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 Mar 01, 2023
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
#43: Today's guest is Dr. Fabiana Claure, who is an award-winning pianist, educator, business strategist, and entrepreneur who occupies a great niche in-between music, business, and helping musicians make a great living from their art. She's also the CEO of the The Musician's Profit Umbrella.
In this episode we talk about the struggles that most musicians deal with and how to get through them, particularly business struggles. We also talk about what business skills actually are and how to start developing the mindset of an entrepreneur as a musician.
Find Fabiana Claure here:
Personal Website: https://fabianaclaure.com/
Business Mentoring: https://fabianaclaure.com/gift
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 Feb 15, 2023
Wednesday Feb 15, 2023
#42: Our guest today is Mark Abrams, a mixing engineer, producer, and audio educator who has worked with people such as Angel Lopez and clients such as Sony, Toyota, Nintendo, and many others. He is also a mentor at PureMix.com and runs the company Echopunch.
In this episode we talk about how important it is to promote our music and how to do it, how to help others in our field and how helping others helps us, and how to start looking at our music career as a business so we can start getting the career results we really want.
Find Mark Abrams here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mark_abrams_audio/
Personal Website: https://www.markabramsmixing.com/
pureMix website: https://puremix.com/
echopunch website: http://echopunch.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 Feb 01, 2023
Wednesday Feb 01, 2023
#41: Today's guest is Anne-Sophie Mongeau, a sound designer based in Montreal, Canada. She has worked on projects such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and It Takes Two. Anne-Sophie is currently the lead sound designer at Eidos Montreal.
In this episode, we talk about Sophie's growth as a sound designer, her leaving Eidos Montreal to work in Sweden, and what it's like to return to Eidos many years later to work on a new project. We also discuss what new sound designers should be focusing on to grow their careers and much more.
Find Anne-Sophie Mongeau here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anso.sound/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ansoaudio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-sophie-mongeau-50483185/
Website: https://ansoaudio.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 Jan 18, 2023
Wednesday Jan 18, 2023
#40: Our guest today is Michele Arnese, who is the founder and CEO of amp sound branding. Based in Munch, Germany, amp has done audio branding for top companies such as Mercedes, Mastercard, Porsche, and much more.
In this episode, we talk about what audio branding is and how Michele got into the field, how he brought his company to work with all these big names, and how he's using AI in audio work and much more.
Find Michele Arnese here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_michelearnese/
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 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
#39: Our guest today is composer Maclaine Diemer who has worked on projects such as Guild Wars 2, Salt and Sacrifice, Rock Band, and many others.
In this episode we talk about the simplicity of networking in our field, transitioning from being a rock star to being a sound designer, and then transitioning from sound design to composition, and much more.
Find Maclaine Diemer here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maclainediemermusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maclainediemer
Website: http://maclainediemer.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 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
#38: Our guest today is Film and TV Composer, Sherri Chung who has worked on projects such as Family Guy, Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Kung Fu, and many others.
In this episode we talk about what it takes to become a full-time composer, the difference between composers and film composers, dealing with impostor syndrome and much more.
Find Sherri Chung here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrichung/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherri_chung
Website: https://www.sherrichung.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 21, 2022
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
#36: Today, our guest is Hrishikesh Hirway - musician and creator of the wildly successful podcast, Song Exploder.
In this interview, we talk about growing up in an Indian immigrant household, the fear of side projects taking away from our main musical interests, how his studies in philosophy and graphic design in college contributed to his career, how he created Song Exploder in the first place, and much more.
Find Hrishikesh Hirway here:
Song Exploder Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/songexploder/
Song Exploder Twitter: https://twitter.com/SongExploder
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hrishihirway/
Personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/HrishiHirway
Song Exploder Website: https://songexploder.net/
Personal Website: https://hrishikesh.co/
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 Aug 31, 2022
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
#35: Today, our guest is Steve Horowitz - a composer who has worked on quite literally hundreds of film, TV, concert, and video game projects throughout his career.
In this interview, we talk about not niching down as a composer, why he chooses to compose for practically every type of media, what it's like to compose for over 100 projects in radically different styles, and much more.
Find Steve Horowitz here:
Game Audio Institute Website: https://www.gameaudioinstitute.com/
Personal Website: https://www.stevehorowitzmusic.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 Aug 24, 2022
Wednesday Aug 24, 2022
#34: Today, our guest is Jeremy Blake, the man behind the wildly successful music-focused Youtube channel, Red Means Recording!
In this interview, we talk about the importance of educating others in our field, how getting fired from his day job helped him become a full-time musician, the importance of pivoting and changing our goals within our career, and so much more.
Find Red Means Recording here:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RedMeansRecording
Twitter: @jjbbllkk
Website: https://rmr.media/
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 Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
#33: Edouard Brenneisen is a composer for video games, film, and TV who has worked on projects such as League of Legends, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dr. Oz, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, and tons of other projects!
In this episode we talk about the long uphill climb to becoming a full-time composer, how composers sometimes need to pivot and transition their careers, what a composer's actual job is, and so much more.
Find Edouard here:
Website: https://eb-music.net/
Instagram: @ebrenneisen
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