Fall Out Boy vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter turned media composer Patrick Stump joins the show! While our intended focus his score for the new Disney show Spidey And His Amazing Friends, we spend a significant time talking about his transition into a media composer, his early love for film music, and what it's like having this dream finally come true. Eventually we turn to Spidey And His Amazing Friends, covering his rock-powered score and how he composed new (and addressed familiar) themes for the show's characters.

Spidey And His Amazing Friends season 1 is on Disney Junior/Disney+ and YouTube, with season 2 on the horizon. You can listen to several of Patricks' scores, including singles from the show, on all major platforms.

Better late than never - The Film Scorer returns for the annual tradition of covering the "best" film scores of 2021. These scores aren't presented in any particular order, and are really just favorites - there are NO "best" scores! Feel free to chime in with some of your favorites from the world of film and beyond; even if they didn't make the list, chances are they were close!

Colin Stetson (Hereditary, Red Dead Redemption II) joins The Film Scorer podcast to talk about his brutal, unconventional score to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Netflix's new installment in the iconic horror series. Texas Chainsaw Massacre probably displays Colin at his most unrestrained, as the filmmakers largely gave him free reign to go as unconventional and vicious as possible. You can hear this in Colin's voice when he describes the score and composing process, and the feeling is infectious. As always, we go on some tangents like how horror and other film genres compare in terms of score and Ann Arbor's old DIY music scene (a town where we coincidentally both spent a lot of time).

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is now streaming on Netflix while Colin's score is available everywhere. You can also order the gorgeous vinyl from Waxwork Records. Find out more about Colin on his website.

Derek Kirkup joins The Film Scorer Podcast to talk about his gentle, bittersweet score to the new familial drama Sorority. Along the way we talk about Nic Cage's acting career and how his boundary-pushing approach may have parallels to pushing film music forward, as well as music in AR and VR cinematic experiences.

Sorority released on Amazon Prime on February 10th, and Derek's score comes out on February 14th. You can also find more out about Derek on his website.

Four-time Grammy nominated music producer and supervisor Matt Sullivan (Chicago, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast) joins The Film Scorer Podcast! We primarily discuss his work with Steven Spielberg as executive music producer on West Side Story, how he carved this role out for himself almost by accident on the set of Chicago, and the upcoming musical Disenchanted!

Matt is actually the first non-composer to join the show, and it was great having a crash-course in music supervision and production, especially from the man synonymous with the mega-musical!

In between composer interviews, The Film Scorer covers some of the best, most notable, and favorite film scores from October through December, 2021. These include Halloween Kills by Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, and Daniel A. Davies , The Matrix Resurrections by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, Spencer and The Power of the Dog by Jonny Greenwood, and a whole load more! 

Keep your eye on The Film Scorer website for reviews and articles covering some of these scores and see below for articles covering some of my favorite scores for the following months, including detailed writeups and lists:

October: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-october-2021/

November: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-november-2021/

December: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-december-2021/

To continue 2022's strong start, the great composer Marcelo Zarvos (Ray Donovan, The Equalizer 3) joins me for a quick chat! Marcelo recently scored the newly released film A Journal for Jordan, directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan. We discuss his work on the film, some early Brazilian rock and metal, and what it's like working with Denzel.

It's a lovely, intimate score that manages to balance tragedy and love, always staying true to the drama that forms the heart of the film.

A Journal for Jordan is currently in theaters and Marcelo's score, as well as many of his works over the years, is available on all major platforms. You can also find out more about Marcelo by visiting his website.

To kick-off the new year, Catherine Joy joins The Film Scorer Podcast! We discuss a number of her projects, as well as (among other things) the Joy Music House, her work with the Alliance for Women Film Composers, and the differences between composing, orchestrating, and score supervising! We actually conducted this interview back in August of 2021, so a couple references may be slightly dated (such as the Oscar shortlists), and I'm glad I've finally gotten around to releasing it.

Catherine has composed a number of scores for TV shows, features, and documentaries. She's also worked on major projects like Wild, Wild Country, Minari, and Homecoming in various capacities, such as orchestrating and score producing. You can find out more about Catherine by visiting her website. Some of this work has come through her company, the Joy Music House, which is a full-service score production company. Catherine is also the president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, a great organization advocating for women film composers globally and its membership is open to anyone!

Pleased to have Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, Mulan, The Chronicles of Narnia) join me for a quick chat. We primarily focus on his scores for the two new Ridley Scott films The Last Duel and House of Gucci, as well as his score for the upcoming Disneynature film Polar Bear. Along the way we talk about distraction in film music and some recent scores that Harry's been enjoying. Although it's a quick chat - Harry originally only had twenty minutes, though we stretched it to just over half an hour - we managed to cover a great amount!

These two films do a fantastic job of showing Harry's range. While The Last Duel is an often somber, heavily thematic and semi-period specific score (late 14th century), House of Gucci sees Harry jump into a much more stylized, nearly-contemporary sound.

The Last Duel is now available to rent while House of Gucci is currently in theaters, while many of Harry's scores are available on all major platforms. Although House of Gucci didn't end up having a full score from Harry, the film's soundtrack release does include his score suite.

The one and only Mark Korven (The Witch, The Lighthouse) joins me on The Film Scorer Podcast! Mark is probably best known for scoring films like The Witch and The Lighthouse, but his latest score is for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. We talk about that film and his score, as well as his prior releases, his signature instrument the "Apprehension Engine," and Mark announces an upcoming 25th anniversary release of his score for Cube. Of course, during the interview we touch on a load more as well.

This was a very exciting interview for me since Mark's work is one of the reasons I began down this film music path in the first place. When I first saw The Witch, I found the music absolutely fascinating and unlike anything I'd really heard. Although I didn't begin writing about film music until a couple years after, it certainly planted the seed.

You can find more about Mark on his website. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is currently in theaters, while many of Mark's more recent scores are available on all major platforms.