Finding Inspiration and Breaking Patterns | with Film Composer Roger Neill - Progressions: Success in the Music Industry

Episode 87

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Published on:

5th Apr 2023

Finding Inspiration and Breaking Patterns | with Composer Roger Neill

Today’s guest is award winning film and television composer Roger Neill. Roger is best know for his scores for the films “20th Century Women,” “Don’t Think Twice,” “Beginners” and for his work on television series such as Amazon’s “Mozart in the Jungle,” CBS’s “Mom” and the long-running Fox series “King of the Hill.” He’s also worked extensively in the video game world on blockbuster titles such as Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Borderlands 2, and many others. He holds a PhD from Harvard University, he arranges and orchestrates for recording artists like Beck, Kygo, and Michael Jackson, is a multi-instrumentalist and world music enthusiast. We have a great chat defining the tone of a film, the importance of never being complacent, never tying your self worth as an artist to some one wanting to hire you, and finding inspiration by breaking patterns.

🗒 In this episode we'll dig in on... 🗒

  • Composing for film and television
  • How to write music for video games
  • Fostering your relationship with music
  • Developing the sound and tone of a score
  • Discovering inspiration by breaking patterns
  • Network with those around you because they are the ones that will hire you later.
  • Scoring his first film with a small orchestra recorded in a dining hall
  • Taking advantage of the resources around you while you’re in school
  • Starting out working for Mike Post
  • Producing on screen visuals as well as composing for "Mozart in the Jungle"
  • How video game scores are delivered
  • Using Synths to match the era of a film
  • Never being complacent
  • Outworking people that are technically more talented

🎙 Travis' Intro 🎙

Action is the Foundation

🎶 ... Listening Recommendation 🎶

Altın Gün - Listen Here

🗣 Mentioned in the Interview 🗣

👉 Learn More About Roger Neill... 👈

Website: http://rogerneill.com/

"Lisztomania" Arrangement from "Mozart in the Jungle" - Listen

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Credits:

Guest: Roger Neill

Host: Travis Ference

Editor: Stephen Boyd

Theme Music: inter.ference

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About the Podcast

Progressions: Success in the Music Industry
Host Travis Ference chats with music producers, engineers, mixers, artists, musicians, and songwriters about the tips, tricks, mindsets, and ideas that helped them define their careers.
Insightful conversations about building and maintaining a fulfilling and successful career in the music industry. Music producers, engineers, mixers, artists, songwriters, musicians, composers and various other audio professionals sit down and share the tips, tricks, mindsets and ideas that helped them define their careers.

Created and hosted by Grammy nominated recording and mixing engineer Travis Ference, Progressions: Success in the Music Industry is inspired by the journey of his career so far. Travis is determined to set the next generation of music creators up with the tools they need to define their own success and live a happy, healthy, and prosperous career in the music business.

Don’t wait for luck. Start building your future now.

Join us on YouTube for extra content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwsSYXoW9AXB3TdJPXO02Gw

Get in on our conversations on The Complete Producer Network: https://www.completeproducer.net/share/z_LJhc8M_GtKZ1OX?utm_source=manual
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About your host

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Travis Ference

Travis Ference is a Grammy nominated mixer, producer, and recording engineer based out of Los Angeles, CA. With over a decade of experience in the music business he has worked on multiple #1 albums, several top 10's, numerous RIAA platinum and gold certified records, as well as hit TV shows and blockbuster films. His work can be heard on more than 15 million albums sold and billions streams worldwide.

The inspiration for his podcast came from his journey over the last 5 years to redefine what success is for him, to take control of his time, and to ultimately live the life he wants while making the records he loves.