Composer Code

What the composer of Ori and the Blind Forest and Halo Infinite taught me about making music for games.

Jason Graves is a game audio veteran with numerous AAA titles under his belt including Dead Space and Tomb Raider (2013)

Eric Buchholz is a talented composer and orchestrator who offered a glimpse into his illustratious career as well as valuable orchestration principles.

Sydney Kjerstad is a talented pianist, arranger, entrepreneur and VGM geek with tons of arrangement and business wisdom. Listen to our conversation now.

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.

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.

This episode is a little special, as we actually analyze a few video game pieces in real time (download the transcriptions below to follow along) and talk more about the value of transcription.

We talk through Emmanuel's composing process, his personal experience networking with game developers, and he shares some practical tips for building your career as a video game music composer.

We talked about mastering the orchestra, breaking into the video game music industry, and he imparted valuable lessons about the difference between film and game composition.

Gordy Haab is a multi-award-winning film, video game and television composer who has written music for many well-known titles, including most recently: Microsoft's “Halo Wars 2, and EA's “Star Wars: Battlefront II”, and “Star Wars Battlefront I."

We chatted about James' current freelance journey, the intersection of game music and electronic music, and the power of being really good at one single thing. He shared his perspective on how to break into the industry and habits that hold beginners back from success.

12tone is one of the leading content creators in the music theory space, consistently delivering value with his signature top-down hand-written style of teaching.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Taylor Ambrosio Wood, a Berklee grad, marimbist, and talented video game composer.

In this dense episode of Composer Code, I chat with the guru of music business knowledge: Sebastian Wolff.

Success = consistency over perfection. That's the biggest takeaway I took from my value-packed interview with Carlos Eiene, aka, insaneintherainmusic.

I had the privilege of interviewing Cuphead composer Kris Maddigan.

I sat down with my good buddy and fellow composer Steven Melin to chat about creative burnout. This recorded conversation was recently featured on his podcast, Sonic Storytellers.

I had the awesome privilege of interviewing my favorite YouTube content creator, 8-bit Music Theory.

Steven Melin is a multi-talented video game composer out of Atlanta. I discovered his YouTube channel through poking around for some video game music theory resources.