Aisling Brouwer is a wondrous sonic stringsmith and a truly enjoyable guest to chat with. Her compositions on Pompeii: Out of Time walk the line between documentary, true crime and dramatization yet the wand she weaves puts all the pieces together brilliantly. “Scoring Pompeii: Out of Time meant finding music for a moment we all think we already know and then discovering how much of it we didn’t. I wanted the score to hold space for both the seismic force and scale of Vesuvius, and the intimate, human choices of the people living through it. The Pompeiian Cornu sits at the heart of that search – an instrument reborn from…
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Interview…Jess Royal On the Tangible Nostalgia of ‘Stranger Things’ and Saying Goodbye to Hawkins
All good things must come to an end and, sometimes, saying goodbye is the hardest part of the journey. It’s been a long time coming and the final season of Stranger Things was truly the end of an era. It was a monster hit, a high watermark for entertainment, and something that captured the heart of the world. It launched multiple stars into the limelight and made names for nearly everyone involved. We might just be done with 80s properties as the “cool” throwback time period where you could only remember cassette tapes, first crushes and battling trans-dimensional demons by looking in a photo album. Well, the world certainly embraced…
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Interview…Christian Lundberg’s Score Turns Up the Heat for Season 5 of ‘The Bear’
Composer Christian Lundberg is an anomaly in music and, his atypical career finds him breathing some of the rarest existing air in Hollywood. The Swedish born guitarist is proof that there is no “right” way to make it in Hollywood. The man who is bringing unbelievable amounts of chill and high intensity to The Bear on FX didn’t start out wanting to be a composer. He started off doing music tech services. As LA is the city of dreams, it seems quite fitting that he took the opportunities as they came and built upon that to get where he is. There is no rulebook for success, and that goes doubly…
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Interview…Rapper ‘Berner’ On Dedication and Work Ethic From Albums/Art to Cookies to the Big Screen
Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr., also known by his musical moniker Berner, is an American rapper and cannabis entrepreneur. He’s a Bay Area pillar and someone who is about as self-made as they come. From a young age, he had his sights set high as he literally burned his first joint to Cypress Hill. From there, Berner knew this was the life he wanted. From the streets of San Fran to collaborating with his idols on plenty of tracks across plenty of albums, Berner is a creative who is always itching to do something. So as the years went on, this would-be California king became a multi-hyphenate as an artist and…
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Interview…Reed Shannon on Creative Opportunities, Voice Work and ‘Splash City’
In Splash City, survival isn’t a theme. It’s a daily requirement. Set in the raw, unforgiving corners of San Francisco, the film dives headfirst into a city that doesn’t slow down and doesn’t forgive. This is a world where brotherhood collides with violence, ambition battles loyalty, and every choice carries a price. Against a backdrop shaped by racial injustice, economic disparity, and limited opportunity, Splash City pulses with urgency and truth. At the heart of the story are the Johnson brothers: Elijah “Slim” Johnson (Zach Sowers) and Julian “Juju” Johnson (Reed Shannon), two African-American siblings raised by a relentless single mother in a low-income apartment where simply getting through the…
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Exclusive First Listen: Dan Romer’s Down-Home Score to ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Season 1
Lakeshore Records announces the release today of Little House on the Prairie—Soundtrack from the Netflix Series Season 1 featuring music by Dan Romer. The evocatively orchestrated score is augmented with traditional American instrumentation that captures the pioneering spirit of the fresh adaptation of the series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved books. The CBS Studios production show run by Rebecca Sonnenshine and starring Alice Halsey and Luke Bracey, is streaming now on Netflix. Part hopeful family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West, this fresh adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books offers a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs…
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Interview…Composer Michael Wandmacher’s Unique Sound Palette and Working with Amy Lee on ‘The Seventh Turn’
It’s gotta be exciting and daunting being a composer. Many times they are asked to make a project better or give it life with some acoustic accompaniment. And it’s not often that there is a rule book or one singular path forward. Many of the brilliant people we’ve spoken with over the years have admitted to odd bouts of inspiration, dialogue with the filmmakers and many just kind of feel their way through the project. Art should evoke a desired emotion, and the best artists really hit us in the heart. Today we spoke with Michael Wandmacher about his revolutionary score to Eric D. Howell‘s supernatural short film. His work…
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Interview…John Paesano Crafts Terrific Terror and Nostalgia For Something Otherworldly in ‘The Boroughs’
From blockbuster cinema to interactive media and award-winning series, John Paesano’s work reflects a rare combination of emotional precision and scale. Though his music is already embedded in some of the most successful franchises of the modern era, his creative journey is still unfolding. What makes John different from other composers is that he comes at his profession as fan, that enthusiasm and reverence comes through in his spectacular compositions. Paesano grew up on the music of John Williams, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, James Newton Howard, and Alan Silvestri. Those composers wrote big, bold, thematic scores that were not afraid to be emotional, adventurous, and completely upfront. For The Boroughs,…
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[Tribeca FF Interview]…Rob Arthur’s ‘Frampton’ Is A Crowd-Pleasing Tribute To A Rare Rock Legend
Ahead of its premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival, we had a rocking good time with director Rob Arthur about Frampton. This insightful and crowd-pleasing doc about the one-and-only UK rock legend shows us the fun, fame, friendship, frailty and legacy of being Peter Frampton. The exceptional doc will screen on June 4 next month. It’s fitting that the film comes out in the same year as the 50th anniversary of Rocky. Following Peter’s ascendancy to golden god of rock in 1976 with the unparalleled live album, Peter is less an underdog but he was certainly up against the ropes following the massive success of ‘Frampton Comes Alive‘. The…
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Interview…Kirk Fox Talks Literature and Life Lessons In His Debut Novel ‘Palmdale’
It’s great when a story grabs your attention. In the case of Palmdale, Kirk Fox‘s fast-paced detective yarn, things start in a fury and never let off the gas. His novel is sharp, exciting, deep, and will surely win a lot of fans. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, so it might be hard to classify this as fiction, per se. Fox’s highly entertaining novel is a fantastic edition to the Meridia Books lineup. Also, the strength of the characters – powered by their uncommon-yet-relatable family dynamic – make this a story you didn’t know you needed in your life. And that’s worth noting because it’s written by…
