The Film Scorer

This week, Lorne Balfe joins me on The Film Scorer. Lorne has about two-hundred credits to his name across film, TV, and video games, including projects like Top Gun: Maverick, a couple Mission: Impossible films, The Crown, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, and a whole load more. Not a bad resume... Now, although he normally releases about ten scores a year, 2026 has been a much quieter year for him, conducting at the global tour of Top Gun: Maverick in Concert and working on the new adaptation of The Cat in the Hat, coming out in November. We talk about each a little bit, but it also gives us an opportunity to really jump away from focusing on any single project. Instead, Lorne and I spent the hour and a half we had chatting about a pretty wide range of topics, getting really deep into the film scoring industry and the business side around it. We also have a bittersweet moment where we talk about composer and conductor Nick Glennie-Smith, who Lorne knew and worked with for many years before he passed away in mid-August. One note - Lorne and I were chatting away before hitting record, so the interview starts a little in media res. But don't worry, nothing juicy got cut off.

Today, Takeshi Furukawa (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) joins the show! Takeshi's latest projects have been scoring the both seasons of Netflix's live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender as well as Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, the sequel to the hit indie platformer Planet of Lana. It's no surprise, then, that we planned on talking about both Avatar and Planet of Lana II quite a bit, and we do get into them some. For Avatar, we primarily focused on the constraints of the live action version, including the change in medium, the change in tone, and the production only receiving permission to use certain existing themes from the animated original. On Lana, we really focus on the expansion of the score, whereby as the game increases in scope, so too does the music. This included added to the breadth of music and palette, and in particular Takeshi finally getting his hands dirty with synths. The most notable thing, in my opinion, however, doesn't fall to any specific score. Rather, it relates to Takeshi's career as a whole. Our interview ended up being maybe the most open and personal a composer has gotten on the show, with Takeshi discussing his anxieties and fears as a composer, culminating in the worry that one day he'll "disappear", that “I’m afraid that people are going to get tired of me.” It feels ridiculous to hear him say this given the skill and diversity of his scores, and the high profile of the projects he works on, but I'm sure it's a very real concern for many composers, well-founded or not, and I hope it provides comfort to other composers listening in. Takeshi's scores for the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Planet of Lana I and II, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix and the games are available digitally. You can find out more about Takeshi on his website .

Hard to believe that we're already about a quarter of the way through season 6 - feels like we've only just started. To commemorate this occasion, I'm joined by Kara Talve. Kara has been the principal composer of The Simpsons for the last few years, serves as the principal composer at Bleeding Fingers Music (the Hans Zimmer-founded composer collective), and has scored projects like Prehistoric Planet (and the upcoming Harry Potter series). In fact, we spend much of our conversation talking about Prehistoric Planet, for which she received her fifth Emmy nomination just a few hours before we conducted this interview. Prehistoric Planet gave us plenty to cover: the constantly changing styles and genres (in part due to the ever-changing locations and "characters" of the show), building unique instruments, driving the story due to minimal character or narrative, and more. The instrument side of things was particularly interesting to me. A lot of the time it feels like a gimmick that perhaps has a connection with the film but doesn't actually noticeable change the sound of the score. But then you get something like the terror tone , an instrument based off of the fossilized larynx and trachea of Llallawavis scagliai, creating an otherworldly evil sound. To make this and other instruments, they consulted with paleontologists to get measurements, frequencies, and other aspects related to these creatures. Kara even mentions that using bone in percussion gives a resonance you don't normally find, which reminded me of the use of a deer skull as percussion in Agalloch's seminal album The Mantle. Kara's score for the first two seasons of Prehistoric Planet, and much of her other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Apple TV. However, for unknown reasons the score for season 3 remains unreleased (and Kara makes a call for its release during the interview). You can find out more about Kara on her website .

Gavin Brivik is the latest guest on The Film Scorer! I've been familiar with Gavin's work for quite a while, probably dating back to his score for the 2021 film Wild Indian, which was one of those situations where I hear someone making great music on under the radar indie films and wonder when they're going to break out. How to Blow Up a Pipeline helped put Gavin on the map while scoring seasons one and two of The Pitt has really changed things, earning him an Emmy nomination in the process. One of the driving keys to Gavin's success, in my opinion, is that he's a longtime listener to the show, which is actually how we start the conversation and why it has an in media res beginning - it was too good for me to keep out. All this is just window dressing, however. While we touch on The Pitt, Pipeline, and my own Film Scorer project, we really planned to dig into his latest score: Faces of Death, which is sort of a legacy sequel to the 1978 film of the same name. As a result, we end up going down perhaps the most philosophical conversation that's ever been had on the show, largely stemming from the question of "What makes a piece of art evil?" and going from there. But don't despair, there's still plenty of film music conversation, and we even break the news that Gavin is scoring the Rainbow Six Siege games series, which includes a collaboration with Metal Gear Solid. Gavin's score for Faces of Death, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the film itself is now available on Shudder. You can find out more about Gavin on his website .

