FilmMusicSite.com: Composer Talk

Takeshi Furukawa is a Tokyo born composer who works and lives in Los Angeles. He composes music for stories told through film, television, and interactive media. Drawing on a deeply lyrical musical voice and a lifelong affinity for the orchestra, he creates scores where melody, beauty, and emotional storytelling remain at the heart of every work. His recent projects include Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix), Mythic Quest and Side Quest (Apple TV+), Planet of Lana (Wishfully), and the critically acclaimed The Last Guardian (Sony Interactive Entertainment). Coming up soon is the soundtrack for Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf and just released on Netflix is the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Takeshi Furukawa takes us into his musical world. We talk about his score for the videogame Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf and we dive into his music for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2.

Enjoy listening.

Double Danger is a duo of composers and producers based in Paris that emerged in 2023 through the collaboration of Xavier Caux and Douglas Cavanna. These self-taught musicians joined forces with the aim of transcending conventional and academic approaches to music composition. Their project seeks to push the boundaries, providing the works they support with an artistic experience beyond the usual norms. In 2023, the duo made their mark by crafting the soundtrack for the film Vermines. It won numerous prizes around the globe (including Sitges, Austin Fantastic Film Fest, Imagine Film Festival). Their projects include next to Vermines (Original Soundtrack); Dans L’ombre (Original Soundtrack); Le Roi Fourchette (Original Soundtrack); Tohsca ‘Sippin’’ (Produced by); Polar Park (Original Song by); and Je Sais Pas (Original Soundtrack). Recently they wrote the score for the horrorfilm Evil Dead Burn.

In this episode of Composer Talk Xavier and Douglas talk about their close collaboration when writing music for film. They share a lot of insights about their score for the film Evil Dead Burn.

Enjoy listening.

Bruce Broughton is a composer who writes music for film, television, video games and he is best known for his many motion picture scores, which include Silverado, Tombstone, The Rescuers Down Under, The Presidio, Miracle on 34th Street, Homeward Bound, and Harry and the Hendersons. His television themes include The Orville, JAG, Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures, and Dinosaurs. With 24 nominations, Broughton has won a record 10 Emmy awards. His score to Silverado was Oscar-nominated, and his score to Young Sherlock Holmes was nominated for a Grammy. His music has accompanied many of the Disney theme park attractions throughout the world, and his score for Heart of Darkness was the first recorded orchestral score for a video game. One of his latest projects is Soarin’ Across America, music he wrote for the a new version of the Disneyland Attraction Soarin’.

In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Bruce Broughton gives us an inside view on how it is writing music for popular Disneyland attractions. We zoom in on Soarin’ Across America and Le Visonarium (From Time to Time). We talk about his music and his view on life.

Enjoy listening to this new fantastic episode!

Jessica Rose Weiss is a composer who’s music blends the emotional depth of orchestral storytelling with the texture of electronic and folk influences, creating a style that’s both cinematic and deeply human. Her credits include Sony/Amazon’s Cinderella, the Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings, Ryan Murphy’s anthology series American Horror Stories, and Nicol Paone’s stylish crime caper The Kill Room, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. Recently she wrote the music for the film Girls like Girls.

In this new episode of Composer Talk Jessica Rose Weiss takes us to the beginning of her career. We talk about the mentorship she had from Mychael Danna. She talks about her latest film Girls like Girls and how her composing process works. 

Enjoy listening!

David Fleming is an American Born composer who began his career in New York writing music for commercials and creating ringtones tones. In 2017 David composed the score for the BBC's internationally acclaimed Blue Planet II alongside Hans Zimmer, which marked the start of a collaborative relationship with the Academy Award-winning composer, encompassing music for films such as Dune, Hillbilly Elegy and Top Gun: Maverick. He wrote music for films such as Damsel, The Alto Knights,… He worked together with composer Gustavo Santaolalla on the HBO series the last of us. Last year he co-wrote the music for the DC summer blockbuster Superman followed by Anaconda. Recently David wrote the music for the Apple TV+ series Widow’s Bay. 

In this episode of Composer Talk composer David Fleming takes us to Widow’s Bay. We dive into the music he wrote for this new Apple TV+ series. Next to that we look back at his music for Superman and Anaconda.

Enjoy listening to this new episode of Composer Talk!

