Composer Quest: A Songwriting and Music Composition Podcast
Join the quest! Learn how composers and songwriters create music in this podcast hosted by Minneapolis composer Charlie McCarron. Whether you’re a music composition grad or simply an occasional noodler on a guitar, each guest has a new perspective for you on the creative process of composing and songwriting, along with some concrete ideas to apply to your own music.
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 49 minutes
- Episodes
- 166
- Years Active
- 2013 - 2017
Blind Film Composer Stephen Letnes
What is life like as a blind composer? It’s a question I’ve wondered about, but haven’t been able to ask until this interview with Stephen Letnes. In this Season 5 premiere episode of Composer Quest,…
01:29:18 |
Wed 07 Oct 2015
Quest 16: Gamer’s Rhapsody Game Jam
Emily Reese (Joon Media), Tim Turi (Game Informer), and Thomas Spargo (Gamer’s Rhapsody) join me for this quest announcement episode. This fall, we’ll be teaming up composers, game developers, artist…
00:18:03 |
Wed 23 Sep 2015
Season 4 Finale: Jon Brantingham Returns
For the Composer Quest Season 4 finale, I asked Jon Brantingham back to chat. He shares some great insights on musical form, film scoring, and the Gustav Mahler orchestration style.
01:38:05 |
Wed 01 Jul 2015
African Guitar Legend Siama Matuzungidi
Siama Matuzungidi played guitar on and wrote some of the biggest pop hits of the 70s in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Kenya. In today’s episode of Composer Quest, I talk with h…
01:14:54 |
Wed 24 Jun 2015
TV Composer Double Feature: Fil Eisler and Mac Quayle
I’m excited to announce this Composer Quest double episode with TV composers Fil Eisler (Revenge, Empire, UnReal) and Mac Quayle (American Horror Story, Drive, Mr. Robot). First, we hear from Fil abo…
01:06:55 |
Wed 17 Jun 2015
Inside the Creative Mind of Noah Keesecker
In today’s episode of Composer Quest, I interview Noah Keesecker about everything from the perils of grad school to making musical ping pong tables. Along the way, I discover that Noah is on the “spe…
01:41:49 |
Wed 10 Jun 2015
Composing a Symphony with Musicologist Michael Dodds
Composer and Baroque music specialist Michael Dodds is the subject of an upcoming documentary called Blessed Unrest (currently being Kickstarted) about the personal challenge of creating a 40-minute …
00:50:24 |
Wed 03 Jun 2015
Game Music so Sweet it’ll Make Your Teeth Hurt, with Lisa Walkosz-Migliacio
Lisa Walkosz-Migliacio is a video game designer who also specializes in composing sparkly “tingy tingy” music that perfectly complements her games like the cute, bunny-filled Usagi-chan. With about 3…
01:10:27 |
Wed 27 May 2015
Music Evolution with DarwinTunes Creator Bob MacCallum
Over the past few years, Bob MacCallum has been focused on one question: can music evolve through natural selection? In this episode of Composer Quest, we discuss Bob’s amazing evolutionary music pro…
00:57:35 |
Wed 20 May 2015
Composer Secrets with Ian Dicke
Ian Dicke has secrets, but not the scandalous kind. In this episode of Composer Quest, we talk about his tricks of the trade when it comes to structuring his compositions and developing musical ideas…
01:22:07 |
Wed 13 May 2015
Music from the Director’s Chair with Jason P. Schumacher
Jason P. Schumacher has made a name for himself as a filmmaker in the Twin Cities, but he’s also had songwriting in the background of his life since high school. In this episode of Composer Quest, we…
01:15:00 |
Wed 06 May 2015
Arranging Pop Songs with Producer Andy Thompson
Andy Thompson is the guy who’s made Jeremy Messersmith’s albums sound incredibly good. He has also collaborated with Dan Wilson of Semisonic, Belle and Sebastian, and he even added some instrumental …
01:32:00 |
Wed 29 Apr 2015
Patchwork Scriabin Results
100 years after the death of Alexander Scriabin, his music lives on in a form he would never have expected. A week ago, I announced the Patchwork Scriabin quest along with UniqueSound, and 49 people …
00:17:06 |
Sun 26 Apr 2015
Song Exploder’s Hrishikesh Hirway on Songwriting
Hrishikesh Hirway removes as much of himself as possible from his interviews with musicians in Song Exploder. In today’s episode of Composer Quest, we get to hear from this mysterious podcaster about…
01:03:55 |
Wed 22 Apr 2015
Quest 15: MNKINO Film Score Fest
Film Score Fest is back in 2015! MNKINO and Composer Quest will be pairing up filmmakers and composers to create new short films, and the Composer Quest orchestra will perform the scores live at the …
00:12:42 |
Sun 19 Apr 2015
Quest 14: Patchwork Scriabin with UniqueSound
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Alexander Scriabin’s death, Composer Quest and UniqueSound are teaming up to bring you a collaborative music production quest. We’ll be creating an “audio quilt” …
00:08:37 |
Wed 15 Apr 2015
Brain Music with Roger Dumas
Roger Dumas was a synthesizer whiz kid back in the 70s. He wrote manuals for early Moog synthesizers, and he helped out Prince, Janet Jackson, and even John Lennon. He’s also the guy behind the catch…
01:10:54 |
Wed 15 Apr 2015
Merry Podmas: 7 Composition Podcasts
Welcome to this special Christmas episode of Composer Quest! Since I’ll be taking a break from interviews (until I find a few more patrons…wink wink), I thought I’d share a few of my favorite music c…
00:42:23 |
Tue 09 Dec 2014
N64 Composer Grant Kirkhope Talks Banjo Kazooie, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark
It was an honor interviewing legendary composer Grant Kirkhope about his time at Rare, where he worked on some of the most popular video game soundtracks of all time. In this episode of Composer Ques…
01:00:54 |
Wed 03 Dec 2014
Chiptune Composing with Ben Burnes
In today’s episode of Composer Quest, I talk with fellow Minnesotan Ben Burnes, who has been writing chiptune music for games (12 games in 12 weeks, as a matter of fact). He just released them in his…
00:56:32 |
Wed 26 Nov 2014
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