Mare of Easttown Mare of Easttown was an awesome limited series on HBO. I was emailing back and forth with my friend Derek about the finale this week. His synoptic take was better than anything I could write: “Mare of Easttown was a stunning piece […]

Calmamente Calmamente is from the soundtrack of Qhapaq Ñan — Gustavo Santaolalla’s docuseries about the pre-Columbian ‘Inca road system’, which winds for 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) through the Andean region. It’s a serene song that exemplifies Santaolalla’s minimalist ability to extract the maximum from a few […]

Chevaliers De Sangreal Chevaliers De Sangreal (The Da Vinci Code) is a glorious piece by Hans Zimmer. He has this knack for writing film music with a slight pop sensibility. If we think of Gladiator, Inception and Interstellar — the underpinning of the music is […]

Batman Theme 2021 I absolutely loved Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and I wanted to explore more themes from the soundtrack with my guitar. I’m a huge fam of (SynderCut composer) Tom Holkenborg. He has an elaborate YouTube channel where he dives deep into his soundtrack […]

Wait and Then by Gustavo Santaolalla As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I believe Gustavo Santaolalla’s 2014 album, Camino, is a collection of music that was intended for various film projects. I’ve scored a few short films, and I’ll write and record 20 pieces […]

Cordon de Plata Cordon de Plata is a beautiful piece of music from Gustavo Santaolalla’s album, Camino. I believe that record is a collection of instrumentals that didn’t find a home in Santaolalla’s various film projects over the years. Almost certainly this piece was intended […]

Waking Up Waking Up is a piece of music from the film, Lone Survivor. This is an awesome movie about the lone survival of Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell — after his 4 man reconnaissance team was chased up and down a mountain side by scores […]

The Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything (2014) is a  biographical romantic drama film set at the University of Cambridge. It details the life of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. The exquisite music, by the late Johann Johannsson, won the Golden Globe for best […]

Mary Magdalene (2018) Mary Magdalene is a 2018 film directed by Garth Davis. It stars Rooney Mara, and Joaquin Phoenix. This is one of Johann Johannsson’s final film scores before his sudden death in 2018. This film dispels the myth (by Pope Gregory in 591) […]

Their First Time Their First Time, by composer Adam Taylor, is the standout piece from the Hulu original series, The Handmaid’s Tale. I love the simplicity and repetition of this motif. My hope is to pair back my own songwriting to something this sparse and […]

Morning Morning is the central theme from August: Osage County — a highly underrated soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla. Much like Brokeback Mountain, the film’s score has Santaolalla exploring uniquely American themes. Known for his minimalism, Santaolalla uses a subtle, often sparse approach that acts as […]

Aniron I saw The Lord of the Rings movies years ago and thought they were breathtaking. I recall The Hobbit films more recently, and they were equally as good. Both series of films have spectacular music by composer, Howard Shore. This piece is actually called […]