•September 2023 - MoFi have released new 45rpm vinyl and DSD for the Eagles catalog, and it was my pleasure to supervise and approve these lovely pressings. I love vinyl. Like tape, it enriches the source material, and gives you something to hold in your hand. By the edges, of course. I'm happy to see this medium have a resurgence. Also, I quite like DSD. It would be impractical to do multitrack work in, but it's an amazing medium for accuracy. Looking forward to the release of the film "Double Down South", which I had a lot of fun contributing to alongside Adam Berry. That there is a cool fellow to work with.
•May 2022 - BeachBuds is airing on Disney Japan and ABC Australia. I love that, because I'm happy to know that this music is continuing to be heard in more places.
Also I recently took some time out to talk music at my daughter's school here in Austin. The teachers there are without a doubt amazing and hardworking and do a crazy about of things, especially given the circumstances of the pandemic; and I wanted to help out. My daughter is in a Tech Apps class there in which they look at the whole ecosystem of devices and software that people use daily but also in professional circumstances. I thought they might find it interesting to see what they could do with the phones and computers they have, so I did a day of lecturing to four different classes about what phones and tablets can do to make music, showing them beat makers and synthesizers and apps that do all of those things. On the second day of lectures I brought in my daughter's iMac and played them some music from my shows, and a trailer I'd created for them that was ultimately a giant Rickroll; and I also transcribed a piece of score from a popular movie and showed them the elements of it to encourage them to listen to the parts in orchestral music. I was surprised at how many kids were interested in this stuff! And it was gratifying to hear them say how the piece sounded different after I'd showed them its parts; and I told them that the great thing about all music is that there is always something new to listen for even in music they'd known for a long time.
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•September 2021 - I am very pleased to finally be able to say I spent lots of last year writing score as part of the MyōōZyk composer collective (the site is over at www.myoozyk.com) for The Beachbuds, which is now airing on Disney+/Hotstar in Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and I have hopes that it will move on to Disney Europe and the States... like many of the best things in life, I was not expecting this gig at all. The brilliant and prolific Adam Berry (who has composed Emmy-winning score and songs for many, many movies and series [South Park, Big Hero 6, Kim Possible, The Sara Silverman Program and many others] and also has a Grammy for his own record projects), invited me along to write some music for the show he'd just begun - based in part on the music you hear on this site - and it began truly one of the best musical experiences of my life. The fondest hope one can have is to do a job that calls on everything one knows about everything, and this has been that job for me. I have been preparing for this work for my entire life without knowing it. Such a joy. There is music from the show on this site in the Projects section.
On the Eagles side of things, the first of a full set of ultra-hi-fi vinyl discs is coming out from Mobile Fidelity. Their process is purist and faithful to the original source, and it's done on 45rpm LP's - so twice as many discs, but they sound absolutely fabulous. I've been listening to and approving these renditions, which are also available in lovely high-def digital versions.
• June 2021 - What a strange time to be alive. In spite of the pandemic I've had really all the fun there is writing the score for the unnamed cartoon show, and looking forward to its release so I can share some of the music from the great number of episodes done. Also more really fun catalog and live work, in both hi-def and vinyl formats, for the Eagles. A bit over twenty years with them, and 23 years working with Don Henley. It's been my ongoing great privilege to watch over the catalog and the remastering processes, and to contribute to the various live projects (Live At The Forum MMXVIII).
• May 2020 - Another big project wrapping. It will be great to release this one into the world. And the rest of my life these days has been animation score. Crazy fun. It makes me aware of how odd it is that that big broad music can come from my little room by the oak trees. And my hat is off to all other composers who do this work, making orchestra out of ones and zeros. And also: here's to work where you make yourself laugh.
• January 2019 - I just wrapped up the remaster of the entire Eagles catalog for vinyl. Amazing time spent with Chris at Bernie Grundman Mastering, falling in love again with the sound of vinyl. Of the many reasons why music has been devalued in recent years, I think one of the big reasons is that the way we hear music has become increasingly unpleasant. You can still hear that it's music when it's an AAC or mp3, but it's harder to have the emotional contact with it when your brain is busy fighting through the haze of lossy data compression, poor conversion and so on. Vinyl may lack the full dynamic range of good digital, and it may have other mechanical artifacts, like rumble and pops, but what it doesn't have is pushback. If you want to love the music, there it is - arms open and waiting.