The Last of Us (HBO) HBO’s The Last of Us is being heralded as “the greatest video game adaptation ever”. No surprise as Craig Mazen is the executive producer and showrunner. Mazen’s Chernobyl mini-series (on HBO) was one of the greatest shows I have ever […]

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 I really love this understated arrangement of Silent Night. Everything is in the right place. Guitar doesn’t have to be complicated to be beautiful. In fact, I would argue that simplicity in music is virtuous, and we should all be striving to play […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Outer Banks: Midsummers (guitar theme) This piece is very obscure, but I had a bunch of folks request this all at once on YouTube, Instagram, etc. Although it’s a great riff — it might only appeal to fans of the Netflix series, Outer Banks. The […]

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 […]

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 […]

But for the Fall of Rain This is piece of music I wrote for Adam Taylor’s micro-short animation, But for the Fall of Rain. [Parents, although it’s an animation, there is an F-bomb in there.] Adam is a Hollywood based editor and filmmaker. The voice […]