One of the great pleasures of this show is talking to people whose work I really enjoy. Although I'd known Keegan Dewitt's music for a number of years (probably first taking notice with 2018's Gemini), his score for last year's The Chair Company really floored me, with the distinct and ever-changing palette and approaches intriguing me almost as much as the show's labyrinthine plot. So with all that said, it's great to have Keegan on the show. However, we really focus on Keegan's latest project - scoring the hit romance series Off Campus. As such, we spend much of the conversation talking about his score for Off Campus, including collaborating with the show's time (particularly the music supervisor's and series creator Louisa Levy) and a little snafu where he accidentally disclosed some confidential behind-the-scenes info early on in the show. Along the way, we cover a number of his other projects, discuss how to score comedy and romance in new ways, and the three reasons to take on a project. Keegan's score for Off Campus, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Amazon Prime. You can find out more about Keegan on his website .

On the latest episode of The Film Scorer podcast, I'm joined by John Paesano (Daredevil, Marvel's Spider-Man)! I've been a fan of John's for a while, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes being a recent favorite, so it was an extra pleasure chatting with him. His latest score is for the Netflix series The Boroughs, in which he channels an 80s/early-90s big, symphonic, melodic adventure style of scoring. Given that the show itself is designed to be very score-heavy, with music going right in the forefront, it takes full advantage of John's score, a welcome refresher given how much less-common the style of scoring has become. While he talk a fair bit about The Boroughs, it's only one of many topics, which include Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the hesitancy of using symphonic scoring, and (my favorite) a chance "encounter" we had more than fifteen years ago. John's score for The Boroughs, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix. You can find out more about John on his website .

Here we are, season 6, episode 2, things are in motion, momentum is building, and I'm joined by one of my favorite composers: Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Smile)! Cristo's latest project is the 2026 BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies, featuring some incredible child actor performances and an increasingly psychedelic and psychotic score. We focus our conversation around that score, but inevitably veer off into different directions, also covering some of his past works with Lord of the Flies director and his longtime collaborator Marc Munden as well as Smile director Parker Finn, our shared interest in metal, the inspiration and magic of the unknown, and plenty more. I even ask point-blank about what happened in The White Lotus. How does he answer? Cristo's score for Lord of the Flies, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix.

After a long wait and seemingly unending anticipation, Season 6 of The Film Scorer Podcast is here! To kick off the new season, I'm joined by the very rare repeat guest, the great Colin Stetson! Colin and I talked several years back (much longer ago than it feels), right around when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out, really digging into the weirdness of his score. This time, our focus is technically on his score for the new show Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, but we get off track almost immediately and seemingly never recover, talking about the show as well as his series of improv/collaboration releases, Chainsaw, playing on audience expectations, and trying to imbue projects with real and honest human experience. Frankly, it ended up pretty wide-ranging. Colin's score for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix. And if you haven't yet, be sure to check out our prior conversation here: https://thefilmscorer.com/colin-stetson-on-scoring-texas-chainsaw-massacre/

Season Six of The Film Scorer Podcast is almost here! The new season launches on Sunday, May 31st, with new episodes continuing every other Sunday after that (more or less). Season five had some huge interviews, like Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg, Max Richter, Oneohtrix Point Never, Thomas Newman, and even the noise rock band Chat Pile, so you never who will show up this time around. But I'll give you a taste of what's to come - Season six kicks off with Colin Stetson and Cristobal Tapia de Veer, and it only goes from there. So subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow The Film Scorer on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky, and keep those ears open!

Although we're now a couple months into 2026, I finally present you with the "best" film scores of 2025. As usual, there are some very mainstream scores in here that most observers would agree with and there are a few left field choices. If you're a longtime listener, that shouldn't surprise you. As with all of these lists, although I say they're the "best", what I really mean is these are my favorites. Who's to say what's really the best? Surely not me. This was a much harder list for me to put together than in recent years - there were a few scores that I immediately knew were going to make it, but a number of others where it took a lot more consideration, noticing that the passage of time had changed how I'd viewed a score (for better or worse); ultimately these lists are just a snapshot in time, but some decisions were made based on how I felt now while others were made based on how I felt in the past. It's a good reminder as to the subjectivity of each of these lists, at how you felt when seeing the film impacts your memory of it (and its score) forever on. But all things considered, I'm happy to say that 2025 was another solid year, with a deep set of great scores that stretch far beyond the same handful that received most attention during the year-end awards and recaps. If you can't control yourself, look below to see what scores I picked, though you'll miss out on the why of it all (and given some of the choices, the why is pretty important). Baby Invasion – Burial Sinners – Ludwig Göransson Anemone – Bobby Krlic 28 Years Later - Young Fathers Eddington – Bobby Krlic and Daniel Pemberton Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin Fantastic Four: First Steps - Michael Giacchino The Accountant 2 - Bryce Dessner F1 - Hans Zimmer The Shrouds - Howard Shore

