Film Score

When A New Hope was released in theaters in 1977, its impact quickly became the stuff of pop culture history. Of all the aspects of Star Wars which now feel ubiquitous, the bold opening trumpet fanfare of John Williams’ theme is among the franchise’s most iconic callbacks. Even as Star Wars has branched out with new composers and new stories, the music has remained an integral part of the franchise’s identity. Continue reading →

With over two decades of production and engineering experience, Danny Reisch has cemented himself as an institution in the Austin, Texas recording community. The engineer has spent time working on records with Wye Oak, Heartless Bastards and White Denim, in addition to running live sessions for Daytrotter with the likes of HAIM,  Mac Demarco and Gary Clark Jr. One of Danny's latest endeavors has been handling mixing duties for the score to The Green Knight. We recently sat down for a chat with the Dallas native to talk about his work on the film, his thoughts on mixing an album compared to soundtracks and the gear at his studio, Good Danny's. Continue reading →

Lisa Bella Donna is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and modular synthesist. She has many years of experience as a session musician and has developed extensive techniques with a variety of genres including musique concreté, micro-tonal music, orchestration, film composition, and more. Recently, Lisa put out two new albums, Night Flight and Orchards of Churchyard Departures. Both records are sonically fitting for the Halloween season, as they feature a number of dark and brooding tones created using a wide range of analog and digital synths. Continue reading →

Tamar-kali is an accomplished composer and performer, best known for her work on critically-acclaimed films such as The Assistant, The Last Thing He Wanted, and Shirley, all of which received high praise at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to her work as a film scorer, Tamar-kali also writes and performs with her rock band and her string sextet and voice project. We recently sat down with Tamar-kali for our Five Sounds With... series. Read on to learn about her approach to film scoring, her experiences recording a 16-person ensemble, and how she got her start in the New York punk scene. Continue reading →

Pinar Toprak is a renowned composer and instrumentalist with a diverse body of work spanning film, television, and video games. Known for her work on sci-fi hits like Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel, DC Comics’ Stargirl on The CW, and SY-FY’s Superman prequel series Krypton, Pinar is a powerhouse in the superhero circuit. Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Pinar began her classical music education at the age of five before moving to Chicago to study jazz. She went on to earn a degree in film scoring from Berklee College of Music, and a Master’s Degree in composition at CSUN. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Pinar for our Five Sounds With... series. Read on to learn how she captured the iconic sounds of Captain Marvel, Stargirl, and other projects including the extremely popular Fortnite video game. Continue reading →

Here at Vintage King, Halloween is one of our favorite times of the year. Not just because we get to wear all black and stuff our faces with candy, but because we get to revisit some of our favorite horror movies and spooky soundtracks from the 1980s. To celebrate the spirit of Halloween, we spoke with synth lord and certified super-villain Protovolt to find out what makes a classic horror score. Known for his sick retro scores and insane synthesizer collection, Protovolt is easily one of the raddest dudes on the internet, and an aficionado of all things 80s. Read on to learn about Protovolt’s favorite tools for writing retro-inspired scores, his custom arcade cab modular synth, and what his death scene would be like if he was in a horror movie. Continue reading →

Fans of the horror genre will certainly be familiar with the far-reaching discography of Charlie Clouser. The former Nine Inch Nails member moved onto the world of scoring film/television and has been responsible for an incredible number of projects including the Saw series, American Horror Story, Dead Silence and Wayward Pines.   In keeping with the spooky Halloween season, we reached out to Charlie to talk about his studio set-up, his sonic inspirations and some different ways to get ghoulish and unsettling sounds out of your gear. Continue below to read our conversation with Charlie and to hear a few pieces of his fantastic work. Continue reading →

As Halloween draws closer and closer, we've been binge watching all kinds of classic horror movies. While some achieve greatness in terms of jump scares and gory visuals, others remain our favorites because of their incredible soundtracks. From Argento and Fulci to Carpenter and Romero, these masterful directors have made fantastic choices when choosing the composers and artists who would make the music for their films. Continue reading →