In episode 31 of Composer Quest, songwriter Matt Leavitt of the indie band Emot talks with me about his belief that the very first time you work on a song is often where the best ideas come from, and anything after that is just trying to recreate this spark of initial inspiration. We also get to hear Matt play a couple new tunes live from Emot's upcoming album, which they've been working on with producer Brian Moen (of Peter Wolfcrier and Laarks).
Since starting my composing and songwriting podcast Composer Quest, I've discovered that podcasts are still a very mysterious thing for many people out there. As an active podcast listener and advocate, I will happily introduce you to this awesome new form of media.
I was thrilled to talk with Dr. Diana Deutsch, a pioneer in the field of music perception and psychology (she literally wrote the book on music psychology). Diana has discovered a number of famous musical illusions. Prepare to have your mind blown by the octave illusion, the scale illusion, the tritone paradox, the mysterious melody, and the speech-to-song illusion "Sometimes Behave So Strangely," made popular by Radiolab. Diana also explains how composers can benefit from studying these perceptual illusions.
Jazz Pianist George Maurer has been a working composer for over twenty years. In episode 28 of Composer Quest, George imparts his words of wisdom on making a living as a composer. He also shares tips on arranging music for orchestral instruments. George's latest project, Empire Builder, is a musical set on a time-traveling train, and we get to hear George at the piano, talking through his composition process for this musical.
Metal isn't for everyone, but guitarist Devin Earlywine is okay with making music 90 percent of listeners won't enjoy. In Composer Quest Ep. 27, Devin talks about how metal isn't all about doom and gloom. He even admits his band Idiopathic Necrotization started as a joke to have fun with the ridiculousness of the gore death metal genre. In most of his music, Devin tries to avoid thinking of his audience at first, so there are no roadblocks between the purest musical idea from his brain to the finished song.
Songwriter Warren Hildebrand of Foxes in Fiction has a special sensory gift. He experiences images and color when he listens to certain music, and hears tones when he sees certain images. In this episode of Composer Quest, we talk about Warren's synesthesia and how it shades his music making. Warren Continue reading... 
Prolific composer Mary Ellen Childs writes music for everything from orchestral instruments to zippers. In episode 23 of Composer Quest, she shares her creative process, which often involves bouncing ideas off of her experimental percussion ensemble Crash. Mary Ellen brings us behind the scenes of a few of her major works, including Click, Dream House, Wreck, and an upcoming project which will combine scents and music.
Your Composer Quest quest, should you choose to accept it, is to arrange a pop song or movie/TV theme for the Twin Cities Trio (Maia Hamann on bassoon, Karen Jennings on oboe, and Mary Beth Huttlin on clarinet). They're looking for fun tunes to perform for children in schools.
Rapper and poet Dessa somehow found time to join me over the phone for Composer Quest Episode 21, in the midst of her nationwide tour (SXSW, New Orleans, Nashville, etc.). I was honored to talk with Dessa about her creative process of writing and arranging hip hop songs.
As a dad of two young kids, songwriter Tim Cheesebrow has limited hours in the day for music. But he recently wrote an album's worth of material in a self-imposed solitary confinement at a cabin in northern Minnesota. He's now in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to produce this new album, Home in the Heartland. We talk about his three main sources of inspiration: his family, the concept of home, and a Carl Sagan-inspired philosophy of universal connectedness. Oh, and we also talk about extraterrestrial music.