Eric J Watkins

Eric Watkins is an accomplished media composer from Springfield Illinois who has also lived in Chicago, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  Most recently he completed 5 separate film scores for the 3rd annual Pens to Lens (2015) gala and screening.  The scores ranged from epic orchestral/choral to Orchestral/Electronic hybrid, as well as ambient/piano.  In total, with trailer music also written for the event, he wrote over 46 minutes of music for 5 different directors.

As a young teen, Eric took to playing piano at home and advanced to playing and programming synthesizers in the early 90s.  After 20 years of performing in live venues in various bands, Eric set his sights on composing for film in the early 2000's and was commissioned soon after by The Illinois Secretary of State's office for numerous film projects.  Early networking, and a creative, dependable work ethic, created many opportunities at the onset of his career.  Currently Eric has worked with dozens of film directors and producers as well as dozens more musicians and artists as a producer, creating music for film, television, video games, film trailers, festival themes, and corporate media, all from his his hometown studio in Decatur Il, Studio E.  It is a combination of imagination and strict discipline that makes Eric Watkins a first call for many directors. 

“He's done practically everything for us, from radio and TV commercials to comic videos and animations,” - Eric Hector, Owner of Heroic Age Studios

“Working with Eric is just fantastic, not least because he's far more reliable than many of the people you work with as a filmmaker,” - Director Thomas Nicol

“He's achieved the ultimate goal of a musician, which is to transcend into becoming an artist,” - Composer and session player Chad Goveia

"Eric's talent is outrageous. I have shot or directed several projects he has scored and have been blown away by not only how easy it is to work with him, but just how incredible he is at taking rough ideas and totally running with them to make something even more awesome than I originally thought."  - Director Anna Zorn


There is hardly a style of music that Eric hasn't been commissioned to write at one time or another, and with nearly 100 paid commissions, his ability to find the proper musical voice for any given project is stellar.  Currently he is in the pre-production stage of scoring a film for which he wrote the screenplay as well as waiting for three major projects already scheduled, a web series score, a feature length documentary, and a feature-length film.  In between projects, Eric makes it a point to mentor others who are interested in all things audio including film score and music production in general.  Feel free to contact him any time.