Owen Gurry\u2019s guitar work can be heard on films like Blade Runner 2049<\/em> and Thirteen Lives<\/em>, and his compositions show up everywhere from Netflix dramas to global ad campaigns. After first attending Berklee\u2019s Boston campus in 2007, he returned years later to finish his degree in Music Composition for Film, TV, and Games<\/a> through Berklee Online\u2014this time while working full time as a session guitarist, composer, and producer. \u201cI 100 percent directly applied the stuff I was learning as I went through the online degree to what I was working on at the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owen Gurry:<\/strong>\nWhen I first came to Berklee in 2007 and studied on campus, it was one of the best summers of my life. It\u2019s really where I turned myself into a professional musician. But it wasn\u2019t cheap, and I already had one degree and a master\u2019s under my belt, with the student loans to prove it! So I went back to the UK and started my career. That went pretty well, and a few years ago, I got to the point where I thought, \u201cWell, now I can afford to fund myself and finish that process.\u201d So that\u2019s what I did. I contacted Berklee; I spoke to \nMark Hopkins<\/a>, \nmy Academic Advisor, who had fantastic advice about what I could do with Berklee Online. Owen Gurry:<\/strong> So I grew up in a really rural place and although I was obsessed with guitars and music from about 15, there was no way at 18 I was going to be able to make a go of that, living in the middle of nowhere. So I chose a degree in something else. I did my bachelor\u2019s in psychology, and then I carried on and did my master\u2019s in neuropsychology and brain injury. That was always like a career backstop for me: If music didn\u2019t happen and I couldn\u2019t make a living out of it, I still had something to fall back on.\n Owen Gurry:<\/strong> One of the things I love about my job is the variety of things I get to do. One month it might be some folk, then the next month it might be a hardcore album or some EDM, and then some string music. And I really love that. That keeps me interested, that constant changing of material. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owen Gurry:<\/strong>\nI do three things for my job: I work as a session guitarist, I work as a composer, and I work as a music producer. As a session guitarist, I\u2019m best known for working on movie scores. I\u2019ve been the guitarist for a composer called Benjamin Wallfisch for about 10 years and been on about 20 of his films in that time. Films like \nBlade Runner 2049<\/em><\/a>, which was scored with Hans Zimmer; \nA Cure for Wellness<\/em><\/a> with [writer and director] Gore Verbinski; and Ron Howard\u2019s \nThirteen Lives<\/em><\/a>. My job there is kind of a cross between traditional guitar playing\u2014where someone writes something and I have to replay it\u2014and sound design elements, where I have to mangle a guitar and make it sound not like a guitar at all. I also do hired-gun session work for other composers and jingle companies, that sort of bread-and-butter session work.\nWhy was it important for you to come back and finish your Berklee degree after so many years?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nI was able to have my normal life and I could carry on working. I could have my home life, I didn\u2019t have to move back to Boston. I could do it from my home in Wales. That flexibility was really valuable to me. I also met some really cool people from all over the world.\n
\nI was also able to take credits from my degree and master\u2019s in something completely different, and apply them to the degree program. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOkay, so you mentioned a \u201cdegree and master\u2019s in something completely different.\u201d I have to know what that \u201csomething completely different\u201d was!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nSo I had gone through this process of getting a degree and a master\u2019s as a safety net for my music career, but I wasn\u2019t really sure how I was going to launch my music career. I\u2019d heard about Berklee because some of my heroes had been here, and the thing that really motivated me to do it was that I was working as a data analyst: I was like 22, and I had a meeting with my manager. He said, \u201cYou\u2019re doing really great. Give it a couple of years, and you could be the head of the department.\u201d And that scared the hell out of me! Because at 22, I did not want to be the head of the statistics department. So I looked at Berklee. I looked at what I needed to get in, both in terms of money and in terms of qualifications, and I set about achieving that.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nYour style is so adaptable to many different types of music. How do you keep informed about the nuances of what differentiates those styles of music?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nHow is it that you find yourself working on such a range? Is this because you are creating for libraries or is it just the wide range of clients?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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