"Does it sound expensive?"

One of the busier composers to have been thrust into the spotlight over the past couple of years is Tyler Bates. In the grand tradition of many successful film composers, Bates began writing for low-budget films and had graduated to mid-level horror films (Dawn of the Dead, The Devil's Rejects, Slither) when he seemed to come out of nowhere with his 2007 score for Zach Snyder's 300. Since then, he's added a television series and video game score as well as three other scores to his resume (including Snyder's Watchmen) and has a nice write-up in Electronic Musician this month. As he's been doing all of this work out of his home studio (hence the title of this post), the article and photos are a good indicator of what a currently successful film composer's life and environment can look like.