Interview

Composer

“Captain America: Brave New World” Composer Laura Karpman Crews a New Beat for a New Cap

The Academy Award-nominated composer Laura Karpman is now a consistent voice in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She scored Ms. Marvel, The Marvels, and What If? Now she adds Captain America: Brave New World to her impressive resume, which also includes American Fiction and Lovecraft Country. In the tradition of Captain America movies, a conspiracy is ...

By Jack Giroux  |  March 3, 2025

Interview

Composer

“The Brutalist” Composer Daniel Blumberg on Blending Genres in Brady Corbet’s American Epic

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist has found its way into all the awards conversation, with everything from Corbert’s masterful direction to the performances by Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, Dávid Jancsó’s editing, Lol Crawley’s cinematography, Judy Becker’s production design, and Daniel Blumberg’s score getting notice. The film is centered on visionary architect László Toth (Brody), who flees ...

By Leslie Combemale  |  January 13, 2025

Interview

Composer

“The Wild Robot” Composer Kris Bowers on Accessing a Robot’s Humanity Through Music

Emmy and Oscar-winning composer Kris Bowers has become one of the go-to composers in Hollywood. Known for his work on films and TV shows like King Richard, The Color Purple, The Last Repair Shop, and Bridgerton, he has created well-known scores for a wide diversity of genres. For writer/director Chris Sanders‘ The Wild Robot, Bowers has added feature animation to ...

By Leslie Combemale  |  November 4, 2024
“Agatha All Along” Songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez on Agatha Finding Her Voice

Agatha All Along wisely brings songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is only fitting, considering the two helped musically introduce Agatha to great acclaim in WandaVision. With the latest Disney+ series from creator Jac Schaeffer, the acclaimed music duo explores music history as they deliver time-spanning variations of ...

By Jack Giroux  |  October 24, 2024

Interview

Composer Director Special/Visual Effects

A Symphony of Success: Emmy Nominees Talk VFX, Composing, and Editing

We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our first panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. For our second panel, our Emmy nominees came from a wide-ranging group of shows—Lessons in Chemistry‘s ace director Millicent Shelton, nominated for ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  August 26, 2024

Interview

Composer Editor Producer

The Rewards of the Craft: Emmy Nominees on the Joys & Challenges of Television

We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our second panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. Like last year, we sat down with some nominees from some great, disparate, challenging shows. In our first panel, Planet ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  August 26, 2024

Interview

Composer

“Ahsoka” Composer Kevin Kiner on Scoring Jedis, Sith Lords, and Space Whales

There are few people alive with more Star Wars experience than composer Kevin Kiner. While Kiner would be the first to point out that the legendary John Williams has him beat, when it comes to the number of minutes—and hours—of music composed for a galaxy far, far away, Kiner is a proper Jedi. For more than a ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 21, 2024

Interview

Composer

“Knuckles” Composer Tom Howe on Scoring the Speedy Warrior’s Paramount+ Debut

Composer Tom Howe constructed the score for Paramount+’s superpowered new series Knuckles, putting the warrior Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe at the center of the action. “He’s like Sonic, but more fun, more attitude, and probably more fun to have a beer with or go out for dinner with,” Howe says ...

By Nell Minow  |  June 12, 2024

Interview

Composer

“The Acolyte” Composer Michael Abels on Scoring a “Star Wars” Story Unlike Any Before It

Fans of Star Wars have been eagerly anticipating their newest live-action series, The Acolyte, which features all-new characters in a tense and action-filled story that explores the light and dark sides of the force, as well as many grey areas in between. Set in the High Republic era that leads into Episode 1: The Phantom ...

By Leslie Combemale  |  June 5, 2024

Interview

Composer

“Furiosa” Composer Tom Holkenborg Takes us on a Wild Musical Ride

George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Story has given us the best action sequence of the year, a relentless, 15-minute literal thrill ride that pits a young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), her War Rig mentor Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), and some assorted War Boys against the onslaught of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and his Biker Horde. This includes the ...

By Nell Minow  |  June 4, 2024

Interview

Composer

Composer John Paesano on Scoring A Hero’s Journey in “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

Editor’s note: This article contains light spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. “What’s interesting about this film, and it played into our favor, is you couldn’t score it like you could a normal film that’s been done the last ten years,” says composer John Paesano about director Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the ...

