Student soundtracks 

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington alumnus Jeremy McLean originally wanted to study film.  

Once Jeremy started at the University, he realised that although he enjoyed film, music was where he wanted to be. He switched to a Bachelor of Music in Sonic Arts and Music Technology before going on to do a Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice).  

“I love the instant nature of creating music,” Jeremy says. “With a film, you can spend years planning and producing before you see the final art. With music you can just sit down and start playing and create something right then. I also love being able to do everything, from playing the instruments to the technical production side.” 

Jeremy also loved the philosophy around creating music and the discussions about the emotional impact different compositions can have.  

Jeremy says his undergraduate degree helped him understand technical and theoretical concepts and ideas when it came to music and locked in strong foundations of music knowledge. 

“Having these strong foundations locked in at undergraduate level allowed me to develop my style and take risks during postgraduate study,” Jeremy says. “The stronger emphasis on workshopping ideas and seeing if they feel right, rather than dealing with technical errors, was what really separated the undergraduate degree from the postgraduate degree. This point in my studies felt like a culmination of what came before, and I finally had the confidence to deeply explore minute ideas.” 

Practical experience

During his study, Jeremy did some work creating scores for films, including for the film Life’s a Drag during his MFA(CP) studies. When the University was looking for someone to compose the music for the new postgraduate recruitment campaign videos, Jeremy’s name came up. 

“My former lecturer Thomas Voyce recommended me to the production company, Wrestler, who were looking after the campaign,” Jeremy says. “I created some sample music for Wrestler which they liked, and so they hired me to compose and mix the music for the postgraduate campaign.” 

Wrestler provided Jeremy with the scripts and some visual references for the videos, and he used this information to create the music for the campaign. 

“The topic covered in the videos were quite serious, but also had an underlying hope and a drive towards a resolution, so I wanted the music to reflect that,” Jeremy says. 

Each of the videos tackles a different theme (creativity, discovery, leadership, and sustainability and wellbeing) and shows some of the challenges the world faces in those areas while inspiring potential students to solve those problems through pursuing postgraduate study.  

Jeremy says he loved the process of working on a commercial campaign.  

“It was great to work collaboratively with the Wrestler team and the University,” Jeremy says. “It felt good to put forward different ideas and get feedback on them, and to be okay with ideas either being loved or being shot down.” 

Jeremy says his MFA helped him gain the skills and experience he needed to successfully create the music for the postgraduate campaign. 

“Having had the time to develop my skills and learn theory, I was able to quickly pursue ideas with an understanding of why I felt they worked or didn't—and I could communicate that with the filmmakers. The practicality and freedom of my postgraduate studies allowed me to confidently make bolder decisions when it came to composing that I knew I could see through.” 

Jeremy would like to do more film scoring work in the future, but he also has several other projects on the go. 

“I work for Radio New Zealand as a studio operator, which is pretty cool. I hope to eventually go out into the field and do big concert recordings with their team,” Jeremy says. “I’ve also got an album of my own music in the works.” 

For anyone thinking about studying music, Jeremy has some advice.