William Ross has had a hand in all avenues of the music industry. A four-time Emmy winner, Ross has decades of experience as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor and music director. Aside from scoring titles like Tin Cup and Ladder 49, he’s worked with a dizzying array of artists and musicians over the years from fellow famous Hollywood composers (John Williams, Alan Silvestri) to pop music icons (Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson). Ross has quite a lot of Olympics experience as well as he’s arranged the music for the opening and closing ceremonies for various Olympic games from 1998 to 2010. But beyond that he’s also tasked with the music of Hollywood’s biggest night. This year’s Academy Awards ceremony marks…
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Interview…Film Composer Patrick Doyle Talks ‘Jack Ryan’, Love of Country and Having A Laugh At It All
Hailing from Uddingston, Scotland, musical maestro Patrick Doyle always has the hugest smile on his face, which makes him either the happiest guy on the planet, or someone who just really, really loves his job. Perhaps it’s both, but you can’t go a few seconds without hearing him laugh. Even over the phone you can sense the endless joy in his voice when he talks about his career, his passion and his good friend Sir Kenneth Branagh. In fact, the rare (but widely abundant on the web) photo above is one of the few times you won’t see him grinning like a kid with a key to a candy store.…
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Interview…Film Composer Christopher Lennertz Rewrites the Rules for Comic Soundscapes with ‘Ride Along’
Christopher Lennertz is a composer, producer, conductor, and arranger whose adeptness for a multitude of genres has put him on the map time and time again. You many not recognize his name but if you’ve seen Horrible Bosses, Think Like A Man, shows like Supernatural or played games like Mass Effect 3 and Starhawk then you know Chris’ work. A veritable encyclopedia of musical styles and theories Chris currently writes the music for the hit J.J. Abrams series Revolution on NBC. He’s also celebrated for his video game scores like Steven Spielberg’s Medal of Honor series and he just completed the score for the most recent installment of the iconic…
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Interview…Film Composer Alex Heffes on ‘Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom’
The world lost Nelson Mandela in December of this year and so it’s bittersweet that this Winter we are given a powerful film that chronicles the life of such an important man. The film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is directed by Justin Chadwick, stars Idris Elba and Naomie Harris and features a moving and emotional score from award-winning British composer Alex Heffes. Alex composed over 90 minutes of original music for the film. Traveling to South Africa he recorded choir vocals and South African singing legend Caiphus Semenya’s own voice to depict Mandela’s passing into Manhood as a young boy and ultimately reprising this theme for his inauguration as South Africa’s…
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Interview…Voice Artist and Film Music Specialist Tim Burden
We at GoSeeTalk claim to be huge film score fans but there’s someone we know who puts both our passion and knowledge to shame. Hailing from London, living in Northern Ireland since 1990, host on a number of film and music related outlets, including his own “Movie Magic” show, is one Tim Burden. Raised on golden era Hollywood music his father was the John H. Burden, a past principal of the London Symphony Orchestra who played on some of the most iconic film scores of all time. I’ve admired his work and professionalism for some time and admittedly there’s a bit of Tim Burden’s “movie magic” in all my interviews. You may…
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Exclusive: Interview (Part III)…Film Composer Steve Jablonsky on Experimentation and Career Experiences
We’ve come to the final post, Part III of the 90 minute interview we had with the incomparable Steve Jablonsky. Hitting on a number of topics we got a deeper look into his process and Steve offers even more personal experiences and insight into his phenomenal scores. If you’re just joining us, check out Part I and Part II (really, if you love film music, they’re not to be missed) but if you’re all caught up then enjoy the final leg in this trio of interview posts with amazing composer Steve Jablonsky. ——————————————————————————————————————————— – “Making sounds” as opposed to just composing them is a very proprietary approach. But do you think,…
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Exclusive: Interview (Part II)…Steve Jablonsky’s Big Break, His Process, and Living In Michael Bay’s World
In Part I of our interview with film composer Steve Jablonsky we talked about his recent score for Ender’s Game. A major player in the word of film music Jablonsky has made a name for himself contributing to and fully scoring some of the most successful blockbusters in the last decade. Working with the likes of Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer, Jablonsky has become an in-demand composer and he continues to score films for some of the biggest names in the industry. So jump right into Part II as we discuss Steve’s big break, scoring a slew of horror remakes for Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes and of course…
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Exclusive: Interview (Part I)…’Ender’s Game’ Composer Steve Jablonsky
For more than a decade Steve Jablonsky has been composing riveting scores for some of Hollywood’s most bombastic blockbuster films. From the Japanese anime Steamboy (directed by legendary filmmaker Katsuhiro Otomo), to Michael Bay’s The Island and Transformers series to scoring no less than 4 feature films in 2013 alone, Jablonsky’s epic sounds have become a staple in the world of action films. Whether things are blowing up on the silver screen, the TV screen or in video games, Jablonsky is one of only a handful of go-to composers who consistently deliver diversity and complexity along with high energy themes. Originally focused on becoming a recording engineer, Jablonsky’s career as a film composer developed after assisting…
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Exclusive: Interview…Nathan Johnson Talks Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rian Johnson and the Musical Mojo of ‘Don Jon’
A gifted musician in his own right, film composer Nathan Johnson creates such unique musical soundscapes for every movie, short film and project to which he’s attached. This year he composed the score to Don Jon, which is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s modernized interpretation of the iconic thief of hearts. With a sound and style that’s so varied and diverse, Johnson’s scores have given such a unique atmosphere to films like Brick and Looper. We got to chat with Nathan about his work on Don Jon, his process working with different directors and so much more. Below are the highlights of our time with him. ——————————————————————————————————————————— – An interesting take on the fabled Don Juan DeMarco, Don Jon…
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Interview…(Part II) Film Composer Carl Thiel Talks More Music, Robert Rodriguez and ‘Machete Kills’
Award-winning music writer/producer and film composer Carl Thiel was born into a European family and raised in Mexico City, Carl was exposed to a rich and wide variety of cultural experiences and musical styles from a very early age. As a young boy, he would listen to his father (a Swedish immigrant with a doctorate in music) play Mozart and Bach on the piano, while his older siblings would play Beatles and Carpenters albums. His mother, a perpetual student of the spiritual and healing arts and the daughter of German and Austrian immigrants, shared her love for Strauss and Vivaldi, as well as meditation and inspirational music. Immersed in the huge metropolis,…