Awards season is nearing its end, with the BAFTAs later today, February 22, and the Oscars coming on March 15. I'll always say that, although I'm by no means a massive fan (or detractor) of film awards, I'm always happy that it's the one time of year where film music gets to be widely celebrated. The nominee slates also provide great peaks into the state of modern, mainstream film music, and this year's selections are a great cross-section of style and approach. And of course, it gives me an excuse to talk about them a little bit, so read below then listen on. Of the nominees, I interviewed Max Richter for Hamnet and also interviewed Jerskin Fendrix near the end of 2023 for Poor Things (which I would have swore was not that long ago...). This year, the nominees for both sets of awards are the same: Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix ( Interview ) Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat Hamnet – Max Richter ( Interview ) One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

You poor fools - imagine thinking that The Film Scorer was actually on hiatus? Far, far from the truth. Ending the fifteen second break I took after interviewing Daniel Lopatin is Simon Franglen! For those that don't know, Simon is fresh off of scoring Avatar: Fire and Ash, having already scored Avatar: The Way of Water and working with longtime collaborator James Horner on the first film. This is a much less tangential interview than normal, with essentially our whole focus revolving around Avatar: creating and expanding the palette, the scope and breadth of themes, his prior work with James Horner and carrying a core team through all three films, and, above all, making sure the boss (Jim Cameron) is happy. Simon's score for Avatar: Fire and Ash and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms. Avatar: Fire and Ash is currently in theaters, and if we're lucky there might be a few more Avatar films on the way some day. You can find out more about Simon on his website .

Here we are, in the dead zone between seasons, where all should be silent. But a voice calls out from the darkness. Who could it be...? Well my friends, that voice belongs to one Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never (alongside your humble host, of course). Daniel has just scored Marty Supreme, and I can vouch that both film and score are great, certainly landing upon my top tens of the year. Unsurprisingly, then, Daniel and I spend most of the conversation talking about Marty Supreme, including musical anachronism, inspiration from sports films, and long nights spent with Josh Safdie. Daniel's score for Marty Supreme is forthcoming (though having heard an advance version, I can vouch that it's great) and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms.

The end is here! Well, the end of season 5 at least. That's right, after over twelve months the season is finally over (making it, I think, the longest season of The Film Scorer yet), and what better wait to celebrate than to chat with Max Richter? Max's (Ad Astra, The Leftovers) latest (Oscar nominated) score is for the incredible historical drama Hamnet, a fictionalized account of the death of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes's son Hamnet and how it inspired the creation of Hamlet. Unsurprisingly, we spend most of our conversation on Hamnet, but despite the quick interview we manage to cover a lot of other ground too, such as the use of "On the Nature of Daylight" over the years, the troubled production of Ad Astra, and how a musician's intent goes only so far once their music reaches an audience. Max's score for Hamnet is forthcoming (though having heard an advance version, I can vouch that it's great) and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms. You can find out more about Max on his website . In addition to Hamnet's pending release, Max just announced some 2026 tour dates.

There are a few perks to running every aspect of this site and podcast, the biggest being picking who I want to interview (and avoiding whomever I don't). Part of that, sometimes, is using film music as an excuse to interview bands that I just broadly like. Enter: Chat Pile. The Oklahoma noise rock band has one score under their belt, the 2022 indie crime flick Tenkiller, which they released as a score album after their debut God's Country, and have provided some songs for other films, most recently a track for the end credits to V/H/S/Halloween. Not to mention, they routinely talk about movies, including during their gigs. All perfect hooks to have them on, and so today I'm talking with vocalist Raygun Busch and guitarist Luther Manhole. As such, we jump around quite a bit: from their experience scoring Tenkiller, how movies brought them together and provide a mutual love, and some recent (and not to recent) scores that they've enjoyed (I'll note that at one point Ray is talking about the Bossa Nova score for Black Orpheus before getting interrupted by his dog...). We wrap up on a bit of a detour, actually talking about the economics of albums and touring, and how much a role cost of living plays into that. Chat Pile's music is available on all major platforms, chief among them being Bandcamp , or you can seek out their music physically. You can find out more about Chat Pile on their website and they have a new album on the horizon, In The Earth Again which they've co-written with Hayden Pedigo, coming out October 31st.

