There’s a reason why Gustavo Santaolalla is at the musical helm of the most compelling film scores of the past 16 years. He has remained very discerning about who he works with — and what he works on. I’ve read dozens of interviews with Gustavo Santaolalla […]

Chevaliers de Sangreal, from The Da Vinci Code, is one of Hans Zimmer’s most famous pieces of music. Life Must Have Its Mysteries is really just an updated variation of Chevaliers de Sangreal for Ron Howard’s Inferno — the third movie of the Robert Langdon trilogy. I […]

Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic composer. He leads the modern post-classical movement, which is identified with experimental, minimalist, drone, and electronic music. Jóhann is best known for his film music, primarily for his Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning score for James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything — […]

I haven’t seen any of the Harry Potter movies (or read the books) but I intend to watch them one day. Probably when my 1-year-old son is older, and able to comprehend what’s going on. This song was recommended to me by one of my […]

As Radiohead rolled out their tour and new album, A Moon Shaped Pool — I’ve poured over interviews and their most recent live performances. [Here’s Radiohead’s entire Lollapalooza set. The Numbers starts at 54:45] They seem to have a much more positive spirit about them […]

A short rant A young man, kind of metalhead, boldly exclaimed to me the other day that The Edge is the most overrated guitar player ever. I was young once (I’m 39) and I get the brash assertions young men make. I made them too. […]

I hope I won’t incur the same wrath as Bob Dylan, when he went electric at the Newport Beach Folk Festival in 1965. Not to worry though, I’ll still be delivering music on nylon string acoustic guitars. I just have another side to my playing […]

Having a camera focused squarely on Thom Yorke for 6 minutes, 25 seconds is never a bad idea. He’s impossible to look away from. Daydreaming is a beautiful song and totally depressing. In the video, Thom Yorke navigates a maze buildings and rooms that seem to […]

Babel is a movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). The movie connects seemingly unrelated people around the globe, and may challenge your biases, or preconceived notions.  Gustavo Santaolalla won two back to back Academy Awards for Best Score. Brokeback Mountain in 2005, […]

Even as a kid, I was made aware by my musical mentors that Prince was a bad dude. When I took guitar lessons in the early 90’s — the guitar shop was filled to the brim with holdover, big-hair rockers — and people obsessed with […]

Who is the greatest guitar player in the world? Most people think, for good reason, it’s Joe Bonamassa. His style is a perfect mashup of every blues guitar hero that mattered in the last 60 years: Clapton, Paul Kossoff, Jeff Beck, Mike Bloomfield, etc. To […]

The chord progression and melody for Beautiful Lie is classic Hans Zimmer. It reminds me of his other great works: Time, Solomon, and Chevaliers de Sangreal. Hans Zimmer has a knack for these simple, steady, and impassioned chord progressions — that slowly build in their […]