Join me in the inaugural episode of my new podcast, Composer Quest. I’ll be picking the brains of composers and songwriters to gain some insight into writing music. For the first episode, I interviewed Mitchell Johnson from Spencer McGillicutty.

We talk about pop music theory, Beatles songwriting techniques, Mitchell’s “Douchiest Song Challenge,” etc.

[audio:https://www.charliemccarron.com/mediaftp/composerquest/composer-quest-001-mitchell-johnson.mp3]

Right click to download, or open in iTunes.

For more of Mitchell’s music, visit http://spencermcgillicutty.com.

Episode Playlist

• 1:50 – “Claire Carnaby” – Spencer McGillicutty (Games, 2008)
• 6:21 – “Telephone Signals” – Spencer McGillicutty (Games, 2008)
• 15:45 – “You Haunt Me” – Spencer McGillicutty (All The Happy People!, 2012)
• 22:24 – “1944 (Think of Me)” – Spencer McGillicutty (All The Happy People!, 2012)
• 23:57 – “Tell” – Spencer McGillicutty (All The Happy People!, 2012)
• 27:27 – “London” – Mitchell Johnson (2010)
• 30:04 – “June” – Spencer McGillicutty (All The Happy People!, 2012)

Suggested Listening

• Beach Boys – “God Only Knows” (Mitchell’s favorite song)
• The Beatles – “Please Please Me” (Long rests between vocal phrases)
• The Beatles – “All You Need is Love” (One-note melody, 7/4 meter)
• The Beatles – “Tomorrow Never Knows” (One-chord drone throughout song)

Listen and Subscribe

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Thanks for listening!