By Daron James  |  May 24, 2024

Interview

Composer

Composer and Virtuoso Guitarist Byeong Woo Lee on Scoring Films For Bong Joon Ho

Byeong Woo Lee is a man of many talents. He’s a virtuoso guitarist and guitar designer, a successful pop musician, a graphic designer, and an educator. As a classical guitarist, he’s performed with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Korean Symphony, and more. After stints in Vienna and Seoul, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 18, 2024

Interview

Composer

Legendary Composer Charles Fox Gets His Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

On Friday, April 5, composer Charles Fox was awarded a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in recognition of his remarkable career creating themes for television series like Love, American Style, Happy Days, The Love Boat, scores for more than 100 movies like Foul Play and 9 to 5, and the Grammy-winner, “Killing Me Softly ...

By Nell Minow  |  April 5, 2024

Interview

Composer

“Shōgun” Score: Atticus Ross & Co Meld Ancient Soul to Modern Tech

Composer Atticus Ross teamed with Trent Reznor over the past 15 years to conjure dread-filled tension in David Fincher thrillers The Social Network, Gone Girl, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before plunging into afterlife limbo with their Oscar-winning score for Soul. But Atticus was on a new journey to the realm of feudal ...

By Hugh Hart  |  March 25, 2024

Interview

Composer

Hans Zimmer on Unearthing New Sounds for “Dune: Part Two”

If you’ve seen any notable film in the past 40-something years, chances are you’ve heard Hans Zimmer’s work.  From his two Academy awards (The Lion King in 1994 and Dune: Part One in 2021) to his three Golden Globes, four Grammys, a BAFTA, and various other accolades — his resume extends beyond any category, label or ...

By Andria Moore  |  March 4, 2024

Interview

Composer Director

“The Last Repair Shop” Co-Composer & Co-Director Kris Bowers on his Perfectly Tuned Oscar-Nominated Doc

Composer Kris Bowers has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most versatile film scorers with a stunning list of credits, including Ava DuVernay’s Origin, The Color Purple, and the upcoming Bob Marley: One Love. But Bowers is also the Oscar-nominated co-director of this year’s documentary short The Last Repair Shop, which spotlighted a story right in ...

By Loren King  |  February 13, 2024

Interview

Composer

“The Color Purple” Composer Kris Bowers on Creating a Melodic Symphony Fit for Celie’s Journey

Composer Kris Bowers didn’t have to read the script before saying yes to Blitz Bazawule’s emotionally captivating version of The Color Purple. He was already a fan of his work, particularly the director’s debut, The Burial of Kojo, and Beyoncé’s visual album Black is King. For this collaboration, early discussions focused on “being innovative musically” ...

By Daron James  |  January 8, 2024

Interview

Composer

Best of 2023: Hit Makers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt on Adding a Pop Punch to “Barbie” Soundtrack

*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year.  Before Barbie, before producing Bruno Mars and Adele, before winning an Oscar for co-writing Lady Gaga’s duet “Shallow” for A Star Is Born, Mark Ronson made a living in New York City as a deejay pulling from ...

By Hugh Hart  |  January 1, 2024

Interview

Composer

“Wish” Composer David Metzger on Getting the Stars to Align for His Heartfelt Score

The Walt Disney Company celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and, in honor of the milestone, released a new animated feature, Wish, just before Thanksgiving. Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn (both of Frozen) and written by Jennifer Lee and Allison More, Wish is set centuries ago in the magical Spanish Mediterranean island kingdom of ...

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  November 30, 2023

Interview

Composer

Hit Makers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt on Adding a Pop Punch to “Barbie” Soundtrack

Before Barbie, before producing Bruno Mars and Adele, before winning an Oscar for co-writing Lady Gaga’s duet “Shallow” for A Star Is Born, Mark Ronson made a living in New York City as a deejay pulling from his encyclopedic knowledge of musical genres from many eras. Ronson’s talents earned wide acclaim when he co-produced Amy ...

By Hugh Hart  |  November 29, 2023