Composers in a Jukebox

Never in this history of podcasting have we burst into hysterics as much as we did in this episode. We are joined by composing duo Jamie Jackson and WAZ, as we explore their work on Apple TV's 'Bad Monkey', Amazon Prime's 'Motorheads', writing for instruments made from highlighters, nails, and musical third-wheeling. Confused?? Tune in to this episode to find out more...

From his long-standing musical partnership with Gustavo Santaolalla which includes co-composing the HBO series 'The Last Of Us, to his own album work as Cacique Torcido, Juan Luqui is enjoying a diverse career as a composer, musician, and creative. Join us as we explore Juan's motivations, inspirations, and "chaos" of his artistic journey in this conversation right here on Composers In A Jukebox.

Our adventure as Composers In A Jukebox takes us to Prague, where we spoke to composer Jan Valta of Warhorse Studios about his work on the hit-game Kingdom Come Deliverance. Come along and unpack the secrets of writing and recording Medieval-influenced music with the master of the craft himself!

Another great episode in collaboration with the London Soundtrack Festival - Today, we are in the company of Gordy Haab, composer of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Jedi: Fallen Order, and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle. Join us as we explore Gordy's unique music and workflow, as well as the art of co-composing on this episode!

Our London Soundtrack Festival adventure continues in Abbey Road Studios, where we spent an afternoon with composer Stephen Barton in his writing room. In this conversation, we speak to Stephen about his music for Star Wars Jedi; Survivor, Jedi: Fallen Order, Gladiator II, and teasing the new currently unreleased Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra game.

Join us for the first in a series of special episodes in collaboration with the London Soundtrack Festival! Today, we are joined by Grammy-winning composer Stephanie Economou (composer of Assassin's Creed Valhalla DLCs: Dawn Of Ragnarök) whom we spent an evening nerding out about writing music for video games, collecting weird and wonderful instruments, collaborating with Harry Gregson-Williams.

From freeing oneself from traditional harmonic principals, intelligently misleading instrumental combinations, to the most brilliant parallel between melody writing and the art of brewing tea - Gary Yershon (Mr Turner, Another Year, The Great Blueness) joins us in one of our most stimulating conversations on the craft of composing for films, theatre, and concert stages yet!

We are in the studio of BAFTA-Wales winning composer Alexandra Harwood! Come along as we take a deep dive into Alexandra's work on ballets such as 'Geisha', film/television shows including 'All Creatures Great And Small' and Mike Newell's 'The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society', as well as our common experiences in educational institutions such as the Royal College Of Music, UCLA, and the National Film And Television School.For the first time in Composers In A Jukebox history, we are also joined by a gorgeous golden retriever, Brinkley, who makes a lovely cameo in this episode!

From subtones on a bass clarinet to electronic processing of strings, Flemming Nordkrog's compositional language is packed with colouristic vibrance and charm. Join us as we discover Flemming's work on scores such as 'Everybody Loves Touda', 'Tidsrejsen', and 'Shine Your Eyes', alongside his work in building the Nordic Film Music Days, a shared space for composers in the Nordic countries.

From the original 'God Of War', 'Assassin's Creed III: Liberation', and 'Little Big Planet 2', Winifred Phillips has composed music for some of the largest video game franchises. We are astronomically honoured to have been in the joyful yet insightful presence of Winifred, chatting about her wealth of creative work in the game music industry, including her most recent project 'Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord'.

We gave ourselves a redesign!! Say goodbye to our original opening theme tune and hello to a brand new re-orchestrated version featuring Jolene on piano, Luke on guitar, Darren on flute, and Levent on violin, recorded at the prestigious LSO St. Luke's. In this episode, we listen our new recording for the first time, and reflect upon the art of recording chamber music.

From games like 'Civilisation VI', films such as 'Crazy Rich Asians', and albums including 'The Lost Birds', Christopher Tin's body of work is as inspiring as it is expansive. Today we are joined by the composer himself, who spoke to us about the creative process behind some of his most iconic pieces of music including 'Baba Yetu', and his new take on completing Puccini's 'Turandot'.

A recent Composers In A Jukebox road trip took us to the shed where the scores for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", and "The Half-Blood Prince" were written, as we spent a wonderful afternoon with composer Nicholas Hooper himself! Join us as we dive into the musical world of Harry Potter, and also catch up with Nick's recent musical pursuits including composing an extensive collection of solo piano music and poetry titled "Dawnings".

Music director of Larian Studios Borislav Slavov joins us today, in a chat about his highly acclaimed work on games such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sins II.

