Music Production Podcast

Jason Donnelly, aka DJ Puzzle, is a musician and sound designer, as well as co-founder of Soundtrack Loops. Soundtrack Loops provides producers with royalty-free samples and loops. Jason and Soundtrack Loops create sounds for many of the industry's biggest companies including Acid, Roland, Antares, and more. In January 2023, Jason and Soundtrack Loops co-founder Matt Yost are launching their first...

It's time for Jamuary 2023! Jamuary is a challenge to make and share a piece of music each day during January. The point isn't to create masterpieces, it is simply to show up and do some work.  In this episode, I share some thoughts that have helped me throughout the years during Jamuary. You'll hear about 3 books that have inspired me and helped me be more productive this year. I'll also explain...

I wrote a book! The 5-Minute Music Producer contains 365 music-making activities to help you improve your songwriting and music production. If you've ever had a lack of inspiration or struggled with writer's block, this book will help you develop techniques and workflows to power through! 5-Minute Music Producer - https://brianfunk.com/book Listen on Apple ,   Spotify ,   Stitcher ,   Google , or...

Johannes Ringen is a film composer and music producer from Norway. He has worked on a variety of feature films including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Fate of the Furious , and Furious 7.  His latest work was for the wildly successful Netflix film, Troll . Johannes and I spoke about his work in film composition. We discovered plenty of similarities between film composition and other forms of music-maki...

Matt Jones is a musician, producer, and songwriter.  I got to know Matt while he was taking my Ableton Live Sampling class at Berklee Online. Late this summer, he organized and participated in the Monterey Songwriting and Production Retreat. Several musicians of various backgrounds (and strangers to each other) gathered at his home to write and produce music together. In this episode, I speak with...

Blake Murray and Marty Gray host the Tune Shed Podcast. Their show covers similar ground to this show, music making, creativity, philosophy, theory, and gear. Blake and Marty are childhood friends that have reconnected over their discussions about music. Blake and Marty came on the show to talk about their work on the podcast. We had a great conversation about the challenges of making music and ho...

Julian Fulco Perron is a musician and filmmaker from Denver, Colorado. His music and art harken back to the late 60s and early 70s psychedelic rock. Julian goes to great lengths to capture the feeling of the era by using many of the same tools of the time. He films his videos on Super 8 and experiments with various mediums to achieve a sound full of character and unique charm. Julian and I spoke a...

Sam Gribben is the CEO of Melodics, a music education platform helping users master electronic drums, MIDI keyboards, and pad controllers. Melodics has just released a new feature called Songs which allows users to learn by playing popular songs. Sam and I spoke about the development and evolution of Melodics, and how they've managed to maintain a useful and intuitive educational experience over t...

Mike Gallagher and Anthony Vanchure are, respectively, the sound designer and supervising sound editor for the new bio pic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story . The duo have worked together on many projects, including Netflix's Song Exploder and Amazon's Lucy and Desi . Both have been nominated for Emmy awards.  Mike and Anthony spoke about their work on the Weird Al biopic. They went into great detail a...

Greg Meadows is an acoustic singer-songwriter who plays music as The Low End. He started the project to escape the frustration of complicated computer-based setups and overly processed music. Greg wanted to embrace performance and humanity in his recordings, so he turned to his trusty Tascam 4-track tape recorder. His music emphasizes emotion and performance over production and perfection. I learn...

Single Sonic Seven is an album created in collaboration with musicians on all seven continents. The two year-long project's roots are found in quarantine-era Berlin, while its final path was deeply shaped by a personal connection to the war in Ukraine. I spoke with Single Sonic Seven producer Ethan Miska about the project. Ethan shared some wisdom and insight about collaborating with so many peopl...

When our computer operating systems get updated there's the promise of new features that will improve our workflow and make our lives a little easier. But should we update our music-making computers with the new OS?   Not right away!   In this episode of the Music Production Podcast, I discuss a few practical reasons you don't want to update right away and some more philosophical reasons why waiti...

Bottler is Brooklyn-based electronic duo of best friends, Pat Butler and Phil Shore. Their music is designed to capture the playfulness of kids making music in their garage. Bottler released their first album, Journey Work , on infine in May. Pat, Phil, and I had a great conversation about collaborating and live performance. The duo shared how they were able to maintain a lifelong partnership, as...

