Meet Room Full of Hammers: Room Full of Hammers is the musical collaboration of composers Thomas Laufenberg and Craig Wallach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Room Full of Hammers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Room Full of Hammers, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
Probably the degree to which a viewer sees a film differently because of what they’re hearing musically. It’s really sleight of hand; it’s like a magic trick sometimes. Going back and watching scenes we’ve scored without the music really drives home the importance of music in film and television. The music takes the viewer to where the filmmaker wants to go emotionally. That’s when it’s doing its job, and most of the time viewers aren’t truly aware it’s happening.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We started Room Full of Hammers five years ago over a mutual interest in film composing, and the first few years of this was really the equivalent of going to school. We both come from more of a rock music background, and composing for film is a different thing entirely. We started the learning process by creating our own video vehicles and composing for them, then composed for student films and commercials, local documentary videos, anything we could get our hands on. Along the way we immersed ourselves in soundtrack music, and worked every day to get better. We both work day jobs, and have basically been at this 6-7 nights a week for five years working to improve our skills. As we’ve grown so have our opportunities, and this year we completed work on our first feature-length film, which has been sold for distribution. It hasn’t been easy, but Thomas always says “If we build it, they will come.” For us, that means being here and doing the work. Luckily the work is a blast.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Phoenix has lots of great vegan restaurants that we like to frequent. If you like vegan food, you can’t go wrong going to Green, the Coronado, or Verdura, to name a few.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We’d love to give a shout-out to film director Ryan Henry Johnston, for whom we’ve scored several projects, including his first full-length feature film to be released in 2021. Ryan is an up-and-coming filmmaker whose work has inspired us, and we appreciate the opportunities he has given us. We’ve got more projects scheduled with him, and look forward to those as well.

Website: www.roomfullofhammers.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/roomfullofhammers
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RoomFullofHammers

Image Credits
All rights to images and permission to publish are courtesy of Room Full of Hammers.