Michel Cusson established his reputation as a formidable guitar player and composer in the early 80’s with celebrated jazz-rock group Uzeb, whose tours were cultural journeys which gave Michel the opportunity to meet and play with musicians in places like Senegal, Morocco, and Southeast Asia.  In the early 90’s, the group disbanded and Michel turned his attention to scoring.  Early hits such as the mob-thriller series Omertà established his reputation and led to many more series and films, as well as scoring on an epic scale for IMAX documentaries such as Wolves, Ultimate Wave Tahiti, and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.  He has also been the composer and musical director for massive touring live shows, including the equine themed Odysseo and Cavalia.  We talk about the challenges and joys of working across all these mediums, how his jazz background translates to his screen composing work, and how he’s kept the spirit of improvisation and performance alive even during the pandemic, with his Michel Cusson en direct streaming shows on Youtube, broadcasting from his studio which he refers to as “the spaceship”. https://www.michelcusson.com/english  https://www.youtube.com/c/michelcussonmusic/playlists 

Todor Kobakov grew up in Bulgaria where at age 7 he was accepted into a music focused school so competitive that there were kids in the wings waiting to take your spot if you stumbled.  He began showing up to help out on the sets where his mother worked as a producer for the National broadcaster, sparking his interest in the intersection between music and the screen.  After high school, he moved to Canada and at age 20 completed a degree in piano performance at the University of Toronto, where he fell into a crowd of musicians including future indie darlings like Gonzales, Peaches, and Feist.  This led him to performing, producing, and arranging for artists like Stars, Metric, Sarah Slean, K-os, and many more.  At the same time, Todor was getting his foothold creating music for commercials and indie films, eventually landing a coveted spot in the Canadian Film Center’s Slaight Music residency where he would meet and work with iconic director Bruce MacDonald.  Now, he’s firmly established his reputation as a composer with films like Born to be Blue starring Ethan Hawke, and series such as Bitten, Ransom, and Most Dangerous Game, while his work on Cardinal has won him 2 Canadian Screen Awards.  www.todor.ca

Suad Bushnaq has long struggled to answer the question “where’s home?” in simple terms.  The Jordanian-Canadian composer and polymath with Bosnian, Syrian, and Palestinian roots grew up in Amman, studied in Damascus and Montreal, spent time teaching in North Carolina, and now makes her home in Toronto.  Her work reflects her experiences and travels, as she explores Western and Middle Eastern musical traditions, and some of the places she’s lived both in times of war and peace.  She now splits her time between concert music commissions and her work as a film composer.  We discuss that dichotomy, how she balances being an artist and a craftsperson, her perspectives on studying in Syria and Canada, traditions of Middle Eastern music, and what changed for her during the Pandemic.  The Hollywood Music in Media award winner who Hans Zimmer himself has referred to as “an incredible artist” also talks about some of her biggest challenges, including the score for a demanding film that she worked on for almost 4 years.  The project concluded with a set of international recording sessions that saw strings captured in Damascus between bombings, while others tracked at Air Edel in London, North Carolina, and Toronto.  A mentor once told her never to second guess her gut instinct, and now Suad is making a home in music that is truly her own.www.suadbushnaq.com

Brian and Caleb Chan bring a high level of emotional intelligence to everything they do, and believe that a focus on that growth is critical to success in both life and creative business.  When you understand that their attention to the inner world carries over into the work they do as musicians and storytellers, you realize it’s no accident that they’ve been so successful.  They also seem to avoid being pigeonholed, and their work spans from the horror of Sam Raimi’s 50 States of Fright, to the preschool fare of Hatchimals, to TV romances like A Homecoming for the Holidays.  The brothers have diverged and come together a few times over the years, collaborating all the while as they each followed unique but parallel musical paths.  While Caleb studied composition at the University of Toronto, Brian earned a Masters in Sound Recording at McGill.  Now, their complementary strengths blend beautifully, and by all accounts, they’re just getting started.  We chat about their early days in Hong Kong and Canada, how they work as a team, the joys and challenges of their diverse slate, and how a recent flurry of work has made them much more intentional about their approach, with an eye toward balance and sustainability.https://www.chansounds.com

Janal Bechthold’s musical journey started not on the piano playing Mozart, but rather on the organ playing 50’s swing and Tangos.  Again sidestepping more well-worn paths, she studied music therapy at Laurier and spent years alternately in that profession, and as a church organist.  These activities were, however, both informed by and are now critical to her work as a musical storyteller - work which has now been recognized with an incredible 3 CSA nominations in 2021.  In our conversation, Janal describes her interesting musical upbringing, her work helping people heal using music, how she utilizes her diverse experiences in what she does as a screen composer, the issues and stories that link many of her projects together, the important work she spearheaded to push forward the conversation about women screen composers, and the holistic approach she’s taking to evaluate where she wants her journey will take her next.  Now, it looks like her relationship with the organ has come full circle, as she contemplates stripping the instrument down to re-contextualize it’s sound and her approach to making music.

