CV Native Scores Baby Shark’s Big Adventure!
Jon Chau
This weekend, a new animated film, “Baby Shark’s Big Adventure!” debuts on Paramount +, featuring a musical score by Castro Valley native Jon Chau. Billed as a “major ocean picture,” it features big-name voice talent, including Cardi B, Ashley Tisdale, and Lance Bass, with Kimiko Glenn as Baby Shark and Luke Youngblood as his best friend William.
“I made videos from an early age, as a singer-songwriter when YouTube first became a thing,” Chau says.” As I got older, I became interested in film scoring and helping people build a sonic world for their movies.”
Chau adds, “The journey to film scoring was never linear, but I’m loving every minute of it and the opportunity to work on projects that will reach a wider audience. I want to help people execute their vision, to tell their story, and build their world cinematically.”
A talented musician who has played piano since he was 5 and violin since age 7, Chau comes from a family of Castro Valley musicians. His mother plays guitar and drums, his father sings, and his sister plays piano and clarinet.
“Jon was in the orchestra from elementary school through high school here in CV and got his musical roots here,” says his sister Crystal Chau Drane. “He used to work at the Chabot Theater and is now doing some pretty cool stuff out in the world with his music.”
Chau is grateful that he was surrounded by music from a young age. He says that he owes a lot to growing up in a church because leading music in a congregation is not that different from guiding audiences with a film score.
Chau has created music for numerous TV shows, including “The Walking Dead,” “Marvel’s Agents of Shield,” and “Black Mirror.” He has also worked on movies like “10 Cloverfield Lane” and video games like “God of War.” He collaborates with various musical groups, such as Zedd and 88 Rising, to enhance his versatility.
Chau attended Jensen Ranch Elementary, Canyon Middle, and Castro Valley High School, graduating from CVHS in 2006. He credits his teachers, Jack Luedders and Heidi Dahms, with giving him performance experience, including percussion in the orchestra.
“We had an 80-person orchestra at Castro Valley High and played film music. Playing the ‘Lord of the Rings’ score helped cement my passion for movie music,” says Chau.
His piano teacher in Castro Valley, Jeanne Fisher, was impressed with his talent early on.
“He’s incredibly gifted. It was so much fun listening to him play my seven-foot grand piano. He’s one of those students that everything he touched turned to gold,” says Fisher, a classically trained pianist and past president of the Music Teachers Association of California.
Fisher adds, “He has such great ability and was one of my top 10 students.”
Though musically talented, Chau initially got a degree in Marine Biology from UCLA. At that point, music was still a hobby.
“Right after getting that degree, I began to realize music was something I could do as a career. I went to Berklee College of Music and got a professional diploma in Film Scoring,” Chau said.
As they say, the rest is history. He got a job in 2014 with legendary film composer Bear McCreary, who taught Chau much about the film scoring process.
“It was a dream job and very inspiring. I learned so much about the business, besides being mentored by him,” says Chau, who is now self-employed and works remotely from the Bay Area.
Film scoring is a very collaborative process, and every project is different, he says. Sometimes he receives a script early on and can design music with the whole story in mind. Sometimes he works with animatics, which are rough cuts of the movie or program. In the case of “Baby Shark’s Big Adventure!”, he submitted an extensive orchestration demo to Nickelodeon Studios to be considered for the job.
“The original Baby Shark song inspires the music to harness that familiarity, which can be powerful whether people realize it or not. I wanted to present the cinematic version of the Baby Shark song in a way that would give people chills,” he says.
The movie debuts December 8 on Paramount + and will also play on Nickelodeon.
For a fascinating look at Jon Chau’s work and process, check out his websites. https://iamjonchau.com/, and https://tiktok.com/@iamjonchau,