Composer Talk

Our next guests are 2 of my favorite composers in LA! They teamed up to craft a synth-infused score for the vampire horror-thriller Night Teeth for Netflix, the action-packed movie is the biggest project the co-composers have tackled yet, with wall-to-wall music and a gritty soundtrack that is essentially a roadmap of Los Angeles.

Directed by Adam Randall, the film stars Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as a working college student tasked with chauffeuring two mysterious young women (Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry) around Los Angeles for a night on the town. But all is not as it seems, and he’s soon dropped into a sprawling underground of vampiric tribes on the verge of a covert war. The film also stars Raúl Castillo, Alfie Allen, Alexander Ludwig, Sydney Sweeney, and Megan Fox.

The composers also have noted that the music is geographically influenced, with each city within Los Angeles having its own signature sound and introducing a new character. Locations featured in the film include Boyle Heights, Hollywood, Downtown LA, and Venice among several others.

The composer are... Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist

Our next guest is best know for his work on Netflix’s Original Series, LOCKE & KEY. He also composed the score for Lionsgate and Hulu’s feature film, RUN — his third collaboration with director Aneesh Chaganty — starring Sarah Paulson. His previous work includes Michael Nader’s THE TOLL; Chaganty’s moving Mother’s Day spot for Google, SEEDS; and Chaganty’s SEARCHING, starring John Cho and Debra Messing, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up by Sony Pictures for worldwide distribution.

Studying film scoring at the University of Southern California, this incredible composer hails from Sacramento and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Sarah, and their dog, Bodie. 

The composer is... Torin Borrowdale

Our next guest is a Korean-American film composer and multi-instrumentalist. The first American composer to have been selected as a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Breakthrough talent, his scores include critically acclaimed feature films COWBOYS (dir. Anna Kerrigan) and HOLLER (dir. Nicole Riegel). Also an artist-in-residence and National Advisory Council co-chair at the Ucross Foundation, his work spans across film music, theatre, XR, instrumental compositions, and songwriting. 

As a classically trained violinist and self-taught guitarist, he was a former live member of the electronic/folk band, The Books, and toured internationally with bands such as Gotye and Explosions in the Sky. For over 15 years, he has recorded with artists ranging from indie songwriters to Talib Kweli, and has composed music for dozens of major global advertising campaigns for Mercedes Benz, Squarespace, Google, Netflix, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others. 

And the composer is... Gene Back

I'm so excited to welcome this incredible composer duo from Bleeding Fingers who recently won an Emmy award for "Outstanding Music Composition" in this year's 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for their work on the BBC documentary series 'Primates'. We talk composing, work/life balance, and more in this episode, and hope you enjoy it! 

And the composers are... Denise Santos + Adam Lukas

Special thanks to Judith Moy for editing this episode! 

Launched in Los Angeles, California in 2021, skybox Audio is an innovative sample library company that creates virtual instruments using cutting edge approaches in technology. They have recently released Hammers + Waves, a 10 instrument modern keyboard collection like no other. Captured with beyond-human precision by robotic automation, this collection blew me away and I'm so excited to talk with the composers and co-founders of the company! 

And the Composers are... Azrul Saleh + Danny Dunlap

Our next guest is an award-winning Venezuelan composer based in Los Angeles, CA who specializes in film, TV, Interactive, and New Media music.

His sensibility as a composer is evidenced in his lush orchestral scores, always infused with hints of his diverse upbringing and culture. His eclectic style is the consequence of his development as a musician, going from pop and rock bands, to a classical music education, to jazz and electronic influences from his studies in the US.

​He recently scored the film “The Secret History of Venom” for Marvel Animation, and has written for many feature films including the Venezuelan box office hit “Papita Segunda Base” and the Daytime Emmy Award winning Documentary “Out of Iraq”. His music can be heard on the feature documentary “History of the Emirates”, and on hit TV shows like Netflix’s “Outer Banks” and “What/If”, AMC’s “Dietland”, Bravo’s “Girlfriend’s Guide To Divorce”, Freeform’s “Good Trouble” and HBO’s “Adventure Time: Obsidian”. Other recent projects include the feature films “Christmas Comes Home”, “Farm to Fork to Love” and “Stranger In The Attic”, as well as the Venezuelan film “Plástico”.

The composer is... Sandro Morales-Santoro

Our next guest is a media composer, pianist, music educator, and music theorist. Studying under composer Dr. Scott Meister and pianist Dr. Bair Shagdaron, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Music Theory/Composition from Appalachian State University in 2012. Immediately following, she enrolled at Columbia College Chicago’s Master of Fine Arts program “Scoring for the Screen”. She was a Follett Scholar (Columbia’s highest honor) and studied under composers Gary Chang, David McHugh, and Andrew Edwards. To conclude her time at Columbia, she recorded four works Capitol Records and earned her degree in May 2014. 

Following her time at Columbia, she began an internship with film composer Mark Isham then interned at Kraft-Engel Management. She met composer Jake Monaco while there and assisted  him for a number of years before "graduating" onto writing additional music for projects including Dumplin' and Human Discoveries. She has recently co-composed the score for A Cinderella Story: Starstruck with Jake and I'm so excited to talk with her about it!

The composer is... Brittany Dunton

An Argentinian-American composer, conductor, orchestrator and violinist, our next guest is a two-time Global Music Award-winning composer. 

His latest project, the documentary The Sound of Identity features the first-ever transgender woman performing an opera lead in the U.S. with a professional company, in a standard work. The film is about a profile in identity sprinkled with Mozart, but Nicolas rejected the idea of imitating Mozart’s sound. Instead, he gravitated towards a neo-romantic feel and decided on a string orchestra, soloists within the string orchestra, and the addition of a few synths for movement and added interest.

Nicolas' music is a blend of Argentinian/Latin/world influences, classical training, electronics sensibility, and modern film and television soundtracks. He has scored numerous films and projects such as Phil Donlon’s drama The Reunion, James Kicklighter’s short Angel of Anywhere, and a Circle City Film Festival award-winning short Tijuana. He also has music placements on TLC, HBO, and in various advertising campaigns. In addition to Sound of Identity, James’ upcoming projects include the documentary The American Question, fantasy feature Empire Queen: The Golden Age of Magic; and indie horror feature, Spider.

The Composer is... Nicolas Repetto

Our next guest is a composer born and raised in Los Angeles. His latest projects include Eytan Rockaway’s Lansky, starring Harvey Keitel, and Jonathan Hensleigh’s The Ice Road, starring Liam Neeson. He joined the Assassin’s Creed universe for Wrath of the Druids (2021). He co-produced Gryffin’s Deluxe orchestral album (2020) and composed additional music on Mission: Impossible - Fallout for Lorne Balfe, and on The Crown, for Hans Zimmer and Rupert Gregson-Williams. He also wrote additional music on HBO’s His Dark Materials.

The composer is... Max Aruj

Our next guest is an Oscar-nominated composer and experimental musician known as Hauschka who is behind the score of Showtime’s acclaimed crime drama Your Honor (starring Bryan Cranston) and most recently, the Joe Penna directed sci-fi thriller Stowaway. The film follows a three-person crew on a mission to Mars that faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board. *Starring: Daniel Dae Kim, Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, and Shamier Anderson.

Stowaway differs from most sci-fi films, which are generally action-packed, high-energy, and loud. Stowaway takes place entirely on the spaceship, and the four crew members are the only people featured. The focus of the film is the crew’s communication with one another—detailing their raw and humanistic conversations, as they decipher their options for survival.