Wake Me Up When September Ends (Jonathan’s Version) I couldn’t stand Green Day. I respected the band as musicians and songwriters, but as a guitar teacher, they’ve been the bane of my existence for 30 years. A constant deluge of ever changing power chord riffs […]

Reclamation I’m frequently involved with (or commissioned for) short-films. Often, these filmmakers are professionals on much larger projects. ‘Short-films’ are a vehicle for their own talents, and a way to display their skill sets. Sometimes these projects make it to the film festival circuit. Most […]

The Last of Us (HBO) The HBO series “The Last of Us” is a critically acclaimed adaptation of the popular video game. Contributing to the show’s atmosphere, is the soundtrack by composer Gustavo Santaolalla. Having also composed the music for the original game, Santaolalla’s work […]

The Pale Blue Eye I was REALLY excited to see The Pale Blue Eye – as the whole thing was shot around my hometown of Pittsburgh. Western PA is filled with well-preserved colonial sites that are located within state parks. Specifically, I spend a lot […]

Silent Night Silent Night originated in Austria in 1818. It was written as a poem, “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!”, by Joseph Mohr, a young priest in the town of Oberndorf. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher and organist in the nearby […]

21 Grams I completely lifted my right-hand technique from composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. He effectively arpeggiates chord shapes by rolling through them with his fingers. This is a beautiful way to voice chords, and pretty easy to do with a little practice. The best way to […]

The Banshees of Inisherin The Banshees of Inisherin, is a 2022 black comedy written and directed by British-Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh. The film follows two lifelong friends (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) who find themselves at an impasse, when one abruptly ends their relationship. The predicament […]

Werewolf by Night Werewolf by Night is the directorial debut film debut of (A-list composer) Michael Giacchino. It is a TON of fun. The “creature feature” is stylized in black & white with a run time of only 53 minutes. It’s an old-time monster film […]

Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) While I don’t know too much about this film — it was released internationally in 2011 as Mumbai Diaries. (At the time of this writing, it’s actually on Netflix.) However, Dhobi Ghat is the one of the best Gustavo Santaolalla soundtracks […]

Pale Mourner ‘The light wraps you in its mortal flame. Abstracted pale mourner, standing that way against the old propellers of the twilight that revolves around you.’ Excerpt from The Light Wraps You – Pablo Neruda. I draw a lot of musical inspiration from the […]

The Survivor The Survivor (HBO Max) is about Harry Haft, a real-life survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp; a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps, operated by Nazi Germany, in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. In Auschwitz, Haft (Ben […]

Only Ghosts I wrote and recorded Only Ghosts in 2016. At that point, I was in the infancy of my sound design implementation. I’m still learning, but I’m much better at working my music software — dialing in the right reverb, EQ, and mastering. Additionally, […]