News and Updates

Maya and the Three is on Netflix now! The soundtrack is also available. Here's a preview track to give you a taste. Click here to listen to the full soundtrack! Full details about the soundtrack release can be found at the Film Score Reporter.
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At long, long last, my score to Trollhunters has gotten a soundtrack release! There have been a few points in the past several years where I thought this was going to happen, but I'm happy to be able to announce that it finally has. It's actually a jam-packed release featuring tracks from not just my score to the original Trollhunters, but also music from the other series set in the same universe (3Below and Wizards), with tracks from Alexandre Desplat, Jeff Danna, and The Crystal…
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While I have been busy writing and orchestrating, I am an arranger at heart always try to squeeze in a few projects and have been lucky to work on some awesome ones recently. These have included two concerts for the BBC Symphony, one with Paul Weller, and another proms concert featuring Moses Sumney. Both were conducted and produced by my friend Jules Buckley. I arranged "Bless Me" and "Colouour." A highlight for me was getting to write for the mighty Royal Albert Hall Pipe Organ.…
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I spent most of this year composing for Maya and the Three, but I still squeezed in a few orchestration gigs. First up is a unique project, and while I actually worked on it a while ago, it was just released. The film was Annette, from French director Leos Carax. I somehow ended up in Belgium teaching Simon Helberg how to conduct. Even crazier is that I am in a scene holding a poster of him with Adam Driver (highly unusual for an orchestrator)! It…
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As if scoring three movies last year wasn't enough, Mark Mothersbaugh and his team also scored the video game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart last year, with Wataru Hokoyama taking the role of lead composer. I got to orchestrate some truly wild music for this one. Check the soundtrack out for yourself! Not only was this with Mark, but it was a Sony game. My first professional orchestrating and conducing gig was for Sony and we have worked on something nearly every year since.
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2020 ended up being a busy year for me, and while the pandemic caused some changes in how everyone was recording scores, they were still finding ways to make it happen. The first project I'd been scheduled to orchestrate and conduct was Free Guy, composed by Christophe Beck. This ended up being the first movie recorded in Los Angeles after the lockdowns. It was a team effort to make it happen and work out how we could record in a safe way. Because everyone had…
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2020 started like any other year, with continuing to work on Empire with composer Fil Eisler – its sixth (and final) season! However, as happened to everyone, that work was interrupted when the pandemic hit. As local stages and studios suspended operations, Fil and the producers of the show made the commitment to support the musicians who had been playing on the show for all these years by arranging to have everyone record remotely. There are some unique orchestration concerns when you can't have a…
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It's almost here! I spent a good chunk of the past year writing the music for Jorge Gutierrez's new Netflix limited series, Maya and the Three. Jorge and I first worked together almost seven years ago, when I was brought in to adapt and arrange Gustavo Santaolalla's music for the score to The Book of Life. The three warriors of prophecy were reunited for this show, as Gustavo wrote a suite of beautiful music inspired by Jorge's world, which I then used as a starting…
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People often ask me about breaking into arranging and what I suggest. I always say just do it, find a song or an acapela and add your own shit to it and put it out there, so here is my shit! I originally did this arrangement for Nas and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center as part of the 20th Anniversary of Illmatic. I will tell the story of how I came up with it all in upcoming blog post. In the meantime…
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On July 23rd at 2pm EST I will be on a panel talking about writing music for animation. I talk about working with Guillermo del Toro on Trollhunters and my new show Maya and the Three with Jorge Guitierrez.
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