The Beginning

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Jon-Joseph Nepaul was borned in Manchester, England 1990. He moved to Jamaica shortly after his birth, and was privileged to spend his entire childhood, teen and his young adult life there. It would be remiss to continue noting his background without mentioning one of the most memorable moments in his life. Jon-Joseph often recounts this story in the many interviews, so much so that this story is commonly known as the “car ride”. One morning, Evan and Theresa Nepaul were chauffeuring their son, Jon-Joseph. As he sat in his little toddler car seat, he heard a familiar melody. A cover of a Dolly Parton song came on the radio. This song was instantly a hit and had been constantly broadcasted everyday for weeks. It was Whitney Houston’s rendition of “I will Always Love You”. Jon-Joseph was only about 1 year of age and couldn’t speak yet. His parents listened to the song and began to hear what they thought was a delay in the car stereo. Soon, they realized that the echo of Whitney Houston’s voice was coming from the backseat. Their eyes became as wide as a startled cat. They were both in amazement of what they were hearing. They listened and waited in anticipation for the emotive high note on the key change of the song. After the brief silence, there it was. “And I”! The highlight of the song and simultaneously, the highlight of Jon-Joseph’s musical origin. He sang it. The exact same pitch Whitney Houston sang. That was the beginning of Jon-Joseph’s music career. 

 

Ever since the car ride, Jon-Joseph’s parents did their best to support his gift in music. At the age of 6, Jon-Joseph got his first instrument. A small casio keyboard. It was of no surprise that after only a day of touching the keys, he was already able to play melodies from songs he heard at church and on the radio. A year later, he was playing the keyards in church. He continued honing his skills in church and started to play for many local groups. 

 

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Education

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After attaining his Bachelors in Business Management at the University of the West Indies (2013), Jon-Joseph went to Full Sail University to study Music Production. He graduated valedictorian of his class (2017) while scoring more than 10 different short film projects. 

He then interned at Full Sail where he was directly working with Veit Renn (a Music Producer who worked with NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Hudson, just to name a few)  as well as Leslie Brathwaite (an Audio Engineer who worked with Beyonce, Kanye West, Migos, Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams, Cardi B, and many more). 

After interning for about a year, he decided to further his studies in music composition at Berklee College of Music. He graduated with a Magna Cum Laude (2019) with a Master’s Degree in Music where he specialized in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games and was consistently on the “Dean’s List’ as an exceptional student and composer. 

 

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Awards

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Quite notably, Jon-Joseph Nepaul has won many awards both academically and professionally in his music career. 

At the University of the West Indies, he was awarded with The Premiere Prestige Award as well as the award for Outstanding Service and Contribution Towards Music and Culture. 

At Full Sail University, he was the recipient of multiple Academic Course Director Awards in Music Structure and Analysis, Music Production for Media and the top student award for the Cumulative Experience for the Final Project. 

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Today

 

In addition to arranging strings for many different artists such as R&B Legend “Joe”, as well as many other artists and producers, he still scores full orchestral and hybrid cues for films and video games. He does most of his work in the comfort of his home, where he built a home studio. His home studio layout is perfectly customized for his personal workflow. 

Jon-Joseph states, “I like to wake up in the mornings, turn on my music system and enjoy a nice fresh coffee roast while reading a good book before starting my day. My wife and I both work from home ever since we got married, which is perfect for me. My days are usually completely filled with 12+ hour work days, so being able to have lunch and dinner with her everyday is perfect.”

 

His workflow is oftentimes the same for most of his projects. It all starts with understanding the project. If he is scoring a film, he would watch the film a few times with the dialogue. Then he would watch it a few times without any sound. This helps to clarify any progression of emotions or moods throughout the film. The key in this stage is to know exactly what the project is about and what exactly is the purpose. After going through the film with the director and the team (commonly known as the spotting session), he would then open his Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), Logic Pro X, and start the composition. His process might vary depending on the project, but one truth is constant. Jon-Joseph would often say, “We are composers, arrangers and orchestrators for something.”  This was a sentence that was drilled in his mind by one of his instructors at Berklee, Sergio Lacima. He further goes on to say, “It is easy to create music that you like or compose a piece that you personally enjoy. But being a composer for film or television or video games or even an arranger for a song is moreso about trying to produce appropriate, collaborative and cohesive composition for the project.”

 

 

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Jon-Joseph now continues to pursue his career with his personal mantra at the forefront of his business.

“Always Giving More Value; Exceeding Expectations!”

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Joe

Vincent Herbert

Veit Renn

Bizness Boi

Symphani Soto

Bella Blair

- and many more

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