Film.Music.Media

Scott Healy is a Grammy nominated composer, producer and performer who was recently nominated at the Grammy's for his piece "Koko On The Boulevard". Scott can also be seen weeknights on TBS as part of Conan O'Brien's Basic Cable Band on Conan. Scott is a terrific talent and he shares how he got started in music, which eventually led to music composition. His album Hudson City Suite is an instrumen...

Composer Darius Holbert is the very talented composer behind Hobo With A Shotgun, Assassin's Tale, the series Quickdraw, the documentary Trophy Kids from Peter Berg, the upcoming Old 37, and so much more. Darius shares his path to being a composer, and it sure is a fantastic story. We also discuss in-depth some of his recent projects like Quickdraw and Trophy Kids. Darius shares a bit about crafti...

S. Peace Nistades takes some time to talk about his busy year and recent projects. From films like The Wicked, Night Vet with James Cromwell, Rock Jocks with Felicia Day and more! We delve into Peace's process as he demonstrates his approach for these varied genres. The interview is a wonderful examination of genre composing focusing a lot on horror, comedy and science fiction. Peace shares some g...

Saving Mr. Banks and The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock talks about his recent collaboration with composer Thomas Newman on Saving Mr. Banks. John talks a bit about directing veteran actors like Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, but also about how to direct a veteran composer like Thomas Newman. He shares some fascinating tidbits such as how Newman re-temped the entire film with his own scores to...

Oscar-nominated Mark Isham is one of the most respected composers to ever work in the medium, and it was a great honor to be able to have him share some insight behind his recent work. Mark shares a bit about his background and how he found the path to film composing. We talk about his re-teaming with director Frank Darabont for the gritty Mob City on TNT. Mark talks about his approach and how he...

Emmy-winning composer Geoff Zanelli takes some time to chat about his two recent scores to Killing Kennedy and Christmas In Conway. Killing Kennedy premiered to record numbers becoming the highest rated program to air on National Geographic. Geoff delves into his approach for the film, as well as exploring what's behind the public's fascination with JFK and his story. We talk about how to approach...

One of the most influential musical artists of our generation has become more and more involved in the film music world over the past few years. Pharrell Williams co-scored the worldwide sensation Despicable Me, and his themes and songs returned for Despicable Me 2 including the new original song "Happy". Pharrell has also been collaborating heavily with composer Hans Zimmer doing various things s...

Turkish composer Rahman Altin talks about his amazing new score for The Butterfly's Dream. The film revolves around two young and struggling poets at the start of WW2 living in Turkey and is a masterful story of love and life. Rahman goes into detail about writing a score in the tradition of classic cinema and how much of a personal journey this was for him. We discuss his background including how...

Composer David Buckley talks Call Of Duty: Ghosts in his most recent interview for Film. Music. Media. His other scores include The Forbidden Kingdom, The Good Wife, Killing Lincoln, The Town, From Paris With Love, Parker and many more. We explore how he got the Call Of Duty job, which is a very highly sought after composer gig. Then we delve into his approach and process including what he wanted...

Steve Jablonsky is one of the most prolific composers working in the industry and is a true musical auteur. His iconic music and recognizable style has won him over a huge fan base. In this detailed discussion Steve talks about growing up in Los Angeles and how starting out as Harry Gregson-Williams' assistant back in the mid 90's got him on the path he's on today. We really discuss his methods an...

Joel Douek is an incredibly talented and fascinating composer. His versatility as a musical storyteller can be heard in films like The Tall Man starring Jessica Biel, nature documentaries like Galapagos 3D narrated by David Attenborough and hit animated series like Yu-Gi-Oh!. Joel explores how his different life interests led him to composing, and eventually starting as a music editor on Pokémon t...

Dominic Lewis has been busy working alongside composers like John Powell, Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi and Henry Jackman as an additional composer on amazing films. He makes his feature film debut as a composer with Free Birds, and it was a great pleasure to chat with him about it. Dominic shares how he got involved at Remote Control Productions, and everything he learned working under some of the b...

