#81: My guest today is Dror Mohar, a sound designer and engineer based out of Los Angeles. He has worked on an insane number of projects, including Inglorious Basterds, DJ Hero, Fable III, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and more recently, Lady in the Lake on Apple TV.

In this episode, we talk about how Dror grew up in Africa, ended up in the UK, and then moved to the US to truly start his career. We also talk about he started playing in bands as a guitarist and vocalist and then trained transitioned to becoming a mixing engineer and roadie, how he then transitioned from mixing into sound design in Hollywood, and so much more.

Find Dror here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drormohar/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3346677/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drormohar/

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#80: My guest today is Andy Martin, a sound designer and nature recordist based out of Seattle, Washington. Andy’s had an incredibly long and varied career in the world of sound design, working on projects such as Grim Fandango, all of the games in the inFAMOUS series, Medal of Honor, and has even worked with Skywalker Sound as a virtual reality sound designer on projects like Vader Immortal. He also has extensive experience in nature field recording as a part of the project NorthWest Soundscapes.

In this episode, we talk about how the winding path Andy took into the world of professional audio, why it’s okay to change your career goals and pivot, building a career while having ADHD, Andy’s love of nature recording and how’s he’s turned it into a business, and so much more.

Find Andy here:

Website: https://soundeziner.com/andy-martin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/northwestsoundscapes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andymartinnaturesound

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#79: My guest today is Rob Pearsall, a composer and sound designer based out of Seattle, Washington. He has had a career in game audio spanning over 20 years and dove into game audio for the first time at 46 years old. Since beginning his career he has worked on Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Destiny, République, BattleTech, Falcon Age, The Lamplighters League, and many others.

In this episode, we talk about how Rob broke into the game audio world before it was “cool”, the extreme importance of networking, how he dealt with the industry in his 40s, and much more.

Find Rob here:

Website: https://www.robpearsall.com/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7111207/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7MKfJOI5YFJfr8K4Ur1nVJ

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#78: My guest today is Raison Varner, a voice actor, sound designer, composer, videographer, and writer. He’s had a very broad and varied career, starting in 2006 as an intern on the original Prey game, then working as a composer, sound designer, voice actor, and writer for the Borderlands games for 12 years. He has also  worked as an art director for Obsidian Entertainment.

In this episode, we talk about Raison’s wide array of interests and skills, how to stand out as someone who’s interested in working across multiple disciplines, the deep psychology of working as a team in gave development, and so much more.

Find Raison here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raison-varner/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1770713/

Twitter / X: https://x.com/raisonvarner?lang=en

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rvarner

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#77: My guest today is James Thatcher, a sound designer and nature recordist based out of Seattle, Washington. He has had an incredibly diverse set of experiences before getting into the world of pro audio, most notably working in Michelin Star restaurants in France before making his way into the world of game audio years later. He has released approximately 17 sound packs, with the most recent titled, “Firearm Mechanics and Handling”.

In this episode, we talk about James navigated the past starting off as a cook and then transitioning into audio much later, how he transitioned from working on Halo Infinite to going out into nature and recording, how he releases, edits, and sells as many sound libraries, and so much more.

Find James Thatcher here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skyriversound/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-thatcher-6871469a/

Sound Library: https://www.asoundeffect.com/sounddesigner/sky-river-sound/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAab3LSvQIIpzQ0N-WH-_6lBny6T3EQQEGjRV4F-d9bsfJYrlFuAffv75YMU_aem_5nMgdxQ-UOp1vXWIKTv6fw

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#76: My guests today are Steve “Major” Giammaria & Evan Benjamin, who are re-recording mixers and dialogue editors based out of the audio production house Sound Lounge in New York City.

In this episode, we dive into their recent work on the hit series The Bear, their process for creating and enhancing the soundscape for such a tense and dramatic show, the realities and life of working in post-production sound, and so much more.

Find Evan Benjamin here:

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0071301/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-benjamin-a6aa304/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fortytwofortypost/

Find Steve Giammaria here:

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2652377/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearsmajor/

Twitter: https://x.com/hearsmajor?lang=en

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#75: Today's guest is Nainita Desai, an award-winning composer based out of London, England. She has worked with dozens of high profile clients including Peter Gabriel and A24, as well as documentaries, film, game, TV, and game projects such as Immortality, American Murder, Call of Duty, and Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

In this episode, we talk about Nainita’s upbringing as a sound designer first and how she transitioned her career into composition, learned tons of compositional and scoring skills—mostly on her own—the importance of saying “no” to great opportunities, why we should advocate for our art, and so much more.

Find Nainita Desai here:

Website: https://nainitadesai.com/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220831/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nainita_desai/?hl=en

Twitter: https://x.com/nainitadesai?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#74: Today's guest is Nathan Moody, a composer, sound designer, mastering engineer, and interaction designer based out of California. He has worked on an insane variety of projects ranging from The Callisto Protocol, Pentiment, to MLK: Now Is The Time.  He has also created sound effects for World War II Battleships, and is even currently working with Skywalker Sound.

In this episode, we talk about the benefits of being a generalist in the world of professional audio, how Nathan started his full-time sound career after the age of 40, how he built his skillset and network over a huge period of time, how to stand out in an industry where audio is becoming more commoditized, and so much more.

Find Nathan Moody here:

Shipscape Website: https://noisejockey.net/main/project/shipscape/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/n4th4nm00dy/?hl=en

Twitter: https://x.com/noisejockey?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11708054/

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#73: Today's guest is Ariel Gross, a game audio veteran based out of Texas with over 20 years of experience in the game industry. He started his career on PC and Game Boy Advance games in the late 90s and early 2000s, and eventually ended up as an audio lead—working on titles like Saints Row, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and so many more.

Ariel is now the founder of Team Audio, a team of approximately 30 audio professionals working across dozens of projects in the gaming industry.

In this interview, we dive deep into how Ariel got into game audio long before it was “cool”, working on small projects as a teenager to becoming an audio director on AAA games, how he founded Team Audio in the first place, and so much more.

Find Ariel Gross here:

Twitter: https://x.com/arielgross

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielgross/

Team Audio: https://teamaud.io/about/

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

#72: Today's guest is Aaron Brown, a video game composer, sound designer, and audio director based out of Austin, Texas. He has worked in the game industry for over 20 years now and has worked on projects such as Call Of Duty, Uncharted, Redfall, Donkey Kong: Country Tropical Freeze, and so many others.

In this episode, Aaron and I talk about how to make your own path into the game audio world, how he’s been dealing with countless layoffs and studio closings, how people should network and make friends within the game industry, and so much more.

Find Aaron Brown here:

Website: https://www.aaronbrownsound.com/

E-mail: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aaronbrownsound

And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod