Music

Northern Film Orchestra Recording Session Highlights 2022

It was a great privilege to record my music with the Northern Film Orchestra earlier this week. This video has some highlights from the session recorded with my iPhone.

"Honest Expression" Inspired by the Dao De Jing

I wrote this song inspired by this passage from the Dao De Jing.

Composer Spotlight with the Northern Film Orchestra

I was interviewed for the Northern Film Orchestra's composer spotlight series where they talk with emerging composers around the world about their creatives processes, and thoughts on music composition.

Recording Session with the Northern Film Orchestra

On November 15, 2021 I recorded two of my compositions with the Northern Film Orchestra at The Stoller Hall in Manchester, England. We recorded my compositions Escape and Clear Sailing which were composed in 2002 and orchestrated in 2010.

The Message

I spend a lot of time cultivating with vibrational energy. I choose music as my primary form of expression because music is both tangible and intangible at the same time. It's a transformational bridge.

Celestial Conversation

Stillness in the midst of rain and thunder. Waves of change cleanse and transform. After all storms, the Sun shines and birds sing.

Birdsong and Music

I made a recording of a mourning dove and other birds waking up at the beginning of the day and added some music.

Inner Oath

I created this song in the flow. Each instrument and vocal part was recorded in the first take with no corrections.

Unnamed: Playing Piano in Nature

I just sat down to play the piano and this happened. I wondered for a couple of days if I had more work to do on this but ultimately decided to just be content with it as it is.

Into the Woods: A Graphic Novel by Lisa Cline

My friend Lisa Cline created this graphic novel and I was inspired to write music for it. When it was done, I sent Lisa and her husband, Matt, an invitation to the "world premiere".

Journey to Eris: A Meditative Experience

I composed this music in the flow to a guided meditation. I was more focused on syncing up with a particular feeling as opposed to getting everything timed correctly. I then shot some video footage from around the land I live on and put the final music to that.

The Making of "Happy Cats"

I'm a patron of an artist named Jamie Squire on Patreon. Her approach to art and the art itself is very inspiring to me. I love her style. This week she released a picture of her favorite cats that live nearby her flat. I felt like writing a piece of music to this picture and attempted to express the personality of cats. I recorded my process. It took about 1.5 hours to get as far as I did. I edited it down to 15 minutes.

Music Composed for a Web Cartoon in College

In college ('99-'03), I was into a lot of things that I no longer am: StarCraft II, late-night chicken fingers, rollerblading, Dance Dance Revolution (introduced to me by my Korean roommate), Homestar Runner, and Eskimo Bob.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It's always so beautiful here in Santa Fe when it snows. Osa and I love to go out in the fresh powder and make the first tracks on the land. Coming home to a warm fire puts a ribbon on the whole present.

Live Scoring Session

In this video, I start with a blank canvas and invite you along for the ride of creating a piece of music. When I sat down to record this the whole session lasted about 45 minutes. I cut out a lot of parts to make the video more succinct while at the same time following the arc of the journey and the major turning points.

Sharing Your Voice feat. Melissa McConnell

My friend Melissa posted a video on Instagram of her singing a song she made up entitled "Lullaby for the Star Children". I was really inspired by her music and so I asked her if I could add some additional elements to the recording and this is the result.

Playing the Flute One Evening

This is a video of me making up a song on the Native American flute. I added a bunch of reverb on this which makes it sound really cool 😎

Music Composed for a Tea Documentary

My friend Jake filmed and edited a tea documentary produced by Shiuwen Tai of Floating Leaves Tea. I was so inspired by his work that I ended up writing music to go along with it.

Promise Kept feat. Anna

My friend Anna sent me a recording of her playing the handpan and then I added some parts to it.

Music from an Airplane, Tea Pot and Water Jug?

I'm currently taking an online course in sound design and I created a piece of music to put some of the things I was learning into practice. In this behind-the-scenes video I breakdown how I created the song from sounds that I recorded including an airplane, a teapot, water jug, my voice and more.

Drone Flight Over the Nooksack River

I shot this aerial footage over the Nooksack River in Deming, WA while staying there and wrote some music to it.

Music Composed to Greta Thunberg UN Speech

I was very moved by Greta Thunberg's speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. A full orchestral piece like this takes me 8 hours to complete. It's very rare that it happens all at once, but it can happen when I'm inspired. This was the case for this piece.

Melting Into Spring: A Musical Journey

I was inspired to gather a bunch of stock video footage and edit a film together for my composition "Melting Into Spring". The video starts with winter footage of snow falling and chilly landscapes and then transitions into gentle breezes on meadows, animals grazing, and flowers blooming.

Creating "Melting Into Spring"

Wise Silence: A Musical Journey of Ralph Waldo Emerson

On a cold winter day with plenty of snow on the ground, I gathered wood and made a fire. Following that, Osa and I took a hike up to the meditation cave to enjoy the view. I created music to go along with this film and recorded a voiceover of an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Osa Playing in the Snow

While living on 40 acres of land, off-grid in Santa Fe, NM we had some amazing snowfalls and plenty of room to prance around in it. After a night of epic snow, Osa and I embarked on our morning walk to make fresh tracks in the snow.

Making a Holiday Version of Podcast Theme

I host a podcast called Subscription Entrepreneur where I interview entrepreneurs, authors, and other interesting folks. I wrote the theme music for the podcast and in late 2018 with Christmas around the corner, I decided to create a holiday version of the theme.

Hermitage in the Santa Fe Mountains

I had the good fortune to spend a couple of years living off the grid in a straw bale casita sitting on 40 acres in Santa Fe, NM. I took this video footage close to the beginning of my time there.

Fun with Slow Motion at Vasquez Rocks

Back when the iPhone 5 first came out and it was the first time we were introduced to the slowmo feature, my brother and I happened to be going out to Vasquez Rocks in CA to film me running around in some of the new garments he made for his company, Rogue Territory.

Music to Scene from BBC Planet Earth

The original Planet Earth series is one of my favorites. I took a cue from that series when Winter is changing to Spring and wrote some music that I felt fit the mood.