Although this podcast is called "The Film Scorer", every so often it's nice to chat with someone who does significant work in another medium instead. Today, that someone is Jesper Kyd (Hitman, Assassin's Creed). Jesper has been scoring for games for over thirty years, working on some of the biggest video game franchises around. But he's also worked on a number of films (like the Indian films Tumbbad and Crazxy), leading to the best answer I've ever gotten to the question "what's the difference between scoring for video games and movies?" Jesper's latest score is for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. In fact, Jesper has been scoring this game for years - it first came out in November 2022, and with new maps, characters, events, and other updates he keeps writing new music for it. The result is four separate releases, the latest of which was just in August of this year, about 25 minutes of dark industrial electronic music for running and gunning. I must have spent a dozen hours listening to those releases getting ready for this interview, and let me tell you: I was ready to join the 40th millennia's endless war. Jesper's score for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Volumes 1-4), and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. You can find out more about Jeremiah on his website .

I know I keep saying that the end of this season is imminent. And it is, but it seems like every time I think it's about dead it springs back to life for a little while longer. Reviving it this week is Jeremiah Fraites. Jeremiah is going to be best known as being one of the founding members of the hit alternative folk band The Lumineers, but lately he's expanded his horizons a bit. Specifically, Jeremiah has scored two films this fall: the Stephen King-based The Long Walk and the biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. We spend most of our time talking about both scores, particularly The Long Walk (since Deliver Me from Nowhere isn't out yet), and of course that becomes a jumping off point for the conversation. We also cover things like how film has expanded music (including visualizing music as you write), getting his wife involved in the scoring process, the differences between writing original score and original songs for films (The Lumineers wrote some songs for The Hunger Games), and plenty more. Jeremiah's score for The Long Walk, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while The Long Walk is currently in theaters while Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere hits theaters on October 24th.

Composer Jeff Danna (The Good Dinosaur, The Boondock Saints) joins me on The Film Scorer podcast just before we wrap up season 5! Oddly enough, I've listened to quite a bit of music from the Silent Hill franchise over the last 15 months or so, and it turns out that Jeff "scored" the two film adaptations from earlier in the 2000s (I used "scored" in quotes because the real story is a bit more complicated than that). So of course, I used our conversation as an excuse to ask all about Silent Hill, including why the first film never got a proper score release, and he tells me about having to re-record and re-create every single musical sound from Akira Yamaoka's game scores for the films. Quite a feat. Of course, Jeff didn't come on the show to talk about Silent Hill movies from 15-20 years ago. Instead, we spend most of our time talking about his score for the hit Netflix series The Hunting Wives. The conversation goes from creating a unique palette for east Texas (particularly through the Croatian prim), scoring sexiness (the key is not aiming for sexy music), and plenty more. Along the way, we get pretty in-depth about what makes for a good theme, when you need to cast one aside and start over, and how thematic music requires a commitment from the composer and the director; after all, the latter has to be comfortable with a a musical commitment to their characters, as character and theme become intertwined. Jeff's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while The Hunting Wives is currently streaming on Netflix. You can find out more about Jeff on his website .

In a Film Scorer first, a repeat guest joins the show! Daniel Pemberton (the Spider-Verse films, King Arthur) comes onto the show for a second time, after chatting with me back in 2023 about his score for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. Even though we're just over halfway through the year, Daniel's already scored about a half dozen projects, so we had plenty of things to talk about. With so much to pick from, we primarily talk about his recent work on the Black Mirror episode USS Callister: Into Infinity and Eddington - two extremely different projects with very different scores. Of course, even though our chat clocks in at just under half an hour we cover plenty of other ground too, including trends in modern film scoring and a big detour into Anton Karas's score for The Third Man. Daniel's score for Eddington and Callister, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. Eddington is still playing in select theaters and is available on demand while Callister is available on Netflix. And if you haven't yet, be sure to check out our prior conversation here: https://thefilmscorer.com/an-interview-with-daniel-pemberton/

Today I'm joined by Electric Youth! Well, one half of the electronic/synth pop duo - Austin Garrick - without his co-member Bronwyn Griffin. Their latest project is the score for North of Normal, a true coming-of-age drama that jumps between timelines in a forest commune in the 70s and city life in the 80s. Some of you may think that the band's sound would be anachronistic for a film with this setting, and while that may be true, their score still fits right in. Unsurprisingly, Austin and I spend most of our conversation talking about North of Normal, but we also touch on topics like Tangerine Dream and the joy of still getting "new" score releases from them, the importance of a well-curated score release album (learned from becoming fans of the medium at a young age), avoiding being pigeonholed in film and music genres, and plenty more! Electric Youth's score, and much of their other music, is available on all major platforms. North of Normal is currently available on demand or on Paramount+.