Category: Columns

Branded

Philip Glass said, “The real issue is not how do you find your voice – it’s how to get rid of the damn thing!”

/ 5th February 2018

Nice Folks Finish First

The fall of Harvey Weinstein has illuminated some of the longstanding practices of sexual exploitation in Hollywood. People also mention how he and his brother were bullies, routinely yelling and...

/ 14th November 2017

How AI, AR, and MR will form the future of 21st-century music

Yesterday, the video might have killed the radio star; but tomorrow, the UX will kill the video star.

/ 5th September 2017

Beauty of the Unpredictable: Seven Days At Joshua Tree

Emails. Facebook posts. SoundCloud posts, of course. (I don’t do Snap, or Instagram, or Twitter, or much else). These are how I interact and get to know most of the...

/ 29th August 2017
stopping-bullets-how-we-accomplished-the-impossible_neo

Stopping Bullets: Accomplishing the Impossible

My wife, Mirette, and I re-watched The Matrix recently after not seeing it for many years. I’m glad to say the film mostly holds up well, especially the outstanding score...

/ 30th October 2016
PaulCartlichTrailerEditor_cover

Behind the Cuts: The essential role of music and rhythm in trailers

I’ve been editing movie trailers for 11 years and for me music is the key component. Every editor is different, some start with dialogue, others like to throw down a...

/ 29th August 2016

Rhymes and The Greatest F You Song Ever Written

Most people know me as a film and television composer, but I started out as a songwriter. In fact, a jingle I wrote (with Ken Shuldman), the Kit Kat Gimme...

/ 23rd May 2016

Hans Zimmer’s Journey to the Line: Asymmetry and The Forbidden Cue

In pop music, most phrases come in groups of 2 or 4 which, in turn, are 4 or 8 bars in length. The utter predictability of this often lends a...

/ 16th April 2016

What is Perfect Pitch anyway?

Perfect pitch is a term used by non-musicians to mean “pretty good ability to stay in tune.” As in, “You should hear my daughter sing – she has perfect pitch!”...

/ 17th November 2015

5 Ways To Make The Most Of The Holidays as a Musician

While the corporate world and almost everyone else are out of the office for the holidays, I often struggle with this forced “downtime”; as a full-time musician, I’m never not...

/ 6th December 2013

From Artist To Business: Just open your mouth

There’s a certain Je ne sais pas about being a composer. At first, at least for me, it was something I had to do. I had to sit down at the piano and write...

/ 4th November 2013

The 5 best ways to get and keep a job as a Hollywood Composer Assistant (or anything else)

Over the years, I have hired several dozen full-time employees and hundreds of musicians, singers, engineers, and other session personnel. Here is a list of principles to consider when job-seeking...

/ 20th October 2013