Composer Quest: A Songwriting and Music Composition Podcast
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Composer Quest: A Songwriting and Music Composition Podcast
Join the quest! Learn how composers and songwriters create music in this podcast hosted by Minneapolis composer Charlie McCarron. Whether you’re a music composition grad or simply an occasional noodler on a guitar, each guest has a new perspective for you on the creative process of composing and son...
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Tour 12: Finale in Minnesota
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 wa...
Tour 11: Psychology in the Southwest
Ever since I heard music psychologist Dr. Diana Deutsch on Radiolab, I’ve been fascinated by musical illusions. In this penultimate episode of Compose...
Tour 10: Squirrels in California
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 Q...
Tour 9: Surprises in Taiwan 2
The second act of my Taiwan adventure features more interviews with music makers in Taipei, plus an interview with me about interviewing. We also disc...
Tour 8: Surprises in Taiwan
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 t...
Tour 7: Family in Australia
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 pe...
Tour 6: Creative Work in LA
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 s...
Tour 5: Games in Chicago 2
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,...
Tour 4: Songwriting in New England
From pig racing to public-access TV, this three-hour episode chronicles my adventure around New England. I talk with four different songwriters about...
Tour 3: Theory in New York
This episode, I'm in Philadelphia and New York to chat about music theory, film scoring, and slot machine composing.
Tour 2: School in Ohio
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...
Tour 1: Games in Chicago
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, i...
Quest 20: Olympics
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...
Sound Design and Score: An Indie Film Round Table
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...
Hypnotherapy and Creativity with Vanessa Cornett-Murtada
St. Thomas professor Dr. Vanessa Cornett-Murtada specializes in teaching piano, creativity, and performance anxiety reduction techniques. In this epis...
Comic and Sublime Songwriting with Erik Ostrom
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...
Episode 150: UBK on Music Production and Arranging
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 Fun...
Magical Songwriting Tips with Jess and Peter
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 s...
Thing a Week with Bryan Schumann
Composer Bryan Schumann has embraced self-imposed deadlines; he’s been consistently making at least one “thing” every week in 2016 and blogging about...
Quest 19: MIDI Remix
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...
Patching Together a Creative Life with Anton Torres
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...
Game Music Melee
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 t...
Daniel Levitin on Evolution and Songwriting
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 S...
Asperger's Are Us Composer Crystal Grooms Mangano
Crystal Grooms Mangano recently scored the documentary Asperger’s Are Us, which follows a comedy troupe of four autistic guys. In this episode of Comp...
Composing for a Mutant Lobster Wife with Sage Lewis
When I called up Sage Lewis on Skype, I didn’t realize he was a fellow Minnesotan. He’s now out in LA, composing for films like Operator, starring Mae...
Improv Looping with Mandy and Mikey
Are you a "gardener" composer or an "architect" composer? My new (almost) neighbors Michael Maiorana and Mandy Fassett came over to talk about their d...
Quest 18: MNKINO Film Score Fest 2016
I’m happy to announce that we’re bringing back MNKINO Film Score Fest this year! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an awesome challenge where filmmaker...
Podcasting 101 with Guest Producer Jenny Handke
For the Season 6 Premiere of Composer Quest, I asked aspiring podcast producer Jenny Handke to guest produce the episode. Jenny was interested in gain...
Transylvanian Ethnomusicology with Colleen Bertsch
Ethnomusicologist Colleen Bertsch is in Romania right now through a Fulbright grant to study Transylvanian violinists. I got to Skype with Colleen for...
Star Trek Fan Filmmaker Tommy Kraft on Scoring “Horizon”
Tommy Kraft has been “living under a bridge” in order to finish his passion project, the feature-length Star Trek film Horizon. He’s doing almost ever...
Composer on Fire Podcaster Garrett Hope
Garrett Hope has drawn composing inspiration from spider mating calls, Joan of Arc's trial transcript, oil spills, and rape survivor stories. In this...
Whiskey Songs and Space Musicals with Bubba Hollenhorst
Bubba Hollenhorst is a songwriter friend who I often only chat with during loud concerts or on the dance floor. In this episode of Composer Quest, I g...
Guild Wars 2 Composer Lena Chappelle on Melody Writing
Video game composer Lena Chappelle worked her way into the game business by starting as a quality assurance tester. Now she’s both designing and writi...
Cyriak's Surrealist Music and Animation
Cyriak Harris has wowed the internet with his weird YouTube animations, which often feature dancing, mutating animals, like his 34-million-views video...
Quest 17: The Tattoo
I’m excited to announce our next composing quest, courtesy of Tim Cheesebrow and his forearm. Tim has been looking for a way to commemorate his family...
Niche Songwriting with Jonathan Rundman
Jonathan Rundman’s songs have appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show, the CBS Morning News, and NPR. He realized the success of these songs have been du...
EDM Production Tips with Sam Matla
Sam Matla admits that his hometown of Wellington, New Zealand doesn’t have a big electronic dance music scene. But he’s been hard at work producing ED...
Slot Machine Composing
Reel spins, rollups, symbols, celebrations, underscores - they're all different sound ingredients that go into a slot machine. In this episode of Comp...
Kevin MacLeod, King of Royalty-Free Music
If you’ve been to an indie film fest, you’ve probably seen Kevin MacLeod in the credits. Or maybe you’ve heard his music in a cute cat video, or a Min...
Jason Graves on Game Composing
Tomb Raider, Until Dawn, and the Dead Space series are some of the big-name video games Jason Graves has been scoring recently. In this episode of Com...