Eric Gasa
When talking about his work, Alex Geringas can’t help but excitedly chuckle. The Moscow born, German-raised, and LA-dwelling musician has had a steady rise to success from penning failed pop singles back in the 90’s to writing big screen movie scores, and collaborating with pop legends like Cher and Kelly Clarkson.
During my chat with Geringas I had the opportunity to speak with an idiosyncratic man dedicated to both his family and craft. In his latest project, writing the score for Netflix’s Trolls: The Beat Goes On! Geringas channels his inner Wagner; infusing hilariously overdramatic tones to one of the most charming, quirkiest kids shows on TV today. The juxtaposition fits his personality perfectly; a man of the dignified arts not afraid to join in on the fun.
Other scores to Geringas’ credit includes Pitch Perfect 3, Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh, Ice Age: Collision Course, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
How did you first break into the music industry?
It was back in 1998, I was living in Germany and a friend of mine told me, ‘Hey man, let’s write a hit!’ At the time I knew nothing about writing for artists and then he told me lets write about something everybody likes and bring it to a publisher. I thought it was all talk. We wrote a song about a topic we both thought everybody liked, vacation. We played it to the publisher, who liked it, then the record label sent it to a radio station, and then we had our first release.
But this also has to be the biggest flop in my career to date because nobody bought the single. There was a producer though that heard our song and reached out to me to write one with him for a rap group. That first single would become my first Top Ten hit in Germany. Our second release together became the theme song for the first episode of Big Brother in Germany.
As a composer and songwriter, which comes first, the lyrics or the melody?
I am and always will be a melody guy. I love working with lyricists, but I also love setting a concept with them and developing that idea.
Who are some of your musical inspirations?
One of my biggest musical inspirations is John Williams, the film composer. I love the variety of styles that he has composed. And of course, there is Alexandre Desplat who is just phenomenal in how he found a dialogue where no words are spoken in, The Shape of Water. Absolutely fantastic. That is where I would like to be someday.
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