Composer Quest: A Songwriting and Music Composition Podcast

Latest Episodes:

EDM Production Tips with Sam Matla Nov 04, 2015

Show notes

Sam Matla admits that his hometown of Wellington, New Zealand doesn’t have a big electronic dance music scene. But he’s been hard at work producing EDM tracks and educating people about electronic music through his blog and podcast at EDMProd.com. For today’s episode of Composer Quest, I interviewed Sam about his production techniques and advice for new producers.

Slot Machine Composing Oct 28, 2015

Show notes

Reel spins, rollups, symbols, celebrations, underscores - they're all different sound ingredients that go into a slot machine. In this episode of Composer Quest, I interview three guys in the sound department at High 5 Games about their unique challenge of making music for casino slots. We talk about the composition techniques they use to hook players into these elaborate slot machine story worlds. I also ask them how they feel about using their musical skills to get people to throw down money and press that button again "like a monkey looking for that frickin' shot of espresso," as Aldo describes it. It's a fun and quirky interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Kevin MacLeod, King of Royalty-Free Music Oct 21, 2015

Show notes

If you’ve been to an indie film fest, you’ve probably seen Kevin MacLeod in the credits. Or maybe you’ve heard his music in a cute cat video, or a Minecraft video, or in a department store, cab ride, or on hold. By writing an enormous amount of music and giving it away for free, Kevin has built his reputation as the single biggest royalty-free music composer.

Jason Graves on Game Composing Oct 14, 2015

Show notes

Tomb Raider, Until Dawn, and the Dead Space series are some of the big-name video games Jason Graves has been scoring recently. In this episode of Composer Quest, Jason shares a ton of great composing, production, and music business advice, along with lessons he learned from his in-depth study of John Williams scores. We also get to hear his apples-to-apples comparison of the Skywalker Sound studio and the Abbey Road studio.

Blind Film Composer Stephen Letnes Oct 07, 2015

Show notes

What is life like as a blind composer? It’s a question I’ve wondered about, but haven’t been able to ask until this interview with Stephen Letnes. In this Season 5 premiere episode of Composer Quest, Stephen shares his adventure into the unlikely field of film composing. We talk about Stephen’s love/hate relationship with epic music, his advice for working with directors, and the piano performance that changed his life forever.

Quest 16: Gamer’s Rhapsody Game Jam Sep 23, 2015

Show notes

Emily Reese (Joon Media), Tim Turi (Game Informer), and Thomas Spargo (Gamer’s Rhapsody) join me for this quest announcement episode. This fall, we’ll be teaming up composers, game developers, artists, etc. to create new video games from the prompt, “I Barely Survived That Game Jam.” Visit http://composerquest.com/quest16 for details. Visit http://composerquest.com/quest16 for details.

Season 4 Finale: Jon Brantingham Returns Jul 01, 2015

Show notes

For the Composer Quest Season 4 finale, I asked Jon Brantingham back to chat. He shares some great insights on musical form, film scoring, and the Gustav Mahler orchestration style.

African Guitar Legend Siama Matuzungidi Jun 24, 2015

Show notes

Siama Matuzungidi played guitar on and wrote some of the biggest pop hits of the 70s in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Kenya. In today’s episode of Composer Quest, I talk with him about the soukous style of creating interesting rhythm guitar parts and lead parts to complement them. We also talk about Tim, his talented cockatiel who can improvise in the right key over Siama’s guitar playing. As a bonus, Siama writes a song on the spot in honor of the thief who stole his shoes in Uganda.

TV Composer Double Feature: Fil Eisler and Mac Quayle Jun 17, 2015

Show notes

I’m excited to announce this Composer Quest double episode with TV composers Fil Eisler (Revenge, Empire, UnReal) and Mac Quayle (American Horror Story, Drive, Mr. Robot). First, we hear from Fil about what he learned while composing for an orchestra during four seasons of Revenge. He shares his tips on getting hired for composing gigs and his tips on scoring the entire arc of a show without getting musically stale. Next, I interview Mac Quayle about how his dance music background (41 #1 Billboard Dance Hits!) influences his film and TV scoring. He gives some music mixing pointers and explains how to build momentum in a song or soundtrack.

Inside the Creative Mind of Noah Keesecker Jun 10, 2015

Show notes

In today’s episode of Composer Quest, I interview Noah Keesecker about everything from the perils of grad school to making musical ping pong tables. Along the way, I discover that Noah is on the “spectrum of synesthesia” as he calls it. For example, he often experiences smells when he hears things (bassoons smell like mossy logs), and he strongly associates visuals and sounds, which has led to some really cool multimedia works like Tonegoblin. Noah shares some great tips on being both a creative and professional artist.

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