From & Inspired BY

Director Hu Guan's film, The Eight Hundred, might have only played briefly in stateside theaters before Covid shut everything down, but the Chinese war drama has taken in over $450 million worldwide since it released at the beginning of August. Just a little after it was released, I spoke with music supervisor Fei Yu and composer Andrew Kawczynski about the music of the film, and how the music was...

Composer Sam Ewing has slowly but steadily made a name for himself over the last few years, thanks to his work with the massive talent that is composer Bear McCreary on shows like The Walking Dead and films like the Happy Death Day series. However, Ewing has also started doing work on his own, and the composer's first solo score, for director Frank Sabatella's vampiric horror, The Shed, was just r...

From 1983 to 1989, and from 1993 to 2001 Jeff Pilson was the bassist for hard rock band Dokken. Over the course of the band's lengthy career, Pilson co-wrote many of the band's biggest hits, including the two tracks included in 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors. The theme song has become rather iconic, as has "Into the Fire," which plays over the film's opening sequence. He w...

This installment of Your Favorite Soundtrack sees us talking with Greg Dedrick about the soundtrack to the 1985 Tom Holland film, Fright Night. Greg -- aka Greg D -- is a podcaster who hails from Kansas City. Dave is, along with Jenius McGree, the co-host of the Kansas City-based Nightmare Junkhead and Nerds of Nostalgia podcasts, as well as the host and co-host of many cool live events, Covid qua...

An ode to Giallo, '70s crime flicks and French new wave cinema; Bastien Keb’s third album, The Killing of Eugene Peeps, is an imagined score of downbeat anti-ballads, cinematic instrumentals, psychedelic-folk and warped soliloquies. Set for an October 9 release via Gearbox Records, the album was oiginally made in three parts: film score, soundtrack and incidental music. The record develops in a dr...

The Dutch symphonic metal masters known for their love affair with horror, Carach Angren , released their sixth full-length, Franckensteina Strataemontanus , on June 26 via Season of Mist. The record explores the story of the “real” Dr. Frankenstein, Johann Conrad Dippel. Dippel was a mad scientist in Germany who performed sick experiments that even included failed attempts to reanimate dead anima...

Composer Jackson Greenberg's theme song for Netflix’s hit docuseries, Explained, went viral earlier this year, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon and taking on a life of its own. It's a bop and a half, and we discussed its unusual rise to fame with the musician, as well as his work on the FX/Hulu documentary, AKA Jane Roe, and other reality projects, earlier this year.

Less Than Jake has been making music since the mid-'90s, and their ska-punk sound is just as popular now as it was during the third wave's heyday. The man behind the drum kit, Vinnie Fiorello , is the mastermind behind many of the band's most popular songs, and so it was a real treat to get him on the phone to talk about the band's work in films like Good Burger and Scream 2 , as well as his lates...

The Psychedelic Furs have been making moody, beautiful rock music since 1977. Despite a hiatus for the better part of the '90s, when founding members Richard Butler and Tim Butler founded Love Spit Love with Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer, the long-running band is still going strong. After reuniting in 2000, the Furs have toured regularly, and thanks to the use of their songs “Love My Way” and “T...

Starting with Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco & the Time Rippers at the beginning of this year, blogger and YouTuber Troels Pleimart, aka the Space Quest Historian , began reorchestrating the scores to the classic Sierra sci-fi comedy games. Three successful Qrates crowdfunding campaigns later, he's on to his biggest project yet -- a double vinyl release for Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next M...

The Vandals' 1995 album, Live Fast Diarrhea , gets a snazzy 25th anniversary vinyl repress this week from Craft Recordings. To celebrate, we spoke with both the band's guitarist, Warren Fitzgerald, as well as bassist Joe Escalante, about the music of Glory Daze and their appearance in the Penelope Spheeris cult classics, Suburbia and Dudes , as well as the new Live Fast Diarrhea repress.

Despite hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey, and only being 35 years old, composer Joseph Trapanese has rapidly ascended to join the ranks of today's most exciting composers. Due in no small part to the composer's work with such musical luminaries as French electronic acts M83 and Daft Punk (the latter of which he helped compose the massively-successful score for Tron: Legacy ), along with his wo...