From 'Mission Impossible Fallout', 'Black Widow', to 'Cold Brew', and 'Somewhere In Between', Mike Ladouceur has seen from all perspectives as a composer and assistant to others. In this episode, we ask the big questions - Is it necessary to be a composer's assistant to break into the industry? How to pitch yourself as a composer? Are showreels still relevant in this day and age? How to structure music in an original album? Come along and find out!  

A community resource for film composers, The Cue Tube has been making huge waves among the film music industry over the past few years. Today we chat with founder Bryan Waters, reflecting on the good work of The Cue Tube including its annual Score Relief competitions, original rescore practise clips, and more!

We are excited to welcome back Matt Dunkley to the podcast, in a conversation about his long term collaboration with Hans Zimmer as an orchestrator and conductor on films such as No Time To Die, Inception, and The Dark Knight. We also hear about Matt's set of album works 'Cycles', taking a peek into his life as a composer of original music.

From 'The Seal Lullaby', 'Sleep', to 'Ghost Train', Eric Whitacre's music has become a staple in today's choral, wind, and orchestral repertoire. We sat down the with the composer of these modern classics himself, in an electrifying conversation about his approach to composition, transcription, and orchestration. There truly is so much packed within this episode - you have to listen to it all :p

There is no Composers In A Jukebox without composers. Join us as we discover what everyone has been spending the past year writing as we sink our ears into the music of...us! 

Join us on today's episode as we meet with the man whose work spans some of the most celebrated films of the decade including 'Barbie', 'Spiderman: Across The Spider-Verse', 'Andor', 'No Time To Die', and many more. Matt Dunkley is not only a leading orchestrator and conductor of film and media music, but also a wonderful man to have shared the studio with!

An expert in writing music for video games, Alistair Kerley joins us for a chat about his work on 'Horizon Call Of The Mountain', 'Beyond A Steel Sky', and 'Miasma Chronicles', among other inspiring insights on getting small(er) orchestras to sound large, and the composer's relationship with game design softwares.

We are joined today by Matthew Slater, composer and conductor of the series "Endeavour", and managing director of Charts of London. In this episode, we explore the ins and outs of writing for the orchestra and discover the best ways to learn this craft.

We all love listening to music don't we? What about listening to the people who create the music we love? Join Darren, Levent, Luke, and Jolene from 'Composers In A Jukebox' as they take you into the depths of their world in film and media music!

The fusion of Eastern and Western musical elements to form a cohesive whole is no easy task. Today we chat with Christina Liang, a highly sought after Taiwanese composer who enlightened us about her career, family, and how she mastered the art of writing fusion music.

Our adventures as music podcasters take us to Charts of London, a leading company in music preparation, orchestration, and conducting services. It was a pleasure to be joined by the team from Charts including Matthew Slater, James Jarvis and Natalie Brown, talking about their work on film and TV such as Black Panther II: Wakanda Forever, Emancipation, Frozen Planet II, Endeavour, and more!

Composer and producer Morgan Kibby joins us for an inspiring chat about her work on film and TV such as Amazon's recent series 'The Power', 'Tales Of The Walking Dead', and 'Mothering Sunday'. We also took a peek at her new album 'Rookie' as a singer/songwriter, which she released this month under the name Sue Clayton.

A studio packed with instruments is a dangerous place for composers. Watch as we ignite our spontaneous creative inspiration, while we sit together an engage in a never-before-seen improvisation session as a 'Jukebox Quartet'. We hope you enjoy one of our most unique episodes to date (and some might say out of all of podcast history)!

We are privileged to have sat with the ever so charismatic composer Lindsay Jones, speaking about his double Tony nominations for "Slave Play" (best original score and best sound design), as well as his process of scoring "Marvel Wastelanders", amidst other work for film, television, theatre, video games, and podcasts.

As composers, we sometimes engage in other activities on top of writing. Conducting and recording our music (or other people's music) is part and parcel of our work, which we're excited to sit around for the second time this morning and geek out about in today's episode!

As composers, we sometimes engage in other activities on top of writing. Conducting and recording our music (or other people's music) is part and parcel of our work, which we're excited to sit around and geek out about in today's episode!

Today, we scratch our heads over four questions about our profession - scoring music for films. Join us (Jolene, Darren, and Luke) as we dive into raw and honest conversations about collaborating with directors, managing deadlines, taking advantage of temp music, and the effectiveness of musical "themes" in this day and age.

In this episode, we celebrate the launch of Jolene Khor's new album "Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger". Today's jukebox tracklist includes music that combines Chinese instrumental traditions with epic, lush, and cinematic orchestral backdrops, alongside other experimental electronic and orchestral music by Darren Sng and Luke Mombrea.

A tiny bit of audio simply to draw you into our podcast :p Enjoy!