Composer Quest: A Songwriting and Music Composition Podcast

Your regular Composer Quest host has been replaced by a Demonic Overlord. Enjoy this talk with William Dodson and Wendell Jones, who compose Halloween music as the duo Sideshow Sound Theatre. Stay until the end to hear a brand new song by the Demonic Overlord himself, about one of his favorite pastimes.

Poet Brian Laidlaw has been teaching songwriting at McNally Smith College of Music, in which he challenges students with assignments like writing from the perspective of a murderer. In this episode of Composer Quest, Brian shares some of the best lyric-writing tips you’ll ever hear on the podcast. We also talk about his Internet Cat Video Festival performance, which aired on Animal Planet. As a special treat, Brian premieres a powerful new song called “One Tree Falling.”

DJ/producer duo Sjoerd Huissoon and Tim van Doorne are on a quest to get one huge dance hit with their project Ducked Ape. In this episode of Composer Quest, I interview Sjoerd and his manager Budi Voogt about what it takes to break into the dance scene in the Netherlands. We also talk about what Budi looks for in new artists to sign on his label, Heroic Recordings.

Cognitive neuroscientist Wilma Koutstaal studies and teaches about creativity at the University of Minnesota. In this episode of Composer Quest, she shares words of wisdom with all of us who want to be more creative. We talk about how to to get unstuck from writer’s block, how to move between abstract and detailed thinking, and how to avoid procrastination.

Every week, disquiet.com music journalist Marc Weidenbaum feeds his community of hungry sound artists a creative new challenge. In this project, called Disquiet Junto, Marc challenges composers to produce tracks based on an ice cube, or an Instagram photo, or the sound of space plasma hitting the Voyager I. Marc joins me for this episode of Composer Quest to share some of the coolest and most influential sound art pieces. Marc also explains why he believes music as we know it will be totally absent from films in a matter of decades.

I’m excited to announce a brand new Composer Quest competition! The Amadeus Chamber Symphony is in need of Christmas carol arrangements for their holiday performances with the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University choirs. The performances are attended by over 1,500 people, so it will be great exposure for the chosen composers. Eight arrangements will be performed, recorded, and featured on my podcast.

Student jazz players have likely come across the name Dean Sorenson – his jazz curriculum books have been published by Kjos music and played in schools across the globe. In my Composer Quest interview with Dean, I ask him about how he makes music fun and playable for younger jazz players. We also talk about the differences between improvising and composing.

In this special episode of Composer Quest, multi-platinum songwriter Kevin Bowe tells us everything he’s learned about getting your music published and placed on TV. He also explains how to get the biggest piece of the music royalty pie you can. He’s a really entertaining and knowledgeable guy, so I’m happy to bring you this hour+ of great music business advice.

Desmond Simmons, a.k.a. Precise Hero, produces music using only open-source software – he says his computer is too old to handle anything other than Linux. So how did Desmond’s DIY mixes end up on the Japanese label P-Vine Records? Creative fortitude and a collaborative spirit have been keys to Desmond’s success. In this (50th!) episode of Composer Quest, Desmond shares his thoughts on our remix culture, and why 70s Brazilian music is the best kind to sample from.

Guitarist, composer, and podcast producer Anthony Joseph Lanman has racked up over 350,000 followers on Soundcloud – a number most classical musicians can only dream of. You’d think this huge listenership (along with advanced composing degrees) would result in instant job opportunities in the composing world, but Anthony is still figuring out how to make a living writing music. Regardless, he has dedicated himself to writing classical music of this era. Through his compositions and his two podcasts, he aims to make classical music accessible to everyone, not just music theory professors. In this episode of Composer Quest, Anthony talks with me about his career path, his music, and his answer to the question, “What would Beethoven be writing today?”

The stereotype of African rhythms being complex and fascinating is completely true. I found out firsthand during my nine months in a very remote part of Tanzania, living at Hanga Abbey and teaching English, computers, and music to kids in the village. Since most of these kids don’t have access to instruments, they found a way to make totally compelling songs using only their voices. In this episode of Composer Quest, I feature some of my students’ music, plus an interview with one of Hanga’s coolest monks, Brother Onesmo Sanga. He shares his new music, which features a choir and electronic organ. Hopefully you can understand his end of our conversation, despite poor audio quality and his thick Swahili accent.

I set out to create the first episode of Composer Quest Season Two, and ended up with this heavenly look back at my musical history, embarrassing demos and all. So now, for something completely different…

I hereby challenge you to the 4th Composer Quest quest! We will be writing songs for a new Christmas musical, to be performed by the first, second, and third graders at KMS Elementary (in the rural town of Murdock, MN). I wrote music for their Christmas musical last year, and it was a blast hearing my songs performed by these kids, who were so excited about it. Maia Hamann, from episode 10, teaches music at KMS, and she’ll direct the musical. Her mom, Zita Hamann, taught at KMS Elementary for many years, and she has just written a fun story called Elfluenza.

Tinderbox Music’s Patrick Hertz specializes in promoting music to college radio stations. In this special episode of Composer Quest, I ask Patrick a bunch of listener-submitted questions about the music business. He shares advice on how to get noticed by music supervisors and get your music licensed for TV and film. He also explains how the artists he sees get ahead are (unsurprisingly) the most organized and business-minded. Although our conversation is geared more towards promoting recorded songs, I believe his commonsense advice is useful for classical composers, too.

MusicWorks MN Director Tim Cheesebrow (from Episode 19) is the mastermind behind the new Young Composer’s Contest here in Minnesota. Two talented White Bear Lake composers were chosen as the winners. It’s pretty impressive what these students were able to do with their string quartet pieces. In this special Composer Quest episode, Taylor Isberner and James Farrell share their insights for other young composers thinking about trying out this contest next year.