micro/Maker by Loose Leaf Transmissions

Daijana Wallace shares how grad school became a pivotal period of creative self-discovery. She reflects on overcoming uncertainty, experimenting with graphic notation, and how a collaboration with bassist Will Yager pushed her toward a freer, more intentional compositional process. Wallace and host Tyler Kline explore how shedding limitations opened new creative doors. micro/Maker episodes release...

Brett Copeland reflects on how graduate school clarified what a sustainable artistic life actually looks like—not as a single role, but as an ecosystem built from composing, performing, teaching, and collaborating. A formative cohort in Tampa showed him the power of working alongside artists across disciplines, especially dancers, whose physical relationship to sound reshaped how he thought about...

Sugar Vendil quit social media again after reading How to Break Up with Your Phone—the data on time spent and brain impact was horrifying. She briefly checks Instagram when people invite her to collaborate, then deletes it. The "work" she got from being active was superficial; meaningful projects come via email, not DMs. Her newsletter has a 60-70% open rate, far better than whatever eyeballs see...

Vanessa Ague shares how her blog The Road to Sound began as a personal outlet and grew into a meaningful platform for artist-centered writing. She discusses how encouragement from mentors like Will Robin helped her claim her voice as a critic, and how the blog ultimately opened doors to new writing opportunities, lasting collaborations, and moments of both joy and challenge. micro/Maker episodes r...

Before studying composition or even imagining a life in music, James May ’s first creative spark came from an unlikely place: the Boy Scouts. In this conversation, James reflects on early musical memories—from Catholic folk groups and piano lessons to self-taught electric guitar riffs—and how those beginnings shaped his curiosity about sound and creation. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday...

Charly Daniels talks about synesthesia not as a quirk but as the core engine of how he writes — a way of hearing harmony as color, sensing timbre as light or shadow, and shaping form through visual landscapes that unfold in his mind long before notes hit the page. He describes how this inner world emerged from childhood daydreaming, early experiments with his father’s keyboard, and years of listen...

Shelley Washington shares how her lifelong love of textiles — inspired by her mother's artistry — finds its way into her musical thinking. From modifying vintage fashion to composing pieces like Uniforms , Shelley describes how fabric, memory, and creativity are all tightly interwoven. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline whereve...

Sean Hamilton shares how improvisation became central to his artistic voice — and why his compositions now live at the intersection of the fixed and the fluid. In this excerpt, he explains how environmental and emotional factors shape every performance, why he's moved away from traditional notation, and how indeterminacy opens new dimensions of expression and possibility. micro/Maker episodes rele...

Annika Socolofsky's first major new music experience—Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble performing Golijov, Zhou Long, Lou Harrison in one program—sent a clear message: music making can be radically inclusive. She walked into the field expecting that and was rudely surprised when people tried to gatekeep aesthetics, notation, or modes of making. She's stubborn enough to keep fighting for those in...

Composer Austin Hammonds shares how early exposure to film scores like Jurassic Park quietly shaped his imagination long before he knew what composing even was. He and Tyler reflect on the humbling — and energizing — experience of realizing just how much there is to learn, and how a childhood passion can evolve into a lifelong creative path. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, a...

Carlynn Crosby and Tyler talk about how food can be a deeply human entry point into topics like class, race, globalization, memory, and empathy. Carlynn shares her journey into food writing—from Ina Garten and Anthony Bourdain to graduate studies in Southern culture—and how food became not just a sensory experience, but a vessel for historical awareness and social critique. For her, writing about...

Caterina Schembri traces the long arc from her earliest training in Bogotá to the work she’s doing now. She talks about the intensity of her upbringing—full days in school followed by nights at the conservatory—and how her first living-composer mentor made the role feel accessible rather than distant. She then lays out the two poles of her formal education: a rigorous, highly theoretical compositi...

Baljinder Sekhon explains why he doesn’t separate the act of composing from the life of a composer. In this excerpt, he talks about integrating career-building, orchestration, and business literacy into his curriculum — not as extras, but as essential parts of what it means to be a composer today. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler K...

Chris Opperman grew up emailing guitarist Mike Keneally—digging into impossible tuplets, dissecting entire albums, and learning what made songs tick. That early mentorship led him to question how we define “composer”: is it the manuscript-paper stereotype of academia, or the broader industry sense where anyone creating music belongs? In navigating both new music and the commercial world, Chris sha...

Nicolás Lell Benavides shares how exploring Caló — the dialect of the Pachuco community — reconnected him with his family’s stories and shaped his creative voice. He and Tyler talk about how sound, language, and memory intertwine in his recent works, from Rinconcito to Canto Caló , and how honoring ancestry through art can uncover new dimensions of musical identity. micro/Maker episodes release ev...

Hannah Selin shares how her path to composition began not with scores, but with sound. She and Tyler talk about starting late, making field recordings in rural Ohio, and finding her way from electronic experimentation to acoustic music. It’s a story of learning to listen differently—and discovering creativity as a bridge between solitude and connection. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday,...

Brett Copeland traces his earliest artistic instincts not to formal composition, but to middle school and high school garage bands—long days spent writing riffs, experimenting with recording software, and losing track of time with friends. Playing bass and singing in punk and metal bands while simultaneously studying tuba in school band, he describes living between two musical worlds that rarely o...

Daijana Wallace shares how her hobbies fuel and complement her creative life, from pairing albums with cooking to her deep dive into mechanical keyboard design. She and host Tyler Kline explore how customizing her keyboard setup has even streamlined her composing and engraving process, blending practical function with sonic satisfaction. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday and Fr...

Composer and organist Graeme Shields reflects on humor, eccentricity, and why playfulness matters in music. From kazoo-playing cellists to drumming on the organ with a felt-wrapped board, he finds joy and meaning in the unexpected—and sees laughter as another way to bring listeners closer to the work. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyl...

Gabriel Bolaños considers computer-assisted composition any tool that generates, develops, or enhances ideas—starting with overdubbing on a mini-disc recorder in high school. Now he relies on Open Music, a suite of algorithmic tools, to create harmonic progressions and spectral structures he once calculated by hand over hours. That tedious process, he realized, unconsciously biased him toward liki...

Han Hitche n reflects on how identity in his music goes beyond queerness, reaching into universal but often unspoken experiences like death and family tension. He shares how confronting discomfort has shaped his creative practice. For him, music becomes a way to demystify what we fear, opening space for reflection, honesty, and connection. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and...

Ania Vu reflects on a theatrical piece where aliens attempt — and fail — to connect with humans. But through music, gibberish, and emotional tone, something deeper gets communicated. She shares how this idea of miscommunication, language limitation, and embodied expression runs through much of her work. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with T...

When Yue Song moved from Beijing to Ireland, the world changed color. Gone were the endless high-rises; in their place came clouds that shifted the temperature by the minute, sunlight that turned to rain and back again. In this conversation, Yue reflects on how the piano first taught her to hear composers’ inner lives—and how Ireland’s weather, light, and soundscapes opened her ears to texture, im...

Shelley Washington reflects on the responsibility she feels to advocate for others after receiving support throughout her own creative journey. She shares her philosophy of reaching out, encouraging risk-taking, and creating space for new voices in contemporary music. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts...

Austin Hammonds reflects on the role of rhythm, identity, and responsibility in his work — not as fixed pillars, but as ongoing questions. He and Tyler talk about the emotional weight music can carry, why intention matters, and what it means to treat creative work (and the people around you) with care and integrity. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music...