Nick Culbertson is a musician and app developer who runs Moby Pixel, a mobile app creation studio. He designs game and music apps for iOS, and also produces a wide range of educational and entertaining YouTube videos. He has just released Overdrive Synth for iOS, which combines classic synthesizers with guitar overdrive and distortion pedals. Nick goes in depth about his app development process. H...

Cobaine Ivory is a multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-Nominated producer. He has worked with Dr. Dre, H.E.R., and Anderson Paak. Cobaine has composed music for Disney, SONY Pictures, and Ubisoft.   Cobaine and I spoke in depth about his work and overall creative philosophies.  It was a lot of fun talking with Cobaine, I really appreciate his values and beliefs. How he lives his life informs how he m...

It's pretty simple. Life is distracting enough. You don't need help getting pulled out of the moment. Turn off your notifications. Get more done. Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch on YouTube Show Notes: My Website - https://brianfunk.com 5 Minute Music Producer - https://brianfunk.com/blog/5minute Music Production Club - https://brianfunk.com/mpc Music Production Podca...

Doug Hoyer is a Canadian singer/songwriter who has garnered 1 million Spotify streams and licensed music for television. Doug's work has received critical acclaim and he works by day as a hearing aid practitioner.  I had a great conversation with Doug about his work and techniques for writing and completing music. Doug shared a ton of insights and strategies he regularly uses. He showcased his hom...

Laura Ferreiro is a writer, storytelling coach, and brand strategist. She has written for Rolling Stone, LA Times, Yahoo, and more, interviewing some of music's biggest names. Laura runs Story Harmony where she helps artists craft their stories to form emotional connections with their fans. Laura and I spoke about the importance of creating a clear message of identity for our audiences. She shared...

Gordon Raphael is a highly sought-after musician and producer. He produced Is This It and Room on Fire by The Strokes and  Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spektor, amongst countless others. His new book, The World is Going to Love This , documents his work and the exciting stories from the Seattle scene of the 90s through his work with The Strokes, Regina Spektor, and The Libertines. As the producer for s...

Is your music too complicated? Are you making your job harder than it needs to be? Is it fear that we are hiding behind by complicating our music? Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch on YouTube Show Notes: My Website - https://brianfunk.com Intro Music Made with 16 Bit Ableton Live Pack - https://brianfunk.com/blog/16-bit Ableton Live Pack Archive - https://brianfunk.com...

Sam Wale is a musician and producer, who writes music for TV, film, and games. Sam is the VP of Production for Alibi Music, a provider of licensed music and sound FX for all types of multimedia. Sam and I spoke about his role at Alibi Music and how producing music for licensing is different than producing music as an artist. Sam shared his story and experience which is helpful for any producer loo...

Peter Gregson is a renowned Composer, Cellist, and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist. His latest album, Patina , combines strings and analog electronic instruments in an effort to capture the humanity and life in each instrument for emotional impact. Peter composes for television, film, and games, including placements in the film Blackbird and HBO's The New Pope . Peter and I spoke about his wo...

Ed Rollo is a musician, educator, and Ableton Certified Trainer. He creates straight-talking, no nonsense videos for his YouTube channel that help musicians see past the empty promises of hacks and shortcuts. Ed runs the online education community mredrollo+. As a fan of his video content and overall philosophical approach to music making, I was very excited to talk with Ed. He did not disappoint....

Ariane Paras helps artists define their vision, build confidence, and find the strength to reach their goals. She runs Olympia Coaching and has 15 years of experience coaching artists along their journey.  Ariane and I had a great conversation where we explore the challenges and fears artists have. She shares advice about overcoming procrastination (which is mostly fear) and how having a clearly d...

Robert Webster has been producing music and DJing since 1993, as RobJamWeb. Robert hit it big with a track called "Everybody" in 1999 and has since been releasing music and sharing his knowledge on his YouTube channel. Robert spoke about his work and the troubles he encountered with success when one of his tracks hit the charts and MTV. He discussed openly how his freedom from success has allowed...