Y Crazy Mind

Alvaro Balvin Benavides is a Peruvian composer based in Los Angeles. He is mostly known for his work on 'Chef's Table BBQ' and 'Street Food Latinamerica', both productions from Netflix. He is also known for his score for the award winning short film 'La Ruta', where he got a nomination for Best Score at the L'H Internationale Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain. And recently he scored the Student Academy Award Gold Winner (Student Oscar's) documentary 'Unfinished Lives' directed by Yucong Chen and produced by Kay Zhang (2020). Alvaro Balvin Benavides Tell us about your new release 'Belé'? When will it be premiered? Belé is a project i had in mind a long time ago and finally was able to put all the pieces together to make it happen. The composition fits a lot in an ambient genre, very calm and daydreaming kind of music, with a vibe from the 80s; it is made entirely with analog synthesizers, which are a passion of mine and reflect a lot m...

Robert Wolf is a composer for film and video games living in Los Angeles, CA. He has worked on several of the worlds leading mobile games, such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Honor of Kings. He is a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music. We have conducted a short interview with him. Robert Wolf, Composer In your opinion as a composer, how important is music in films and video games? I think it is extremely important. It can have a huge effect on the emotional tone of a project and can sometimes be the one thing people remember long after watching the film or playing the game. I think the importance is being recognized more and more, given what a big part of pop-culture even old retro-video game soundtracks are these days. Based on your personal experience, what is the style and composition that is highly in demand nowadays? Video game music is extremely diverse. It is difficult to generalize, but many games use orchestral music, many strategy games or fantasy RPGs have beautiful or...

Composing, for Weijun Chen, is an opportunity to express himself through an art form that is beyond words. Hearing his own works performed by a world-class orchestra or ensemble is immensely gratifying for this celebrated classical composer. He is at the top of his game, and his passion for what he does is a driving force for his success. “It is such a privilege to be able to share my music with other people, and it is humbling when your music touches them. Often times audience members would approach me after concerts and share their listening experience. As composers, we have the power to make people think and feel through our music, and that to me, is beyond incredible,” said Chen. Chen’s vast and thorough understanding of his craft is evident throughout his entire musical catalogue. Audiences and critics alike have appreciated his talent, with his work making its way to prestigious music festivals around the world, such as the 2016 MATA Festival of New Music for his cham...

Music has always been a driving force in Michael Shlafman’s life. The Canadian native was greatly influenced by his parents, both of whom are musicians. His father would spend the nights teaching him guitar when he was as young as six, or he would be with his mother seeing the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. Growing up, music was like a sixth sense for Shlafman, and he never envisioned pursuing any other avenue in his life. Now, as an industry-leading composer and orchestrator in Canada, he explores that passion every day. Working as part of the music team for Hollywood blockbusters like Pet Sematary and decorated films such Botero , millions around the world have heard Shlafman’s extraordinary touch while at the cinema, and the small-screen is no different. He has been a part of several acclaimed television shows, from composing additional music for Netflix’s Best. Worst. Weekend . Ever. to scoring the award-winning web series LARPs . “I’d say the highlight of my career so f...

Alex Stewart will never forget the first time he heard his music on the television. At the time, he was just an aspiring composer, and hearing his music broadcast to his entire country was a dream come true. It was a moment where all his hard work had paid off, and he could see his bright future. Now, he hears his music all the time, and that elated feeling remains the same. Hailing from Australia, Stewart is an internationally in-demand composer. Working on shows like Paradise Hotel , Temptation Island , The Curse of Civil War Gold , Steve Harvey’s Funderdome and many more, he has shown the world just how versatile and talented he is. At the end of the day, however, Stewart is just happy to do what he loves: making music for the masses. “The thing I love most about approaching making music as a composer is the absolute freedom to create new things sonically. Especially now with technology, composers can make music with virtually any sound, which means there are no limi...

Sarah Wallin Huff is a composer and violinist, and she just released an epic, “homegrown” instrumental album featuring her concerto for 6-string electric violin. We have conducted an interview with her. Why do you named this album "Legend Seekers"? I called this album “Legend Seekers” because of the title of the first movement of “Leviathan of the Ancient Deep”: “Seekers of the Legend”. This album was meant to feature that concerto for 6-string violin, and its opening movement seemed to set the stage for everything nicely. As I decided on the other works that would complete the album, I realized that each told their own story of someone seeking their own legend in their own way. How long have you been working on this album? What was the greatest challenge? It’s been a long road making this album. I completed “Leviathan of the Ancient Deep” in 2008, and for the last four or five years I’d been trying to get funding to make a representative recording of ...

We’ve all had the experience in which we here a police siren, the rumble of a train, the roar of an airplane and we know what is coming based on the sound that precedes it. The same can be said for the music of a film. Quite often when one watches the trailer for a film you understand what type of film it will be within the first few seconds because of the music, sometimes more so than the visuals. Many filmmakers use this nonverbal cue to communicate to the audience what they can expect in the story. The filmmakers who created My Sweet Prince wanted composer Eiko Jin to do the inverse of this. They had a major twist in their storyline and wanted Jin to help them deceive, in a benevolent manner, the audience. Audiences are clever and there are so many films these days that director Sijia Zhao felt Eiko’s mastery of mood and melody would enable the prestidigitation which was the aim of the production. Not only was this method successful but it resulted in critical and public acclaim. ...

Steven Cravis is a pianist, composer and soundtracks producer in San Francisco, influenced by Sting, George Winston, Hans Zimmer and Andreas Vollenweider. His works have been heard in the award winning QUELL app, Animal Planet, CBS, CNN, NBC, Matchroom Sport (UK) and more. We have conducted an interview with him. How unique is your music? What do you consider is different about creating video games music? My music is unique in that it comes from a mixture of my dreams and feelings, combined with melodies, chords and improvisations that come from years of playing some classical, and mostly jazz. The difference when I've composed for game or puzzle apps is that the game programmers may suggest the main feeling or idea before I create the music, as oppose to me coming up with just anything that I feel. Which of the apps have your music on it? Which is your personal favorite? Orisinal.com (flash) games on desktop, have many of my compositions, both already-composed,...

Kobi Arad is one of the most Prominent, Prolific and Versatile pianists-composers-producers emerging from Israel. A Grammy Award voting member, he is the first musician to ever receive Doctorate in field of 'Third Stream' from New England Conservatory of Music, Boston -- with 20+ self-titled CD's presently available on Amazon. We have conducted an interview with him. How do you feel being the first musician in history to receive the Doctorate in the field of Contemporary Improvisation and Third Stream? I feel lucky and honored. When I was in Israel, and found out there was an established field in music called 'Third Stream' in the US, which was aimed at merging classical and jazz. I was enthused beyond words since I knew this was my calling in life. At the time I was in Israel, informing and educating myself of precisely this combination of styles. When I earned Masters and Doctorate from New England Conservatory in that field, it meant a lot to me, be...