Score: The Podcast

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE composer Rob Simonsen talks about channeling Elmer Bernstein's original Ghostbusters music, going into top-secret studio vaults to read the script, and how he re-wired his musical brain in order to keep the music sounding true to the original. Then, he talks about how he knows when music fits the film, the rumored near-firing of his once boss, Mychael Danna, on Life of Pi, and why it's always crucial to dial in the perfect sound.

Kenny, Robert and Matt launch this offseason special talking about the Spitfire Audio Black Friday sale, and their success of the offseason show MORE SCORE, which is now available for $10/month on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore ... in your Apple Podcasts feed: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1357882784 ...on Spotify: http://anchor.fm/score/subscribe Then, the brilliant Bear McCreary joins to catch us up on his many projects, including Masters of the Universe Revelation, Vol. 1 & 2 out this week. Bear breaks down the metal symphonic sound he pitched Kevin Smith in their first meeting, and why that was a risky approach. He details working with Mark Hamill on a couple projects, and explains some of his early career missteps that he's made an effort to correct, allowing him and his studio Sparks & Shadows to thrive. This episode is presented by Spitfire Audio Follo

Composers DRUM & LACE and IAN HULTQUIST join us to discuss putting their energetic synth-driven score to a vibrant cinematic ride through Los Angeles that you may want to, dare we say, sink your teeth into! How they found the sound, scored 70 minutes of music without the help of assistants or a team (!) and why the next few months will be the busiest of their budding careers!

The duo behind THE WONDER YEARS on ABC talk about their use of 50s and 60s Motown vibes to make the show one of a kind. Plus, Jacob & Roahn discuss their backgrounds, how they positioned themselves to get the job, and why experimentation is key to unlocking the perfect sound.

You might know JOHN DEBNEY from the poster of SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY.  Or the first episode of SCORE: THE PODCAST. (Or any of the dozens of hit films and beautiful scores he's written.) But he's also the king of the holiday movies!

You might know JOHN DEBNEY from the poster of SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY.  Or the first episode of SCORE: THE PODCAST. (Or any of the dozens of hit films and beautiful scores he's written.) But he's also the king of the holiday movies! It's been a few years since we caught up with John! He has a lot coming up — plus we'll talk his favorite holiday — Halloween — and HOCUS POCUS! Plus his upcoming Christmas concert tour with ELF, and talking with John Williams for Disney+'s new HOME SWEET HOME ALONE.

MORE SCORE welcomes composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe — a sound artist, performing artist and experimental film composer. He's collaborated with composers Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir on scores for SICARIO and ARRIVAL, and his recent score for the horror film CANDYMAN refreshes the genre with an inventive score that manages to still pay homage to one of Robert's favorite composers Philip Glass, who composed the music in the original 1992 cult classic film.

Kenny and Robert begin this Season Finale joined by Composer Carol and Matt Schrader reminiscing on the best moments of Season 4 and recapping the Emmy winners in the music categories. Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore  Then, legendary songwriter and composer Randy Newman (Toy Story franchise, Monsters Inc., Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers, Marriage Story, James and the Giant Peach, A Bug's Life) joins to share stories about his early days growing up around his uncles Alfred and Lionel, closely watching maestros Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams evolve into film music titans, revealing why Frank Sinatra passed on what became one of Randy's greatest songs and explaining why he decided to score Toy Story, which catapulted his film scoring legacy. This episode is presented by Spitfire Audio Follow us on Twitter @ScoreThePodcast or send Kenny and Robert your questions for the mailbox at ScoreTheMailbox@epicleff.com Ho

Kenny Holmes and Matt Schrader interview Carlos Rafael Rivera about leaving an accounting degree to pursue music, learning about scores AND songs under Randy Newman, and shares a video he recorded in 2017 while going to see SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY in theaters in New York. Oh, and we discuss creating the music of Netflix's #1 all-time miniseries THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT.

What it’s like to play in Hollywood scoring sessions? Fernando Arroyo Lascurain is a violinist for film scoring sessions (and a brilliant composer as well, who composed the music for Blockbuster: The Story of James Cameron). He breaks down the current state of the scoring session world amid Covid-19 changes, as well as the magic that happens when 100 musicians get perfectly in sync. Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to know about orchestras? Let us know and we’ll break down in a future episode!

Andy Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart (better known as the composing duo THE NEWTON BROTHERS) preview their upcoming miniseries MIDNIGHT MASS on Netflix. How Andy came to be a series regular, and why they recorded the cover of a classic song inside a car. While Internet service in Los Angeles allows (there was a Spectrum Cable outage) we also talk about their rise with director Mike Flanagan on the Haunting of Hill House and Haunting on Bly Manor, and what kind of series they're hoping to do next. The Newton Brothers!

Cristobal Tapia de Veer is a Chilean-born composer working in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His family fled Chile during the military coup of the 1970s, and ended up in France and then eventually in Montreal. Cristobal's pop band ONE TON signed to Warner Music in 2001, before he turned his attention back to film and TV scoring. He has scored the British TV series UTOPIA, Amazon Prime's ELECTRIC DREAMS, the finale of Netflix's BLACK MIRROR season 4, and most recently HBO's smash hit miniseries THE WHITE LOTUS. In this interview for MORE SCORE with Robert Kraft, Cristobal talks about his artistic and idiosyncratic approach to scoring, and how he draws from other artistic mediums to inform sounds that are often strange and create a unique emotional effect.

