The Composer's Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Releasing music as a composer isn’t just about finishing a track, but involves many forms of creativity in design, marketing, and more.

In this episode of The Composer’s Life, I talk about the process of releasing music today: from where to start writing your music, to understanding distribution platforms, and getting your music onto streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Whether you’re releasing concert music, film cues, or independent work, this episode breaks down the practical and creative sides of getting your music heard.

To listen to my EP as mentioned in the episode, click your preference to listen below:

Spotify: click here

Amazon Music: click here

Apple Music: click here

And you can watch my music video of Ho'omau: click here

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Video game music sits at the intersection of composition, sound design, and interactive storytelling, and in this episode, I sit down with composer and sound designer Michael Sweet to explore how those worlds come together in practice.

We talk about his work in video games, how sound and music are built for interactivity rather than linear storytelling, and what it means to compose in an environment where the player shapes the experience.

The conversation also looks at the creative and technical side of game audio — from designing sound worlds to building adaptive music systems — and how that changes the way you think about composing altogether.

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Claudio Ragazzi is an Emmy and Grammy award-winning composer, guitarist, and professor at Berklee College of Music — and in this episode, I sit down with him to talk about his work in the film and TV industry as a composer.

We explore how his career has developed across composing, performing, and teaching, and what it means to build a long-term creative life in music. From scoring films and documentaries to working with some of the world’s leading musicians, learn from Claudio's rich experience - and find our why his dream job is to compose for The Teletubbies.

Learn more about Claudio:

Website: https://www.claudioragazzi.com/film-tv

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706420/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7x9gv5rJtLNiMQ0JmeMCuk

Berklee Interviews is a series of interviews with professors, heads of departments, and professionals from Berklee College of Music.

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In part two of my conversation with film and TV composer Blair Mowat, we move further into the realities of working as a composer — from the day to day creative process to navigating the film and media industry.

We talk about how projects develop in practice, how ideas are shaped under real deadlines, and what changes once composing becomes your profession rather than something you’re working towards.

About Blair:

Blair Mowat has composed over 200 scores for films, theater, and television, with clients ranging from The English National Ballet and The Royal Shakespeare Company to the likes of BBC, SKY, and ITV. He is a BAFTA-nominated, award winning composer with over 15 years’ experience and is considered a fast-rising star in the industry. His work includes Class, an acclaimed 8-part Doctor Who spin-off series on BBC One, ITV’s international hit show McDonalds & Dodds, and SKY’s The Amazing Mr. Blunden, written and directed by Mark Gatiss. He was recently nominated for a BAFTA for his score for ITV's Nolly.

Website: https://www.blairmowat.co.uk/

Instagram: click here

Spotify: click here

Watch Nolly: click here

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Blair Mowat is a film and TV composer whose work spans drama, documentary, and large-scale productions — and in this first part of our conversation, we talk about how his career developed and what led him into composing for screen.

We get into the early stages of becoming a composer, how opportunities begin to take shape, and what it actually looks like to move from learning into professional work.

About Blair:

Blair Mowat has composed over 200 scores for films, theater, and television, with clients ranging from The English National Ballet and The Royal Shakespeare Company to the likes of BBC, SKY, and ITV. He is a BAFTA-nominated, award winning composer with over 15 years’ experience and is considered a fast-rising star in the industry. His work includes Class, an acclaimed 8-part Doctor Who spin-off series on BBC One, ITV’s international hit show McDonalds & Dodds, and SKY’s The Amazing Mr. Blunden, written and directed by Mark Gatiss. He was recently nominated for a BAFTA for his score for ITV's Nolly.

Website: https://www.blairmowat.co.uk/

Instagram: click here

Spotify: click here

Watch Nolly: click here

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Kevin Lax and Robert Lydecker are film composers whose work spans film, television, and media — and in this episode, I sit down with them to talk about their approach to composing and working in the film industry.

We get into how they collaborate and how projects develop from idea to final score.

