you know. So I used it and then eventually ended up started using Logic. It was like real smooth transition to go to Logic. But you're right, it is the Pro version.
Fanshen Cox [00:29:47]: Okay, okay. So with the— so DAWs, obviously making electronic music, but you also play instruments. And so when you're going to compose for a film or TV project, I guess that might factor into the financials too, is whether or not you're going to do— make it digitally or live, right? Okay. Do you have a preference?
Marie Douglas [00:30:13]: Oh man, I mean, being somebody that's an instrument player, you know, of course I'm gonna be a, you know, advocate for that side. But I love the mix. I love hip-hop. I love, you know, I come from like really just listening to rap all day and stuff. So it's like a lot of the production technique inside of that genre intrigues me as it relates to creating it for the— that's why I mess with so many genres as it is. And, you know, but so, you know, composing those two different things, I like mixing them. I'll say that.
Signature Sista Brunch Question
Fanshen Cox [00:30:49]: I love it. You know, I mean, Sista Brunch could use a little jingle. I'm just saying, like, right? I mean, really? Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. All right, so it is time for our signature Sista Brunch question. So you and your younger self are sitting down to a Sista Brunch. Sista Brunch came up because we— some Black women, Black and brown women mentors used to take their mentees out for brunches. It was part of the DGA training program. And they eventually started opening it up to more people. I went to one and then I was talking to— and sitting there with all these brilliant, amazing, talented, experienced people that the industry kept saying they can't find or that aren't qualified enough. I was like, we have to share these stories. So this is how we came with Sista Brunch. And so we want to know you and your younger self— she can be whatever age you want— you're sitting down to a Sista Brunch, and what are you both eating? What are you both drinking? And then what do you tell her?
Marie Douglas [00:32:02]: Back then? I'm vegan now.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:07]: Okay. Okay. Me too. Me too.
Marie Douglas [00:32:09]: Yes. Right. I probably would have ate some crab legs. We probably would have been tearing some crab legs up. Probably would have been drinking some orange high C. Okay. Or some high C fruit punch.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:25]: Yes.
Marie Douglas [00:32:26]: Or a mixture. Mm-hmm. Oh man, it's tough. I'll take it back. I probably was eating some lemon pepper wings or something. We was probably at American Deli. This is real honest. Okay, this is the truth.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:37]: Okay, you were where?
Marie Douglas [00:32:39]: American Deli.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:40]: Where's that?
Marie Douglas [00:32:41]: American Deli is a wing place in Atlanta.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:45]: Nice. Okay. What kind are they? Do you— can you order different kinds of wings? Or is it a—
Marie Douglas [00:32:50]: You can get all sorts of wings.
Fanshen Cox [00:32:52]: But what's your— do you have the same favorite flavor now? Because there's some vegan, there's some okay vegan wings out there. They're not perfect, but you could get the flavors right, right?
Marie Douglas [00:33:03]: Right. You gotta, you gotta get it right. I'm still lemon pepper or hot wing. You know, I do take drums though. But I also will eat some flats. Anyway, back to our—
Fanshen Cox [00:33:16]: Okay. Okay. So Hi-C mixture of orange and fruit punch. Some wings.
Marie Douglas [00:33:22]: Yeah. And, um, We— you said what we were talking about?
Fanshen Cox [00:33:26]: Yeah, what do you tell her?
Marie Douglas [00:33:28]: And you were right, keep going. You are correct. It's not gonna be as hard as it's gonna— as it's gonna look like it is. Like, you know, it's really difficult. But everything that's difficult, you're gonna get through all this.
Fanshen Cox [00:33:47]: I love it. I love it. I'm realizing we have not done this enough. But is there anything that you want to make sure our listeners and viewers know that anything you have coming up, certainly we're going to get you an agent. So there's one, right? Hire Marie Douglas as your composer, a freelancer available. But anything else you'd like to plug?
Marie Douglas [00:34:11]: Plug? No, I don't know how to say. I'm not good at promoting myself like that in that kind of way.
Fanshen Cox [00:34:20]: Okay. See, that's why we're here, though. This is why we do this. All right. We will spread the word. Yeah, yeah.
Marie Douglas [00:34:28]: I mean, I'm just continuing to work on projects and, uh, you know, making music. Definitely looking to work with some, um, artists and things like that. Anybody looking to experiment, work some acoustic instruments, do some cool, you know, fusion jive, hit me up. But I'm grateful to be here, and I'm, you know, big up to this place. You know, big up to Sista Brunch. I can't wait to, you know, delve deeper, hopefully.
Fanshen Cox [00:34:58]: And, you know. Yes, yes. We'll do in-person gatherings. You got to come hang out with us. Really, this is, this is your community now. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It was such a pleasure meeting you, our second composer. We apologize to Mar Colley. We love you, but also it's been too long. And now we have a new one to really, like, uplift and now be part of this community. So we're so grateful to you.
Marie Douglas [00:35:28]: I'm grateful. And I'll definitely recommend some folks too so that we can keep having Black women composers sitting in this chair.
Closing
Fanshen Cox [00:35:36]: Yes, definitely. All right. Sista Brunch is recorded on the unceded territory of the Tongva and the Chumash peoples in Los Angeles, in this beautiful studio in Hollywood, Black-owned. UPodcaster, check them out. Thank you so much for listening and subscribing and watching, joining us on Patreon at Sista Brunch— patreon.com/sistabrunch, contributing at givebutter.com/sistabrunch, and joining our community and uplifting our guests. Thank you so much for listening, and we will talk to you next week.