Donald Quan sees his whole life, including his career and businesses, as an improvisation.  As a composer, he is known for his work on shows such as Relic Hunter, Mutant X, and APTN’s Moccasin Flats.  As a musician and recording artist, he has toured with Loreena McKennitt and Lighthouse, and recorded his own music at Peter Gabriel’s iconic Real World Studios.  His incredible studio, Q Music, once housed over 400 indigenous instruments from 6 continents, and he has collaborated with groups such as The Toronto Tabla Ensemble, Samba Squad, M-DO Kathak Toronto Dance, and First Nations choreographer Santee Smith.In 2007, I was lucky enough to spend time as Donald’s apprentice, and throughout this conversation I recount memories of that challenging and formative time, and get to thank him for being a big part of my development as a composer and creative person.We talk about his growing up in Toronto as the only Chinese-Canadian kid in his school, his early start in music and how he ended up at the nascent film scoring program at Berklee.  There, he learned the traditional techniques of pen and paper scoring, as well as old school analog methods of syncing music to picture.  It was, however, his interest in the emerging use of computers in music that would help him stand out and get him his first breaks in the industry.  During a performance in 2009, Donald suffered a near-fatal stroke and was without vital signs for nearly 20 minutes.  He miraculously survived, but would spend weeks in a coma, after which a long journey toward recovery began.  Now, over 10 years later, I help Donald restore some of his memory as I share stories of our time together.

Every time I chat with Peter Chapman (AKA Coins), I hear another amazing story, well told.  The pivotal moments in his life also connect in a narrative full of serendipitous events that have opened windows to let his talent shine through.  This multiple-Canadian Screen Award nominee started his diverse career producing hip-hop and electronic music, and got his breakout gig via the instructor of one of his electives, 8 years after attending the Ontario College of Art and Design.  That show was Durham County, and many more would follow: the sci-fi cult favorite Wynonna Earp (co-scored with Rob Carli), Bomb Girls, HGTV’s Leave It To Bryan, CBC’s hit, Workin’ Moms, and many more.  He’s also been a first call for developers, scoring games such as Guacamele 1 & 2, Little Big Planet Karting, and Soundshapes, among others.  We talk about how he left cassettes of his music in public bathrooms, the crash-course learning of first gigs, his airport-layover-created Beastie Boys remix that went hyper-viral and ended up being lauded by Maxim, Esquire, People, and Billboard magazine, how he bridged the gap between being an electronic producer to writing for orchestra, and why he thinks one of the keys to success is being able to take a good punch.

Steph Copeland cut her teeth in the Windsor/Detroit underground electronic and hip-hop scene, but her scoring career quickly developed alongside her successes as a songwriter and performer.  With her dark, electronic sensibilities and production chops, she soon became known for her gritty work on indie genre films like Antisocial 1 and 2, Bite, I’ll Take Your Dead, and more recently the 80’s inspired, synth drenched Vicious Fun.  She has since had a chance to show a more light, playful side, scoring romantic comedies like Snowbound for Christmas and dramatic series like The Wedding Planners. We look at how she balances her love of scoring with writing and producing songs, the joy of genre films, how she deals with difficult situations, having a cinematographer as a partner, and her take on success and how she looks at her future.https://www.stephcopeland.com/ 

Andrew Lockington is known for the epic scale of the blockbuster films he’s worked on, as well as the incredible lengths he goes to to capture his sounds - things like venturing into the deepest jungle or risking injury and death to dismantle a piano.  But make no mistake - these sonic explorations are matched by his beautiful and evocative orchestral writing, and when you add all that to his humble, curious, and down to earth nature, it quickly becomes obvious as to why he’s one of the top composers in Hollywood.  We explore all of these facets and more in this wonderful conversation, including how he got his start assisting Mychael Danna, his fascinating career trajectory and how he went all-in to get his first big break, how he has found success with a diverse range of collaborators and projects, and how he thinks about sound and finds new perspectives that are the drivers of his work and growth as an artist.www.andrewlockington.com

[Episode contains some colorful language]Classically trained as a vocalist, Red got her start in cabaret and musical theater before she was bitten by the film scoring bug - a craft she says “combines all of the things”.  She and her musical partner Maya Saxell won a Leo award for their work on Charlotte’s Song, a first in the category for female composers.  She also received a Leo nod for her music for White Raven, which she scored using only the human voice.  We talk about the challenges of the music business and her time as a singer-songwriter.  She discusses the film she could score for the rest of her life, innovating her process, and what the pressures of the pandemic have revealed for her, musicians, and the community.Twitter: @redheartbreakerInsta: @theycallmeredwww.redheartbreaker.com