Jeff Lippencott and Mark T. Williams (known collectively as ah2) are two fantastic composers whose work is the musical backbone of some of TV's biggest hits. While the composing duo have done excellent scores for films like Jeff's recent score to Grace Unplugged, they are more known for their work in reality television. So if you watch The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, MasterChef, Shark Tank or W...

The prolific and versatile Daniel Pemberton takes some time to chat about his recent score to Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Daniel has scored films such as The Awakening, Blood and video games such as the popular Little Big Planet 2 and The Movies. The Counselor marks Daniel's first venture with Scott, which is significant because the director rarely changes composers. We talk about how he got int...

*NOTE: Spoilers, including the film's ending are discussed in this interview. Steven Price may be a relatively new composer, but his score for the critically-acclaimed Gravity shows that he is a master at building a sonic narrative. We chat about how he got his start in the business and what ultimately led him to being hired for Gravity. Gravity's technical complexity provided great challenges and...

Carl Thiel is a fantastic composer who has been working with director Robert Rodriguez for many years now. Carl has been part of Rodriguez's musical team on a slew of his films and was the lead composer for Machete Kills, which Carl co-composed with Rodriguez. Carl worked extensively on the first Machete as well as part of Rodriguez's band Chingon. We discuss the collaborative differences between...

The incredibly talented Jeremy Zuckerman provides some insight behind his amazing work on The Legend Of Korra. We delve into how Jeremy got his unconventional start in the business and went on to score one of the most successful animated shows on television with Avatar: The Last Airbender. He discusses his time schedules and process working on an animated series including recording with live music...

The always great Christopher Lennertz chats about some of his newest scores like Thanks For Sharing and Revolution. Thanks For Sharing is a drama about sex addiction, but it also has a lot of light life moments. It's a film that will make you laugh and cry at the same time so we discuss all the challenges that came with it. It's also a deeply psychological film requiring a lot from the score to ge...

The busy Lorne Balfe takes some time to chat once again about all his recent projects including The Frozen Ground, Salinger, Beyond: Two Souls and more! We chat about his experience of putting together a live concert in Spain at the PlayFest Festival where he won an award for best video game score for Assassin's Creed III. Lorne talks about the long journey of making Salinger and his love for docu...

NOTE: Christine was suffering from Laryngitis at the time of this interview, but was still eager to speak about her work! Christine Wu is a concert violinist, cellist, composer, string arranger, and studio musician for records, film, television and live performance. She has recently become more involved in film scores as a musician and a composer herself. Her collaborations with Lorne Balfe are ex...

Composer Daniel Hart composed the amazing score to Ain't Them Bodies Saints. We discuss a little about his background and focus on his approach for the score. We analyze which characters really spoke to him, working with director David Lowery, and incorporating non-traditional percussion such as clapping and chest beating. Daniel also shares a bit about his upcoming score to The Sideways Light. Da...

Nathan Barr is a busy man with projects like True Blood, Hemlock Grove and The Americans. Nathan recieved two Emmy nominations this year for the main titles of Hemlock Grove and The Americans. We discuss how he got into music including his first gig in Hollywood being an assistant to Hans Zimmer. He quickly started making a name for himself and that has led to nothing but success. We discuss what...

Joel P West takes some time to chat about his amazing score to the film Short Term 12. The film and the score are getting raving reviews and bringing lots of attention to the relatively new director, stars and composer. We discuss how Joel's friendship with director Destin Cretton led to their collaborations up to Short Term 12. He shares his history with his band The Tree Ring and how he fell in...

Jeff Cardoni gives a fantastically fun and super informative interview. We go in depth with his two upcoming projects, The Michael J. Fox Show and Full Circle. Both series are unconventional when it comes to scoring; one is a sitcom while the other is a dialogue-heavy drama. We discuss the challenges that come with both areas of composing including how hard comedy is to score. Jeff shares about si...

Chatting with iZLER is always a complete joy. This is our fourth interview together (3rd for 2013) and we never run out of stuff to talk about in the busy composer's career. iZLER is best known for his work on Shameless and Revenge, and here we discuss the CD release of the Revenge score from Intrada Records. This interview mainly focuses on how he compiled 1 CD from over two seasons of music and...