Högni Egilsson is an Icelandic composer and performer working across concert music,

film, and contemporary songwriting. His work moves between acoustic and electronic worlds,

often exploring the relationship between musical language and narrative form. His film and television work includes the score for Touch (2024), directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the most attended film in Iceland that year. He also wrote music for the Netflix series Katla, the historical drama King and Conqueror. Recently he composed the music for the Netflix film Apex, a film starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton.

In this episode of Composer Talk Högni guides us through his composing process for the Netflix film Apex. We take a look at the recording process for this great score.

Enjoy listening!

Tomás Videla is a Los Angeles based composer for film, television and media, who creates highly elaborate orchestral music often mixed with hybrid and electronic elements. He is also an experienced orchestrator and skilled conductor. He scored several short films from live action to animation. He wrote the music for Apple TV+ documentary series The Dynasty: New England Patriots, Mattel’s He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, which is streaming on Netflix, Disney’s LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales, Netflix’s A Tale Dark And Grimm, HBO’s Documentary Series The Invisible Pilot and the short documentary Superhuman Body: World of Medical Marvels. Recently he wrote the music for the 8 part series La Casa de los Espíritus (The House of the Spirits which will start streaming on Amazon Prime soon.

In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Tomás Videla talks about his latest score The House of the Spirits. He created a mix between raw, rhythmic soul of South American and Argentinian folk music and the sound of a traditional orchestra. He gives us a lot of great insights in his way of working. 

Enjoy his great new episode of Composer Talk!

Composer Jeff Beal is a Five-time EMMY® winner who is born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jeff was a self-taught pianist and spent countless hours in the library learning music theory and composition on his own. At the age of 17 he composed a trumpet concerto. Jeff writes music for the concert hall but also for film and television. He worked with directors such as Ed Harris, Lauren Greenfeld, David Fincher, Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner. He wrote music for films and television shows such as Pollock, Appaloosa, House of Cards, The Putin Interviews, The Queen of Versailles, Shock and Awe, Blackfish, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel, Rome, Carnivàle, Rule Breakers, All Her Fault and many more. Jeff will premiere, during this year’s composer summit in Prague, new symphonic music that he has written for the 1927 film classic Metropolis.

In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Jeff Beal takes us into the composing process for the 1927 silent movie classic Metropolis which will be performed live in Prague during the Composer Summit. Next to that we go into the piece he wrote for Pictures at an Exhibition: The paintings of Bob Peak project and his latest volume of New York Etudes for piano.

Enjoy listening this new episode of Composer Talk!

Brian Tyler is an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, and conductor who has scored over 100 films grossing $17B worldwide, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, Crazy Rich Asians, The Fast and the Furious franchise, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He is also the composer behind the themes for Formula 1 and the U.S. Open Golf Championships. He has worked on hit series such as Yellowstone, immersive live shows such as Awakening at Wynn Las Vegas, and his own high-energy audiovisual project Are We Dreaming, which debuted to 30,000 fans at Lost Lands Music Festival. Recently Brian wrote the score for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, Nuremberg, the serie Marshal and opening soon in theaters is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

In this episode of Composer Talk Brian Tyler takes us on a musical journey through Nuremberg, The Mario Galaxy Movie, Are We Dreaming, Formula 1 and Marshals. We also talk about health and life. 

I hope you enjoy this almost 56 minute Composer Talk conversation with the amazing Brian Tyler!

Photo Credit: Adam Fox

Paul Leonard-Morgan is a composer who writes music for  film, television and video games. His unique cinematic style of fusing orchestra with electronica has put him in high demand as a score composer & band producer, as well as a performer and artist in his own right. His film scores include Dredd, Limitless, Cyberpunk 2077, Boston Strangler,… Recently he has been working on the score for Amazon Prime’s Pretty Lethal and the Louis Theroux documentary Inside the Manosphere. Paul Leonard-Morgan won a BAFTA award and was nominated for an Emmy and Ivor Novello. 

In this episode of Composer Talk composer Paul Leonard-Morgan talks in-depth about his score for the film Pretty Lethal which is now on Amazon Prime. We talk about how he was able to mix ballet with action and suspense. We also take a look at his music for the Louis Theroux hit documentary Inside the Manosphere which can be seen on Netflix.

Enjoy this fantastic conversion in this new episode of Composer Talk!