Awaken With Awaken, I just kept it simple, and followed the melody in my head. The reason for the title, is that I was taking an afternoon nap with my 2 year-old son, and literally dreamed the melody. I awoke, and ran to my office […]

Steady Hands I wish I had more to say about this piece. I wrote it for a film that I was briefly associated with. As it turned out my music wasn’t right for the project — but I’m sure it will get used elsewhere at […]

The Still of Morning Free (for personal use only) high-quality download on SoundCloud. I wrote this song for the heroes of morning. Whether you’re an early morning runner, crossfitter, writer, or just going to work — our genesis starts, uninterrupted, in the early morning stillness […]

Very happy that M. Night Shyamalan is doing well again. Split, starring James McAvoy, has excellent reviews — much like his 2015 “found footage” thriller, The Visit. Ever since I saw, The Sixth Sense on a date with my girlfriend (now wife) M. Night has […]

I originally wrote all of the music for (what I now call) An Old Heart for another movie. It was a great opportunity, but as it turned out, my music was too sentimental and not a good fit for the film. I’ve written about that […]

21 Grams is a 2003 American drama film directed by director Alejandro González Iñárritu, also the director of: The Revenant, Babel, Birdman. 21 Grams is groundbreaking, in that the storytelling is non-linear. You’re presented with three people, with three seemingly unrelated stories — until they’re […]

I’m very excited to see Arrival — but with a 19 month-old at home, my movie watching has taken a serious hit. Even still, I’ve been a huge Denis Villeneuve fan ever since his movie Prisoners, which is also scored by Jóhann Jóhannsson. Principally, Jóhann Jóhannsson is […]

In a previous post I had mentioned that I had yet to watch Alejandro Inarritu’s, 21 Grams. I did, but made it a 1/4 of the way through. It’s well done and well acted, but I just can’t take prolonged sorrow in movies these days. […]

When you have kids (mine is 16 months) you really don’t go see movies anymore. My wife and I watch plenty of them — it’s just going to the cinema is nearly impossible. Even still, I’m jerry-rigging my busy teaching schedule to see Captain Fantastic this week. Captain […]

As I listen back to this performance of Radiohead’s True Love Waits, it flows just as easily — as when I first transcribed it. This arrangement took about 20 minutes for me to put together, and it was definitely a “flow state” experience: Flow is […]

To me, each of Jeff Nichols’ four movies exemplify perfectly crafted storytelling. I think of Nichols’ films with the same fondness as M. Night Shyamalan’s first few films. Out of the gates, M. Night, wrote and directed: The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. All phenomenal […]

Often, what I try to do, is distill a song down to its core elements — then create a guitar arrangement from that. I began this blog in 2011 doing note for note arrangements —  but I soon realized nothing sounds as good (to me) […]