Soundtrack Your Life

Brian Skutle of Sonic-Cinema joins Ryan Pak to talk about the soundtrack to the 2006 Darren Aronofsky film, The Fountain. The soundtrack is scored by frequent Aronofsky collaborator, Clint Mansell, who is joined by The Kronos Quartet and Scottish post-rock band, Mogwai, to create a score that links 3 different timelines in the film. Mansell also utilizes a choir on the score, which feels both maximalist and minimalist.

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Lead singer and guitarist of The Calling, Alex Band, joins Ryan Pak to talk about the new album, Before the World Turns to Dust (out on Sept 25), the first album from The Calling in 22 years. Alex talks about the journey to get to this long awaited album, which includes being kidnapped, being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and dealing with collapsing record labels.

Alex also talks about coming from a lineage of artists and filmmakers, his songs being used in the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, the World Cup, and how a demo "Wherever You Will Go" caught the attention of a soundtrack supervisor's attention, placing Alex in the film Coyote Ugly.

Before the World Turns to Dust is out on Sept 25. The single "Dust" is out now.

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Robert Yaniz Jr of Crooked Table and Back to Bluey joins Ryan Pak to talk about the soundtrack to the 1994 Chuck Russell film, The Mask. The soundtrack is considered to be at the forefront of the 90s swing revival with its throwback soundtrack that included artists like the Brian Setzer Orchestra & the Royal Crown Revue. Jim Carrey’s iconic cover of “Cuban Pete” landed Carrey in the top 40 on the Billboard Dance charts.

The film also launched the career of an unknown actress named Cameron Diaz who made her acting debut in the film. Randy Edelman provided the score, helping turn Downtown Los Angeles into the comic book town of Edge City. Like many 90s films, the soundtrack jams multiple artists into the end credits such as Xscape, Harry Conick Jr and Tony! Toni! Tone!

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Darin Lundberg of The NostalgiaCAST and the Back to Bluey Podcasts joins Ryan Pak to talk about the soundtrack to the 1980 Irvin Kershner film, The Empire Strikes Back. The Oscar nominated score was done by the iconic John Williams, who is as synonymous with the Star Wars franchise at this point as its creator, George Lucas.

Darin shares why he goes back to The Empire Strikes Back and it's accompanying score more than the other 2 films in the original Star Wars trilogy. Darin and Ryan also talk about how the film's reputation has shifted over the years. They also talk about how John Williams' storied career only contains 5 Oscar wins even though he's been nominated 54 times.

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Earlier this year, Love Jones returned with the album, The Greatest Show on Earth, their first album since 2010, and Ben Daughtrey, Barry Thomas, and Jonathan Palmer discuss their journey to releasing the new album with Nicole Barlow and Ryan Pak on Soundtrack Your Life. They also talk about their start as a band in 1990 and how they ended up in LA, where they would meeting the likes of director John Favreau and actor Vince Vaughn. Favreau and Vaughn who were making an indie-film called Swingers.

The band contributed their song "Paid for Lovin'" to the soundtrack but the band was involved with more than just that song. Bassist Barry Thomas was a music consultant on the film, helping pick out songs for the soundtrack, and the band almost ended up in the film itself, since Favreau and Vaughn were such big fans of the band.

Ben, Barry, and John share behind the scenes stories about Swingers, they also chat about jamming with producer/composer Jon Brion in the early 90s, and appearing in films like Since You've Been Gone and The Sweetest Thing.

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Erin Marlow of It's a Fandom Thing and Jenn Owens of My Streaming Bubble are back to talk the soundtrack of The Bear, Season 4, with Nicole Barlow and Ryan Pak as we all wait for the much anticipated 5th and final season of The Bear.

This episode was recorded from a livestream shortly after Season 4 was released but was kept until now with Season 5 just days away. From favorite S4 needle drops to reactions to the stunt casting for the season, Erin, Jenn, Nicole and Ryan break down the good, the bad, and wonder if a St. Vincent needle drop is too cool for The Bear.

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It's a Fandom Thing

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Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten of the Seattle via Chicago vs New York band Chinese American Bear join Ryan Pak to discuss their new album, Dim Sum and Then Some, which was released back on May 8, 2026. They discuss Anne and Bryce's favorite cities to get dim sum, their favorite meal on tour, the strangest meal they've had on tour, and how they came up with the band name. They also discuss some of their favorite scores and they play Life in 3 Tracks.

Chinese American Bear is out on tour now!

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Award winning music editor and composer, Micha Liberman, joins Ryan Pak to explain the role of a music editor on a production

Micha also has a new album called Whole New Sun under the name Micha Meir.

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Actress Nicole Alyse Nelson, from the Oscar nominated short film, Jane Austen's Period Drama, joins Nicole Barlow and Ryan Pak to talk about recently nominated film. The music for the soundtrack was composed by Alex Winkler who also wrote the end credits song "Slide Up" featuring Bryce Charles. The stark differences between the score and the song show Winkler's musical range.

From how Nicole got involved with the project to the instructions she was given on how to handle a live chicken, all of this is discussed and more!

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Calling All Angels (432 hz) by mehro Listen to the single here!: https://lnk.dmsmusic.co/mehro_callingallangels

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Pop Culture Writer Chris Deville (Stereogum) has just released his first book, Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion, back in August of 2025. He joins Nicole Barlow and Ryan Pak to discuss the soundtrack to the 2011 Nicholas Winding Refn film Drive. Both the film and the soundtrack have become very influential. The film launched Ryan Gosling into a superstar leading man and the soundtrack's influence has permeated into both the indie and pop music space, influencing artists The Weekend, Schoolboy Q, and M83.

The soundtrack boasts amazing synthwave needle drops, a great Clint Martinez score, and a bit of both from Chromatics mastermind, Jonny Jewel. All of this is discussed as well as Gosling's rise from the Notebook to the superstar that he is now.

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