Nathan Madsen is a seasoned game audio composer with years of experience in both in-house and freelance roles. We chatted about best practices in landing gigs, the pros and cons of freelance vs. in-house work, and how to balance a family with VGM ambitions. He’s got a real heart for mentorship and helping other composers … Read more
Chad Seiter is a game composer that I met at the recent VGMCon in Minneapolis, MN. He’s an experienced and really humble dude that shared a lot of his own experiences, both personal and professional. We talked about some of the lessons he learned from studying under renowned composer Michael Giacchino, how he faced some … Read more
Steven Melin is no stranger to the podcast. He’s a good friend and a great composer, and he’s been quite busy for the past several months… writing a book! In this episode, we chat about the “why” behind Steven’s new book, Family-First Composer. He shares some practical tips for building a career in media composition … Read more
We talk about Cajsa’s unique approach to starting a song, how she founded a game company with friends from her university (Forgotten Key), and how she uses a very cool sound-stretching plugin to create banjo soundscapes.
Grant Kirkhope is a man who needs no introduction. He’s the talented composer behind some of the most beloved classics on the N64 like Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Goldeneye 007, and Perfect Dark.
I talk with Matthew about some of the benefits of full-time employment vs. freelancing, but also some really organic, practical ways to build relationships and ultimately get paying work as a composer.
I talked with Chase about how he got into video game music, how he practices “connecting” with his instrument, and he shared some incredible techniques for beating writer’s block. Seriously, every creative person needs to hear this.
Word-of-mouth references are a dominant force in the indie game community According to the respondents of a poll I created in a popular Facebook game dev group, the most common way developers find composers is through word-of-mouth reference. Here are some quotes from developers I spoke with (some have been slightly altered to fix grammatical … Read more
I chatted with Tony about his origin story, the indelible impact of games like Majora’s Mask, and how he approaches orchestrating a piano sketch.
How to build professional relationships and add value to build your game composition career Jason Graves said it best: you don’t break into this industry, you sort of… “ooze” into it. And that oozing is a process of showing up, day in and day out, meeting new people, forming relationships, composing lots of music, and just … Read more