Meet Paul van der Walt

January 28, 2020

Paul van der Walt, FC member and FC Marketplace advertiser,  writes music and creates sound design for films, games, television, commercials and various music libraries. He also releases music as Watermark High and Kinoh.

Although musically self-taught with over a decade of live performance and writing experience, Paul studied Sound Design and Music For The Media at Thinkspace, under the tutelage of British composer Douglas Black Heaton. He also completed his studies of game audio implementation in Wwise through the School of Video Game Audio, guided by industry veteran Leonard Paul.

Paul’s debut feature documentary score for “Sustainable Nation” will be released in 2020 along with the film. His music has also been heard in various international indie film projects including the documentary “Make“, as well as various Noclip video game documentaries. It’s also been featured in reality TV shows like “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” as well as the work of numerous online content creators.

We recently chatted with Paul and asked him to introduce himself to the FC community. 

“I’m a freelance music composer with skills and experience in production, mixing and mastering. I work across various genres and mediums: film, TV, video games, commercials, web series etc.

“I love writing music to picture, because it’s essentially creative problem solving and it usually encourages me to approach things differently and to write outside of my comfort zone. I find writing to a brief enjoyable and exciting, because of the diversity in genres and executions that I get to explore.

“My role models mostly (unintentionally) include contemporary composers who do not come from traditional musical backgrounds, much like myself: Trent Reznor, Clint Mansell, Ben Frost, Cliff Martinez etc. I find artists who merge modern music technology and electronics with tried and tested orchestral composition the most inspiring.

“I’m currently restructuring and mixing a score I did for a feature documentary called “Sustainable Nation”. It’s about sustainable innovations in water conservation. The soundtrack will be released later this year. Other than that, this year, I’m working on more original music to be released commercially, between custom music projects.

I moved to Boston from Johannesburg (South Africa) in mid-2019 so I’m currently trying to connect with fellow filmmakers. I enjoy pitching, so be sure to get in touch if you need music for your project or to just have a discussion about music. I work with a wide range of projects and budgets.”

You can learn more about Paul and his work by visiting www.paulvanderwalt.com