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 […]

Only Ghosts This song is also available on all streaming and music services including: Spotify and Apple 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 […]

a love unreturned When I write music, put my hands on the guitar to see what happens. After I get two or three notes, I execute what I hear in my head, and follow that thread until completion. It’s hard for me to get away […]

Finch Free audio download on SoundCloud. Finch on Apple + was a beautiful and highly entertaining movie: In a post-apocalyptic world, Finch (Tom Hanks) knowing that his health is slowly failing, builds a robot to take of his dog after he passes. The robot was […]

Coventry Carol The “Coventry Carol” is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. Loreena McKennitt’s version is my favorite and you can find my arrangement of her performance here. I love the sound of voices forming one single chord. My inspiration was various […]

Flight In 2017, I wrote this song in about 15 minutes while in flow state. Artists, musicians, and creators experience the ‘flow state’ to some degree. It’s often called “the zone” — fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus. That’s how I write music […]

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 […]