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Animation Composing with Paul Fraser

Paul Fraser went into the CalArts composition program with the mindset that he would spend half his time making weird music, and half his time composing for animations. He's since worked with some amazing animators, including the creators of Adventure Time. In this episode of Composer Quest, Paul shares his creative process in composing and sound designing animations. We also talk about some of his creative personal projects, like his "Weekly Splice," where he gathers one sound every day and mixes seven of them together at the end of the week.

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Music Theory for the Bored with Justin Merritt

In order to be more productive, composer Justin Merritt once tried polyphasic sleeping, meaning he slept only a couple hours per day. After countless hours of busyness, he finally came to the revelation that he just needed to feel bored to become inspired. In this episode of Composer Quest, Justin and I talk about how Buddhist philosophies have influenced his life as a composer, and he shares some great composition advice he gives to his students at St. Olaf. Justin also explains how he invented a unique system of creating scales and modulating, which he used in his beautiful piece "Lachryme" for string orchestra.

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Schizophrenic Synthpop Storytelling with Felix Frost

Experimental songwriter Ben Simon (aka Felix Frost) caught my ear when I was judging the SpinTunes songwriting contest. His album Phineas Flux has a really shiny pop sound, but it almost never repeats the same phrase twice (in fancy composer language, that's called "through-composed"). We talk about his elaborate plot-driven songs about cowboys and pirates in this episode of Composer Quest.

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Robot Drummers and Patrick Flanagan of Jazari

Patrick Flanagan Jazari Robot Band

Cyborg percussion ensemble Jazari was created by "token human" Patrick Flanagan. He made a kind of robot drum circle that beats on acoustic bongos, cowbells, a djembe, and more. In episode 32 of Composer Quest, Patrick talks with me about his robot band, his day job creating musical iPhone apps, and his reasons for leaving the academic composing world to create dance music.

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Throat Singing and Chopping Beats with Prism House

Brooklyn experimental duo Brian Wenner and Matt O'Hare talk with me about their production process in episode 30 of Composer Quest. In the latest Prism House EP, Reflections, Brian Wenner's beats are made from chopped-up field recordings of pop cans and squeaking doors. Matt O'Hare, the visuals man of the duo, is also a very talented musician. He explains how The Simpsons has helped him become an excellent throat singer.

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Composing Your Way Out of Plato’s Cave with Ted Moore

In episode 18 of Composer Quest, electroacoustic composer Ted Moore enlightens us about coding music to interact with human performers. He also shares his ideas on choosing a musical form for your piece, like sonata form (ABA) or binary form (AB). We also talk some philosophy when I bring up Ted's piece "Eyes May Be Impaired," which he based on Plato's allegory of the cave.

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Drum Kit Melodies with Pete James Johnson

Jazz drummer Pete James Johnson has recently been getting into sampling his dad's old records to make beats for his DJ project Elephane. In this episode of Composer Quest, Pete shares his beat sampling advice, his experiences composing for jazz trio, and his new method of thinking in terms of "melodies" when he plays a drum solo.

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A Composition Seed with Dr. Brian Campbell

I felt like I was right back in a composition lesson with Dr. Brian Campbell, my former CSB/SJU music professor, when I interviewed him for this episode of Composer Quest. As always, he imparted plenty of wisdom, this time about writing music from a single "seed" and developing that idea. We also talk about form, writing melodies, "robot composers," and using the Japanese aesthetic of "ma" - silence.

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