In this episode of Composer Quest, I chat with video game musician and coder, Whitaker Trebella. He shares his words of wisdom on writing for games, producing chiptune music, and getting composing gigs through Twitter. He also composes an on-the-spot "quickprov" using Logic Pro. Finally, we ponder what would happen if Beethoven was given a laptop. Would he be making dubstep tracks?
Matt Schubbe, the graphic designer behind our 8-bit Composer Quest art, is also a songwriter himself! In this episode, we talk about how he writes songs for (and with) his wife, Donna. Matt tends to choose strange lyrical topics, like a kid getting his head stuck in the banister, or the 1739 invention of a pooping duck automaton.
Luke Friedrich was too young to carry a musket when he joined his Civil War reenacting unit, so he picked up the fife and drum instead. Now, he plays in more bands than would seem possible, including Crimes, Strange, Rupert Angeleyes, Flowerstalks, Secrets, ThoughtTalk, and his primary songwriting endeavor, Squares. We talk about performing, the music business, and his fascination with horrific lyrical topics.
When does sound become music? That's a line blurred by Kevin Springer's sound art. He designs sound and music for plays, including Tenesse Williams' Summer and Smoke. He has also found a niche for his experimental electronic music online. We talk about how he works in this strange musical language.
I talked with my cousin, Nathan Graves, who fronts the band With a Gun for a Face and writes solo music under the name Kurtz. Nate's music is usually pretty dark and dissonant, but strangely catchy. The more I listen, the more I like it.
In this episode, Kazyak's Peter Frey debuts his new, more personal album See the Forest, See the Trees. He also shares his philosophy on soloing, the pros and cons of touring, and his advice on promoting your music.
In this episode, Ryan Ruff Smith and I talk about a bunch of lyric-writing techniques, including seeing the big picture, using subtext, writing as a character, and focusing your song ideas.
Join me in the inaugural episode of my new podcast, Composer Quest. I'll be picking the brains of composers and songwriters to gain some insight into writing music. For the first episode, I interviewed Mitchell Johnson from Spencer McGillicutty.