Stephanie Economou Talks Scoring Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök, and More

Today’s episode is a real keeper. All around music powerhouse Gary Clark has performed, written, produced, and composed incredible sonic gems that span every genre time adores, and our host Brian McNelis (president of Lakeshore Records) has released thousands of soundtracks and music supervised countless films, video games and more. In Gary and Brian's wide ranging conversation they discussed how Gary came up in a classic Scottish Irish musical household, the perennial wisdom of David Bowie, the bravery and trust of John Carney and "The John Carney Test", magical co-writing moments with stars Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the Flora and Son songwriting room, Musicals that aren't Musicals, the brilliant jazz harmony of Duke Ellington, the intimacy of songwriting, always diving into new situations as a creative, the fine line between God and Steely Dan, practicing until your fingers bleed, the song that sparked Sing Street, the politics of song selection, how to marry exclusive original songs to films, and much more. We highly recommend you put your good listening ears on for this interview, watch Flora and Son today, and listen to the incredible soundtrack (out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records). Enjoy! 

Award winning composer / co-director Kris Bowers and Katya Richardson discuss The Last Repair Shop, music education and much more with our host Alon Levitan. The Last Repair Shop is one of those incredibly rare life-affirming projects where everyone on camera and behind the scenes is a wellspring of inspiration. In their wide-ranging conversation Katya, Kris and Alon discussed the many splendors of learning an instrument, the genius of Keith Jarrett, Prokofiev, Flying Lotus and Bach, the connection between persistence & authenticity, recording an orchestra of LAUSD alumni, the hidden contributions of our ancestors, how to destroy the ego with insignificance, the orchestration of Peter and the Wolf, self-discovery and the road to catharsis, what musical instruments would say about us if they could speak, the purity & darkness of childhood, the externalization of the idea of repair, and so much more. We highly recommend you watch The Last Repair Shop today and listen to Katya and Kris’ phenomenal score album, which is out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.

"The only people who don’t make it are the ones who quit" Emmy award-nominated composer Ariel Marx redefines what a composer can be. If you are an artist or creator of any sort, you should be hanging on Ariel’s every word. She’s a one of a kind, avante-garde risk taker with a knack for pushing boundaries and getting under our collective skin in the best way possible. Alon and Ariel covered a lot of ground including breakdowns of her brilliant approach to the scores for Sanctuary, Shiva Baby and A Small Light, the importance of perpetual contrast, Ravel’s string Quartet, Judaism’s deep cuts, The Alliance for Women Film Composers, the hidden dangers of the word “compromise”, and more.  We highly recommend you go down your own private Ariel Marx rabbit hole and make her music part of your essential playlist.  

Award winning composer and producer Trevor Gureckis breaks down the visceral sound of Dead Space as an intimate journey through Hell, his outside the box collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan and how the master of thrillers keeps Trevor on his toes, the influence of Aphex Twin and Stanley Kubrick, Phillip Glass’ minimalism vs. a more dense maximilist approach to composition, pushing the boundaries of organic instruments, archetypal dread and Dante’s inferno, and so much more. Trevor’s scores for Dead Space and Servant are out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records. 

Emmy award-winning composer and master craftsman Theodore Shapiro offers profound insights into the art of story-telling, his brilliant score for Severance, the shock and thrill of winning an Emmy, “Eureka moments” with Ben Stiller, Brahms’ best music, the explosion of streamers into the new era of great TV, puzzle-solving and the key to unlocking stories, the sound of "Innies" and "Outies", alienation and the nature of self, Henry Mancini + Exotica Jazz of the late 50s and 60s, how Severance respects the viewer, creating happy musical veneers for dystopian scenes, the maestro John Williams sage advice: “just do your best work and everything else will follow”, how to make action scenes feel rich and complex, the importance of business built on relationships, and more. Theodore Shapiro’s Emmy Award-winning score for Severance is out now world wide via Lakeshore Records.

Groundbreaking composer and resident board member for The Alliance for Women Film Composers, Stephanie Economou breaks down her Grammy nominated, pulse-pounding, primal score to Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Stephanie recently made history, becoming the first woman ever nominated in the first ever Grammy video game category: Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media. In our wide ranging conversation, we discussed Pink Floyd, Mendelssohn, comic books and geek culture, the chief importance of immediacy and instincts, collaborating with Ubisoft to sculpt the game’s hard hitting, raw, emotional sound palette, how to constantly challenge listener expectations, the cross section between Death Metal, Black Metal, Neo Folk and mythology, how NOT to score a boss fight, Stephanie’s main takeaways from the great Harry Gregson-Williams, how to tackle writer’s block, performative vs practical initiatives to promote Women Film Composers, how slowing down a track can create killer intensity and chaos, and so much more. Stephanie Economou's epic score for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök is out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.

Award-winning composer extraordinaire Chanda Dancy gives our host Alon Levitan a virtual masterclass in scoring (and so much more). Chanda’s absolutely brilliant music for Devotion is one of our favorite film scores of 2022, and we feel very fortunate she was so gracious with her knowledge. In our wide ranging discussion we touched upon the importance of priorities, persistence & patience, the concept of melodic destiny and Bach Chorale style writing, how composers use sound waves to create empathy, the brilliance of Vivaldi, Yoko Kanno, Shostakovich, John Williams, and the Final Fantasy scores,  how Chanda captured the sound of positive masculinity and the notion of devotion itself, what makes a good melody, the practicalities of living a well-rounded life, how to seamlessly marry classical orchestration and big sound synths, the power of countermelody, and so much more. Chanda Dancy’s phenomenal score for Devotion is out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.

Award-winning composer Disasterpeace discusses making midi-based music for cell phone games in the pre smartphone era, ascending through the E-wrestling gaming community, the link between concept albums, prog rock, and soundtracks, logging ungodly hours of Elder Scrolls and World of Warcraft, how to ease up on internal pressure and external expectations, creating deliberately synthetic performative sounds and the uncanny valley, experimenting outside the box with David Robert Mitchell, the importance of pursuing of creative novelty, not playing it cute for Marcel the Shell, the influence of Japanese New Age music in the early 80s, the political challenges of scoring Hollywood films, composing with synths as an ensemble, and more. Disasterpeace’s moving score for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.

Award-winning composer Amelia Warner discusses the pros and cons of torturing kids with piano lessons, her storytelling appetite for the classic, otherworldly, mysterious, strange, and the beautiful, the brilliance of Randy Newman and Rachel Portman, how to properly capture the sound of love, mischief and a busy mind, her minimalist, anthemic, subtractive approach to melody, how to be a composer if you’re not classically trained, the pitfalls of performance anxiety, the devastating simplicity of greats such as Johann Johannson and Max Richter, how to tap into the sonic DNA of a film, composing for comedy and conceptualizing dialogue as rhythm, music as a means to articulate that which can’t be spoken and so much more. Amelia Warner’s stunning scores for Mr. Malcolm’s List and Wild Mountain Thyme are out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.

Brian McNelis had the great pleasure of speaking with Grammy-nominated composer extraordinaire Nico Muhly. They discussed Nico’s stunning score for Pachinko, the concept of involuntary music and Nico’s dream to design new sounds for cars and public transit, composition for concert music vs TV and film, the practicality of solving the hardest problems first, establishing a vocabulary of trust with your team, creating Wagnerian themes vs a fluid score in constant flux, the invaluable music conservatory lessons about the golden triangle of how to hear music, see it, and be able to play it, working with the great Phillip Glass, and so much more. Nico Muhly’s exquisite score for Pachinko is out now worldwide via Lakeshore Records.