Robert Lydecker:

Robert Lydecker is an Emmy-winning, classically-trained composer who grew up playing drums in punk bands.  

Credits include Orion and the Dark, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Iron Fist season two,  Lethal Weapon seasons two and three, ABC’s Designated Survivor (co-scored with Sean Callery), and the Fox series Sleepy Hollow (co-scored with Brian Tyler).

Outside of film music, he’s been involved with work in food justice, guerilla gardening, and habitat restoration.

Website: lydeckermusic.com
Instagram: click here
YouTube: click here
Spotify: click here

Kevin Lax:

Kevin Lax is also an Emmy award winning composer, rapidly emerging for his compelling, versatile, and skillfully written music. He started his music journey studying piano, voice and music composition, and attended USC's Thornton School of Music for undergraduate and graduate studies in composing.

Having scored 2018's summer blockbuster The First Purge, he recently wrapped up work on Dreamworks' feature film Orion and the Dark (written by Charlie Kaufman) and TV series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. Other notable credits include work on Apple TV's See and Foundation, Netflix's The Witcher: Blood Origin,  ABC's Agents of Shield, as well as AMC's Walking Dead.

Outside of music, Kevin enjoys exploring the great outdoors, teaching, soccer, and environmentalism.

Website: https://kevinlax.com/
Instagram: click here
Spotify: click here

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Locrian is the mode that doesn’t quite settle anywhere. It feels unstable from the very first note — not because something is wrong, but because of the way it refuses to resolve in a traditional western sense.

In this final episode of The Composer’s Life modes series, I look at Locrian and what happens when you try to compose with a sound that doesn’t naturally want to feel like “home.”

Rather than treating it as a limitation, this episode leans into what makes it unique: its tension, its ambiguity, and the way it exists outside of the usual sense of stability that most music is built on.

It’s a reminder that not every musical idea needs to resolve cleanly to still be meaningful.

This is the last of a seven part series where I break down each musical mode so you can use in your own composing.

To get more help with the concept, here's an article that contains music examples, video explanations, and a pdf with all the Locrian scales:

Click Here

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Aeolian is the sound most people associate with sadness in music — but it’s more subtle than that. It doesn’t push forward like some other modes. It sits a little lower, feels more internal, and tends to settle rather than resolve.

Today, I continue the modes series by looking at Aeolian and how its natural minor sound shapes the emotional direction of a piece when you start composing with it. What makes it interesting isn’t just that it’s “minor”, but the way it removes urgency — leaving space for something quieter, more reflective, and less driven.

This is the sixth of a seven part series where I break down each musical mode so you can use in your own composing.

To get more help with the concept, here's an article that contains music examples, video explanations, and a pdf with all the Aeolian scales:

Click Here

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There’s something immediately relaxed about Mixolydian, but not in a neutral way — it has attitude. A kind of laid-back tension that comes from that one note that shifts everything slightly out of “standard” major territory.

In this episode of The Composer’s Life, I continue the modes series by looking at Mixolydian and how that subtle change in the scale creates a completely different energy when you start composing with it.

This is the fifth of a seven part series where I break down each musical mode so you can use in your own composing.

To get more help with the concept, here's an article that contains music examples, video explanations, and a pdf with all the Mixolydian scales:

Click Here

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Lydian has a very immediate “lift” to it — like the sound is constantly moving upward. There’s something unusually bright and open about it, almost weightless.

Today we continue the modes series by exploring how Lydian behaves when you actually start composing with it, and why that raised fourth changes the entire color of a musical idea. Instead of treating it like a variation of a major scale, this is about hearing it as its own sound world — one that naturally leans toward lightness, space, and cinematic movement.

This is the fourth of a seven part series where I break down each musical mode so you can use in your own composing.

To get more help with the concept, here's an article that contains music examples, video explanations, and a pdf with all the Lydian scales:

Click Here

To learn more about the podcast, click here.

To sign up to the newsletter, click here.