New Videos by Charlie McCarron
Dev Jana is a talented dude. I first knew him as a video game designer, but it turns out he plays a ton of instruments and sings! He covered "No Turning Back" from my upcoming album 2020, and I think of it as the equivalent of Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help From My Friends" – more raw energy and cooler than the original!
I put a call out to musicians to record cover songs from my upcoming album 2020, and Carrellee is the first to finish her cover. It's amazing to hear such a talented singer and piano arranger put her spin on the song.
My buddy Ben Burnes invited me to participate in his Two Hour Album Challenge. The idea is that bunch of us make songs in two hours, and we put them all on a compilation album.
When making a board game, how do you turn meaningless objects into things that inspire laughter, cooperation, backstabbing, or even table flips? That's the subject of my talk at last night's International Game Developers Association Twin Cities meeting. I also talked about what I learned in designing and art directing my game Four Humours.
Catalyst Story Institute asked me to host a 3-part series on music in film and TV, aimed at directors and producers. I talked with several talented Minnesotan guests, including Rick and Morty composer Ryan Elder and master orchestrator Robert Elhai, who has orchestrated around 200 films (Marvel movies, Batman movies, Alien movies, etc.).
Karen Sunderman and Steve Ash at WDSE WRPT / Duluth PBS made a really nice segment about my film scoring process, and it's airing on TV tonight!
I was asked to lead a workshop on film composing at Catalyst Content Festival in Duluth. We were able to bring musicians from the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra to perform the scores, giving the audience an idea of what a live orchestral scoring session is like.
Beneath the Ink was nominated for Outstanding Short Documentary in the 2019 News and Documentary Emmy Awards. I co-composed the score with Stephen Letnes, and it's been a wild ride seeing where Cy Dodson's film has gone and all the awards it's been getting.
I attend a monthly documentary club in the Twin Cities, where directors screen their works-in-progress. When Kyle Whitney shared his footage of interviews with nuclear bomb survivors in Japan, my jaw dropped at these stories he captured.
Last night I got to hear a wonderful performance of a new quintet composition of mine. I wrote it in hopes that I'll be picked for a trip to Cuba through the American Composers Forum. The ensemble Third Sound is going to perform pieces from a few lucky composers, who will also travel to Cuba.