Akash Thakkar interviews successful audio professionals from every corner of the music and sound industries. From educators, performers, pop stars, game audio professionals, voice actors, composers, sound designers, plug-in designers, audio programmers, and everything in between, we dive deep into the business and mindset skills it takes to ”make it” in the worlds of music and sound.
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
#67: Today's guest is Kian How, a composer, sound designer, and music performer based out of Shanghai, China. Kian has worked on a ton of different projects, such as games like Spec Ops The Line, Dishonored, and Marvel: Heroes Unite. He has also worked with clients such as Huawei and is also a player of the Egyptian oud, which is similar to a lute.
In this episode, we talk about Kian's start in Boston and how he ended up moving to China after college, the truth of what a sound designer does in their job, the importance of learning new skills for fun, and so much more.
Find Kian here:
Website: https://www.kianhow.com/
Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
#66: Today's guest is James Landino, a composer and DJ based out of Tokyo, Japan. He has worked on a variety of projects including Battlegrounds Mobile, No Straight Roads, Tower of God, Roblox, and many, many others.
In this episode, we talk about how James developed his iconic electronic music style, what upcoming composers can do to stand out in a saturated industry, what's next for James now that he's been composing for 20 years, and so much more.
Find James Landino here:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jameslandino
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6xMMOflXnoIA3grU3seMjh
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/JamesLandino
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Jan 24, 2024
Wednesday Jan 24, 2024
#65: Today's guest is Jett Galindo, a mixing and mastering engineer and soprano singer based in Los Angeles. She has worked on countless high-profile projects such as the soundtracks for La La Land, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and has worked with artists such as Pink Floyd, Towa Bird, and countless others.
In this episode, we talk about Jett's journey from the Philippines to the U.S., how she got into music mastering in the first place, how she faced overt sexism in the industry she wanted to be a part of, and so much more.
Find Jett Galindo here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jettgalindo/?hl=en
Find The Bakery here:
Spotify: https://www.instagram.com/bakerymastering/?hl=en
Website: https://thebakery.la/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
#64: Today's guest is Bastian Gerner, a Foley artist based out of Düsseldorf, Germany. He has worked in the film and game industries as a Foley artist for decades and, most recently, worked as a full-time senior Foley artist for Ubisoft. Nowadays, on top of his freelancing business, he also coaches up and coming sound designers on breaking into the film and game industry, as well as how to record high quality using a home setup.
In this episode, we talk about Bastian's career and how he started with Foley in the first place, how he teaches sound designers the skills they need to succeed, why he decided to freelance instead of being a full-time employee forever, and so much more.
Find Bastian Gerner here:
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5588918/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_foley_teacher/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCES-9zV4CV9_BIGrqczAwLA
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
#63: Today's guest is Nicolas Gasparini, also known as Myuu. Nicolas is a long-time pianist and composer who's been uploading dark piano horror music since 2006 and has built a huge following in that time with over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and another 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. He's also worked on short films and video games and is currently working on the upcoming horror game Post Trauma.
In this episode we talk about finding your niche as a composer and how important it is to dive deep into your interests. We also talk about how Nicolas started writing horror music in the first place, why he releases music for free, and what up and coming composers can do to get out there, and so much more.
Find Myuu here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Myuu
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5sP3ci0jwrXUBo76t8pGTF?si=sVFG_WI_TVuUVIUYudUwhQ
Website: https://www.thedarkpiano.com/bio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myuusic/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
#62: Today's guest is Joy Ngiaw, an award-winning composer based in Los Angeles. Joy has worked on a ton of projects including the animated short Blush, Disney's experimental short series Short Circuit, Cobra Kai, What Remains of Edith Finch, and many others.
In this episode, we talk about how she grew up in rural Malaysia, made her way to Shanghai, China, and eventually Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music. We also talk about how she got into composition from her early days as a classical pianist, how her first gigs came about, and much more.
Find Joy Ngiaw here:
Website: https://www.joyngiaw.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyngiaw/
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7267486/?ref_=rvi_nm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/joyngiaw
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
#61: Today's guest is ZW Buckley, a musician, producer, and composer based in Seattle writing in a broad variety of genres and styles for a ton of different projects. His work includes writing a pop soundtrack for Barbie: You Can Be A Fashion Designer VR, teaching music production at Point Blank Music School and running the game audio co-op, Plant Based Audio.
In this episode, ZW and I talk about how to join and be a part of the game dev community quickly, how to find your first projects, how to learn and practice the skill of music production, getting over the fear of jumping in and becoming a full-time artist, and so much more.
Find ZW Buckley here:
Website: https://www.zwbuckley.com/
Newsletter: https://zwbuckley.substack.com/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
#60: Today's guest is Christian Büttner A.K.A. TheFatRat, who is a producer, DJ, and musician based mainly out of Germany. Chris has millions of listeners from all over the world, and has accumulated billions of plays so far. He did this without a major record label, all while giving his music away for free.
In this episode, we talk about how he started in the world of classical music and transitioned into electronic music much later. We also go into how he taught himself electric music production skills, why he releases basically all of his music for free and lets people use his music, why he steers artists away from signing with major labels, and much more.
Find TheFatRat here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa_UMppcMsHIzb5LDx1u9zQ
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3OKg7YbOIatODzkRIbLJR4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefatratofficial/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
#59: Today's guest is Henri Sorvali, a musician and composer based in Finland. He started off his career has a classical and jazz pianist who ended up starting two successful Finnish black metal bands, Moonsorrow and Finntroll. He is also a full-time game composer working in-house at Rovio Entertainment, the company most famously known for The Angry Birds games.
In this episode, we talk about how why Henri stopped his life of being a touring musician in front of thousands of screaming fans to instead focus on video game composition, how he ended up in the world of metal music, and how he made the transition from heavy metal music to making lighter-hearted video game music, and much more.
Find Henri Sorvali here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/trollhornmusic
Website: http://www.trollhorn.com/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
#58: Today's guest is Nuno Fonseca, founder of the company Sound Particles. Sound Particles started off their journey by making a piece of software with the same name, which allows anyone to create immersive 3D audio. Since their founding, Sound Particles has gone on to be used in countless movies, TV shows, and video games such as Oppenheimer, Assassin's Creed Origins, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and many others.
In this episode, we talk about how Nuno got started in the world of creating audio software, what it was like promoting Sound Particles in the beginning, what he believes the future of audio is, and much more.
Find Nuno Fonseca and Sound Particles here:
Website: https://soundparticles.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soundparticles/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoundParticles
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sound.particles
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod