It’s finally here. Four years and 166 episodes later, we’ve arrived at the finale of the Composer Quest podcast. Before I get too sappy about it, I want to let you know what you’ll be in for in this monster episode. It rounds out the end of my world tour, after my journey home to Minnesota. This episode is definitely one for the fans; most of my interviewees in this episode have been prior Composer Quest guests, and I ask them what they’ve been up to. I don’t want to give away too much about...

Ever since I heard music psychologist Dr. Diana Deutsch on Radiolab, I’ve been fascinated by musical illusions. In this penultimate episode of Composer Quest, I got to visit Diana in person! Join me on a trip that starts at a Halloween organ concert in San Diego and ends in Phoenix with an unprecedented songwriting/podcasting experiment.

This episode marks my return to the US after my trip to Australia and Asia. Despite the jet lag, I was able to get 5 interviews in for this Composer Quest episode. Also, Jeff Goldblum?! And you’ll just have to listen for yourself to find out why this episode is called “Squirrels in California.”

The second act of my Taiwan adventure features more interviews with music makers in Taipei, plus an interview with me about interviewing. We also discuss the jingles heard everywhere in Taipei, from the train stations to the 7-Elevens to the garbage trucks.

Join me on a musical tour through Taiwan in today's episode of Composer Quest. I stumbled into a music festival celebrating Hakka culture, and I got to record a bunch of interesting ensembles, including the Taiwanese jazz group Sizhukong. Plenty of other surprises come up in this episode, including an impromptu flight to another country...

Australia has been my dream vacation spot since I was about six years old. In today’s episode of the Composer Quest World Tour, you’ll get an audio peek into my adventures staying with musical families in Melbourne and Poatina Village, Tasmania.

If you've ever thought about moving to Los Angeles to pursue a creative career, today's episode will give you a glimpse into that world. I talk with six creators about what it takes to turn art into your job, while staying motivated and creatively fulfilled.

Take a peek behind the scenes of the Composer Quest Olympics in today's episode. I also talk with video game composers in Chicago about career advice, rhythmic composing tips, and silly six-second Vine melodies.

From pig racing to public-access TV, this three-hour episode chronicles my adventure around New England. I talk with four different songwriters about their process, and I co-create two songs from scratch along the way.

This episode, I'm in Philadelphia and New York to chat about music theory, film scoring, and slot machine composing.

This second episode of the Composer Quest World Tour is all about school. Should you go to undergrad or grad school for an artistic field? What do you learn in school that you couldn't on your own?

For the final season of the Composer Quest podcast, 110 Kickstarter backers decided it would be fun to send me on a two month trip around the world, interviewing composers and songwriters. I'm thrilled to announce that the first episode of my Composer Quest world tour is here!

Since I'll be on my Composer Quest World Tour this fall, I decided we had to do something worldly and big for the final composing quest. In the spirit of the 2016 Rio Olympics, I'll be hosting the official Composer Quest Olympic Games!

How does a composer write music that doesn't draw attention to itself? How can a director convey scoring ideas if they're not a musician? Why is temp music important for an editor? When should sound design reflect the real world, and when should it be from a character's psychological perspective? Will the dialogue editor choose the lavalier or boom mic recording, or both? These are just a few of the conversation-sparking questions we discuss in today's Composer Quest podcast episode (the...

St. Thomas professor Dr. Vanessa Cornett-Murtada specializes in teaching piano, creativity, and performance anxiety reduction techniques. In this episode of Composer Quest, Vanessa shares some tips on getting past mental blocks as a composer, and she explains how hypnotherapy can be helpful in reducing stress, increasing productivity, and sparking creativity. She also explains why Brahms is her favorite composer.

Erik Ostrom was working at a Silicon Valley startup when he realized songwriting was his true passion. He has since moved back to Minnesota and found another passion: the improv comedy world. In this episode of Composer Quest, Erik and I talk about his recent performance with The Local Music Scene, a song-based improv comedy troupe. Erik also shares some great stories behind his songs and insights into writing interesting lyrical rhythms.

For this special 150th episode of Composer Quest, I got to talk with Gregory Scott, co-host of my favorite music production podcast, the UBK Happy Funtime Hour. Gregory answers my tough music production questions like: “what effect would you use if you could only choose ONE?” He also shares his process in creating the upcoming Sneaky Little Devil record with his wife Sarah. Also in this episode, you’ll get to hear the results of our MIDI Remix Quest, where composers swapped MIDI data and...

Jess Scherer and Peter Lund faced a songwriting quandry: what do you write about when you've been happily married for several years? They decided to stretch their imaginations by writing a magical concept album about wizards, and it turned out to be great songwriting fuel. In this episode of Composer Quest, our conversation covers songwriting tips, circuit-bending a teletubby, and a nomination for the greatest Texas jingle of all time.

Composer Bryan Schumann has embraced self-imposed deadlines; he’s been consistently making at least one “thing” every week in 2016 and blogging about it. In this episode of Composer Quest, we talk about what he’s learned from this experiment. Bryan also talks about his eco-friendly music projects, like a bike-powered electric band and his future solar-powered recording studio.

Since the recent episodes of Composer Quest have been about electronic and video game music, I thought we could do a composing quest related to it. So here's your challenge, should you choose to accept it: create a loop-able piece of music that's under 2 minutes, using MIDI. Send me your audio file and MIDI layers ([email protected]) by May 25th. Next, I'll send your MIDI layers to another random participant in this quest, and they will add their own sounds to your MIDI data, with no...

Anton Torres has been an electronic music hobbyist for over 20 years, using the very earliest incarnations of Apple's Logic and Ableton Live. In today's episode of Composer Quest, Anton shares some wisdom on living a creative life, even if you only have 15 minutes to spare each day. We also hear why Anton decided to leave his suit and tie job in New York to pursue his creative dreams, and how he ended up working at the board game company Asmodee North America.

A few weeks ago, I got to participate in a very fun live composing event at GlitchCon, called Game Music Melee. Three of us composers got up onstage to write video game music on the spot, based on game suggestions from the audience, in JUST 30 MINUTES. Not a lot of time. Emily Reese of the Level with Emily podcast hosted, and after two rounds of composing, she interviewed us about our process. It turned out so cool, I wanted to post it as this week's Composer Quest episode.

Musician, neuroscientist, and author Daniel Levitin has brought music psychology to the masses with This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs. For today's episode of Composer Quest, I got to interview Dan about why humans evolved to be musical. Dan also shares songwriting tips he's learned in talking with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Sting, Stephen Stills, and Victor Wooten. In the second half of the episode, you'll hear Dan perform a couple of his own songs, including an exclusive...

Crystal Grooms Mangano recently scored the documentary Asperger’s Are Us, which follows a comedy troupe of four autistic guys. In this episode of Composer Quest, Crystal shares her process in deciding how to score this comedic documentary. I also ask Crystal about scoring the trailer for the Patrick Steward film Match, and we talk about the merits of flute in film scores.