Composer Enhances Films in Ways You Never See

West Hollywood resident Jake Monaco has had an impact on dozens of movies he’s been involved in, but he hopes you haven’t noticed.

That’s because Monaco composes film scores, working hard to enhance the visual storytelling without distracting from it. He’s composed music for more than two dozen independent films and contributed or assisted with music on a number of big studio pictures, including The Hangover, All About Steve and Hot Tub Time Machine.

His most recent composing and songwriting credit is for Role/Play, the fifth and latest release from Guesthouse Films, which also produced the 2009 LGBT film festival hit Make the Yuletide Gay. The comedy-drama included six songs Monaco co-wrote with Jen Hansen, a former bandmate. They sang one of them, “Gloria,” on a bouncy video that incorporates upbeat holiday scenes from the movie.

Role/Play, though gay in content, is a much different film—a serious drama about the unlikely relationship between a recently outed soap star and a recently divorced gay marriage activist that includes several scenes on the erotic side.

“My main job on Role/Play was to write the music that underscored certain scenes,” said Monaco, 28, who lives with his longtime partner on North Orange Grove Ave. “The music was written specifically to support what the actors were portraying on the screen.”

“Jake and I spent a lot of time talking about how the music should enhance the scenes, not overpower them,” said Rob Williams, who wrote and directed Role/Play, co-producing with Rodney Johnson and Matthew Montgomery. “Because this is a dialogue-heavy movie, we kept the music to a minimum so as to not interfere with the dialogue. But Jake's music creates a wonderful mood and sets the tone right from the opening credits.”

“When Rob and I first started talking about the music for the film, I remember him telling me he was looking for it to be sexy and moody,” Monaco said. “The challenge was to achieve those qualities without making it too dark.  So for many of the sexually charged scenes I kept the music more subtle but incorporated some instruments that retained a quirky element.”

Although Role/Play was shot in Palm Springs, West Hollywood has a role in the film that, like Monaco’s music, is heard but not seen.

“One of the running jokes in the movie,” said Williams, “is that marriage activist Trey Reed [played by Montgomery] lives in the heart of West Hollywood because he wants to be ‘where the action is’—his words—which runs counter to the closeted soap actor Graham Windsor [played by Steve Callahan], who has worked to stay out of the gay community spotlight. But as they grow closer during the movie, Graham realizes that the West Hollywood environment is something he should embrace, not run away from, as he begins his life as an openly gay actor.”

Monaco, whose mother sang in bands, got interested in music at age 6, took guitar lessons for a few years, got frustrated and quit, then rediscovered music as a teenager, “learning everything that came on the radio in the mid-'90s.”

Today, he describes his music as “fairly versatile in terms of musical styles. What I'm finding I enjoy most is working with small ensembles, an indie rock type of sound, but with an eclectic twist.”

A CD of his music from Role/Play, including several original songs, can be sampled on the website of Q6 Studios, a company Monaco founded with several other composers.

As a musician, he says, it makes no difference to him whether a film is oriented for gay or more mainstream audiences.

“I wouldn't say that I relate any more or less to a gay-themed movie. The relationships and character dynamics of a film are what I connect with. Whether it's a straight or gay couple, we've all faced something we can parallel in our own lives.”