Ten years ago, on May 16, 2010, famed metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio died from cancer. In the intervening decade, there have been myriad tributes to the departed singer, including a hologram tour featuring original members of his band. For the tenth anniversary of his passing, the band Appice – featuring legendary drummers and brother Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice – put together a lockdown trib...

Composer Kyle Newmaster has been a film, television, game, and concert stage composer for over 15 years. His latest project is the CBS series Blood & Treasure -- an Indiana Jones meets James Bond meets Romancing the Stone action-adventure drama. Kyle was able to record live musicians throughout the season, a rarity with TV composing nowadays. Newmaster has also worked as an orchestrator, most...

Hey there! Sorry for the massive delay on this episode. I bought a new computer and had to transfer all my files over and get everything set up, and it took way longer than I expected when trying to fit it in alongside a bunch of freelance writing assignments which had fast turnarounds. So, again -- sorry. We'll make it up to you with a new episode this coming Monday. Composer Timothy Williams has...

Director Jared Barel's The Incoherents sees four 40-somethings each mired in some sort of midlife malaise reunite their '90s indie rock band. Written by Jeff Auer, who also plays the lead role of Bruce, the film explores friendships, marriage, and life in general through the eyes of these guys, just trying to play the songs they love. Alex Emanuel, who plays the role of Jimmy, served as music supe...

Composer Joe Kraemer has worked on such films as Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher, and The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, among many other movies and television programs. He's absolutely aces at blending action themes and emotional resonance. Thanks to his work for author Andrew Cartmel on the Vinyl Detective soundtrack release -- for which he compose...

In the May Mother's Day installment of Blumhouse Television and Hulu's anthology event series, Into the Dark, Delivered, a pregnant woman’s life is upended when she realizes someone close to her has darker plans for her and the baby. Directed by Emma Tammi, who did The Wind, and starring Tina Majorino, Natalie Paul, Michael Cassidy, and Micah Parker, the episode is creepy as hell, thanks to a real...

Director Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 film, Strange Days, stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. It's set right before the millenium, and borders on the dystopian. The film was an absolute bomb, despite the star power in it and behind the scenes -- it was co-written by James Cameron, after all -- although, in the last 25 years, it's come to be regarded as an underrated di...

It's our 100th episode! Holy smokes! We can't believe it. NBC's hit show Songland's 2019 winner, Katelyn Tarver, released her latest single, "Feel Bad," at the end of March. Leading Nashville group Old Dominion recorded her song "Young," and the Songland-winning track was featured on a Joseph Khan-directed Jeep TV commercial which Tarver also starred as the main character in. Tarver also lays clai...

Author Grady Hendrix is a big time favorite here at the From & Inspired By headquarters. We've interviewed him twice for movie site Cinepunx, and eagerly devoured his books from Horrorstör to We Sold Our Souls, as well as his scripts for movies like Mohawk and Satanic Panic. The man's got his finger on the pulse of what we love about clever horror, and we've been eagerly awaiting his latest book,...

A celebrated singer/songwriter whose soothing voice has entranced millions of listeners, Lauren Wood has parlayed a variety of talents into a career spanning over four decades. Best known for a pair of adult contemporary smashes -- "Please Don't Leave," a duet with Michael McDonald, and the Pretty Woman soundtrack's "Fallen" -- Wood also saw her music featured in films like Police Academy 3: Back...

Writer Andrew Cartmel's series of Vinyl Detective novels became an instant favorite of mine after discovering the first installment at Lawrence's Raven Bookstore at the end of 2018. Since then, I've gone on to devour all four volumes in the series of novels about a London-dwelling music afficionado whose business cards state that he can find any record for anyone -- for a fee. They're utterly char...

Composer Paul Zaza has scored innumerable classic films, from the holiday feelings of A Christmas Story, the reggae-inflected tones of Popcorn, the country-tinged My Bloody Valentine, and the classic slasher tones of Prom Night, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. In recent years, his scores have seen reissue from the likes of 1984 Publishing, Strange Disc, Waxwork Records, and Terror...

Writer/director Maggie Levin’s My Valentine is the latest installment in the Blumhouse Into the Dark series for streaming service, Hulu. Influenced by some of the biggest pop scandals over the past decade, My Valentine follows Valentine, whose songs and artistic identity have been stolen by her ex-boyfriend/manager - and shamelessly pasted onto his new girlfriend/protégé, Trezzure. Pop songs play...