Kenny and Robert begin the show discussing recent scores they've been checking out including Jordan Peele's take on Candyman by composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and HBO's popular series The White Lotus by composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer. Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore Then, 9x Oscar-nominated composer and friend of the show James Newton Howard (News of the World, Jungle Cruise, Raya and the Last Dragon, Fantastic Beasts series, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, King Kong, The Hunger Games series, The Sixth Sense, Signs) joins the show sharing why he dropped out of USC after three months on a music scholarship, revealing a question he once asked that immediately got him fired from an early film scoring gig, discussing how he connected with Metallica to collaborate for Jungle Cruise and why that may not be the last time they work together, and defining the most important skill a film composer should master. This epis

Robert (an award-winning songwriter!) and Matt (not one) take a trip down memory lane and tell some stories behind iconic songs on the past few decades in this music video review! PLAYLIST: Beat It, Michael Jackson (1982) I Want A New Drug, Huey Lewis & The News (1983) Aaliyah, Journey to the Past, Aaliyah (1997) Higher Love, Steve Winwood (1986) Walk This Way, Aerosmith/Run DMC (1986 cover of 1976 song) I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Whitney Houston (1987) Lady Marmalade, Lil Kim, Mya, Pink, Christina Aguilera (2002) Gettin' Jiggy Wit It (1998) Shape of My Heart, Backstreet Boys (2000) All The Small Things, Blink-182 (2000) Seven Nation Army, The White Stripes (2003) Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Green Day (2004)

In another loaded double-guest episode, Kenny and Robert begin the show chatting with World Soundtrack Awards Film Composer of the Year nominee Nainita Desai (The Reason I Jump, For Sama, American Murder: The Family Next Door) about her early years working as an engineer and mixer, overcoming "imposter syndrome," the art of writing music for documentary and keeping the authenticity of true stories and why she was caught by surprise when she learned she was nominated by the WSA. Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore Later, award-winning composer and record producer Dan Romer (Luca, Beasts of the Souther Wild, Beasts of No Nation, Wendy, Superman and Lois) joins the show to sharing what he learned about scoring Italian influenced music, revealing what motivated him to create unique sound palettes for his scores, and details what happened with No Time To Die and why being replaced on that film only made him stronger. This e

Jeff Cardoni has scored some of the biggest television shows of the past decade like CSI: Miami, Silicon Valley, The Kominsky Method and the upcoming series Heels on Starz! We also talk to him about the moment that could have ended his career in a Denny's parking lot, and writing purposely bad pop songs for the movie "Just Friends." Also, why he almost performed his Cornholio impression for Mike Judge!

Robert and Kenny begin the show discussing the nominees for the 2021 World Soundtrack Awards, including many former guests and friends of the show. Kenny also shares why Blake Neely had an exciting and unexpected surprise while watching the Tokyo Olympics over the weekend.    Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore  Later, Emmy-nominated composer Rupert Gregson-Williams (Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Hacksaw Ridge, Veep, Catch 22, The Crown, Behind Her Eyes and more) joins the show sharing his early stories of growing up with his brother and fellow A-list composer Harry and why they only recently collaborated on a project after many years of success as solo composers, detailing why a particular cue on The Crown was his most challenging job to date, and revealing why Adam Sandler prefers to skip spotting sessions on his films. This episode is presented by Spitfire Audio Follow us on Twitter @ScoreThePodcast or send

It's not often that we get to talk to a composer in depth about his path from a 10-year-old starting piano lessons to working in film and video games. Austin Wintory has been scoring films for 15 years from the time he left college, and has now written music for video games in prestige franchises including Assassin's Creed, Command and Conquer, John Wick, Counter Strike, League of Legends, and many more. We go the distance with Austin about how he took charge of his high school orchestra program, didn't get into his dream school USC but found a way to get there anyway, and began to leverage his early student film projects into video games and films!

Robert and Kenny begin the show discussing the trailer release and score cues of Dune with original score by Hans Zimmer. Kenny asks Robert to explain why the music used in trailers most often doesn't reflect the score/sound of the film. Subscribe to MORE SCORE on Patreon for year-round interviews, film music talk and even cool merch: http://Patreon.com/MoreScore Later, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning composer Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Morning Show, Space Force, Fargo, Carol, Twilight series, No Country For Old Men, True Grit, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Tragedy of Macbeth and so many more) joins the show sharing that his initial leap into film was as an animator, how he connected with the Coen Brothers and why their bond has only gotten stronger after more than a dozen films together, explaining why he never left the east coast, and detailing his first earthquake encounter in 1994 while scoring Airheads, which happened to be one of the most catastrophic earthquakes

Back in 2007, two composers pooled some money to record a bunch of musicians so they could use the samples. They were really good! Harry Gregson-Williams loved it. Now it's Spitfire Audio, the most innovative sample library company in the world. This is the story of those two composers, Paul Thomson and Christian Henson!  (Note: This is not a paid advertisement for Spitfire Audio. We actually wanted to interview them earlier on Score: The Podcast, but didn't want it to look like a conflict of interest since they support that show! Enjoy the cool story of how these composers fell into entrepreneurship.)