Gaelen Mackley – A music composer for the Studios

Where does our passion and the goals we reach for come from? What made each of us want to get into the entertainment and creative industries to begin with? For me it began at a very young age.

In 1982 My mother was waiting tables in Kentucky for a living, when a man came into the restaurant she had just been hired at the week before, with an entourage of cast and crew from the Broadway production of Evita. Florence Lacy (who later became my godmother) was playing Evita at that time and a young charismatic Tim Bowman, the role of Che Guevara. The man’s name was Michael.

He sat at her table with Flo (as the cast and crew called Ms. Lacy) and Tim, and about 20 other various crew members. They could be seen stumbling off the stairs from a custom coach liner style bus that was larger than my mother had ever seen. They were running in and out of the cold and rainy car park, all wanting hot beverages and good home style food instead of McDonalds or room service that they had gotten all to accustom too from the months and months on the road. Michael was, as best she could tell, leading this rabble of thespians and backstage crew. He sat down right in front of my mother and asked her name. “Beverly” she said with a smile on her face for the first time in a while. The ramblers ordered and ate and drank, loving the time off the bus, not wanting to return to it so soon. Michael went on to strike up a conversation with my mother and ended up telling her that he was head of sound for the entire production.

She had never met anyone that was working the job they wanted and set out to achieve, much less in the field of entertainment. She was impressed by his story and his commitment to his goals and ambitions. He told her that they would be in town for a week and then leaving the country for a world tour. He also said what I have always believed made her want to give up her job and go on the road with him, 1 ½ year old child in her arms, and nothing but her clothes and her savings in hand. In response to a question, she asked as they talked, playfully she leaned forward and asked him, “So Mike, what do you want to do when you grow up then?” His response polarized the fact that you could do whatever you wanted if you put in the work and never let go of your dreams. He looked right in her eyes and said, “Oh this Evita thing is just a steppingstone, I am going to work for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg after this and settle down in the Bay Area where Lucas is now based.” She knew he was serious. She knew somehow that he would pull it off and with it being 3 days since they had seen the outside of a motel room at this point, she decided to pack up and go with him as he asked her to without any reservations about it whatsoever.

The world tour was a huge success, and my stepfather went on to do sound for the original Broadway productions of Le Miz, Sweeney Todd, Cats, A Chorus Line, and many more before moving us to

San Francisco when he landed a crew position in the electrical and set departments on

Indian Jones and The Last Crusade. He did it. He started working for George Lucas and for

Steven Spielberg at the same time. I by proxy, got to grow up on the sets of all the TV shows and films he worked on. Huge blockbuster films like Back to The Future, The Matrix, Die Hard,

The Rocketeer, Ghost, The Hunt for Red October and many more! My childhood was spent in the hallways of Industrial Light and Magic, and at the Fourth Of July picnics at Skywalker Ranch!

I have memories of things that only come along once in a lifetime if you are extremely lucky, like

George Lucas asking me what I want on my hot dog and then making it for me and giving it to

Steven Spielberg to hand to me. Harrison Ford asking me if I want some M&M’s and then tapping me on the shoulder to make me look to the right as he stood to my left pretending to not know what was happening while he was in full Indian Jones wardrobe, whip, and all! Amazing memories that showed me that if you work hard enough and you never give up, you can do anything you desire. While my stepfather was fascinated by sound and special effects which he excelled at. I was inspired by all areas of film making. But I was particularly drawn to the soundtracks of the amazing films I grew up watching get made. In particular, John Williams’ score for Star Wars and yes, the incredible musical score for the Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. At the premier for the film, I got to meet John and tell him how impressed I was and said that I wanted to do music too. He smiled at the 9-year-old me looking up at him with all the hope in the world in my eyes, that I too would be a film music composer one day and Johnny (as Spielberg and Lucas called him) said as he shook my hand,

“I can’t wait to hear what you compose someday.”

And that was it for me! I went home that evening with the idea of film composing firmly planted in my mind for a career. I got a copy of the score for the film on CD for Christmas and with a chopstick in one hand I pretended to conduct the orchestra as I set off on an amazing sonic adventure into the musical world that each track transported me to. I could not stop smiling and I had never wanted something so bad in my life. My head and my heart both agreed that film score composing was going to forever be my passion and become my living.

I composed piano pieces from a young age and went on to keep composing in every genre that I could learn about and teach myself. I kept getting better and better the longer and more time and work I put into something I was so passionate about. I am 100% self-taught, and am diagnoses with what

Stanford University Medical Center said was Spontaneous Savant Syndrome after a life threatening motorcycle accident on December 5^th 2012, 6:08pm. Stanford said that after the accident, the severe injury and brain trauma activated musical and mathematic centers in my brain that were never active before, and also made the existing skills and abilities I already had turn into what I affectionately refer to as my new musical superpowers. I went from being able to write rock music and piano pieces, to understanding and suddenly having the ability to compose for and fully comprehend orchestration and classical arrangement and composition without any training or lessons.

I am lucky. I have been lucky in life even in accidents and life-threatening incidents. And I was raised on the sets of some of the most memorable and influential films and TV shows of all time.

I aim to keep going with my dream to eventually achieve a composer position on a major release, feature films, get a development deal writing for other musical artists, and eventually open my own studios where people like me and other people with the same passions and musical goals can come to develop their abilities, their craft and make the connection needed to succeed in this industry full of dreams. I have never used my stepfather’s positions in the industry to find work or get my foot in the door anywhere at any point. Instead choosing to keep wanting my musical abilities and passion to speak for themselves in every musical note that I write, every lyric that is sung, in every mix down that I complete and post on my every growing portfolio of work. I stay focused and committed to every step forward that I take toward my goals.

I encourage you all to never give up and never let go of YOUR dreams and your goals as well. I want each one of you to always keep reaching for what people will often tell you is impossible. There is no such thing in this world as an impossible dream or goal, or something that you cannot achieve.

Before my stepfather’s passing on August 12^th of 2017, just 3 days after my birthday, he told me to always use my gifts to try to reach for everything that I wanted to get done in life, to do it now before it was too late, and to help as many other people along the way as I could. He achieved everything that he wanted to in his lifetime and said many times that he had no regrets and left his mark on the world.




He achieved what every one of us want to do in our own special and unique way. And he did it with the most amazing people in the most wonderful profession in the world. He was a dream catcher,

a magician on the set and stage, his work can be seen in the films that we ALL grew up with, and the worlds that those films transported us all to. Worlds that inspired generations of filmmakers and creative minds the world over, and that will continue to inspire many more dreamers and makers for generations to come.

Nothing is impossible and anything can become a reality if you just dare to dream.

So…. what’s your story?