What kind of music creative are you?
I'm a Music Composer and Musician.
What inspired you to start creating music?
I have been a musician all my life. I have many pop, jazz and rock influences including Steely Dan, Dave Brubeck, the Brecker Bros, Weather Report, and the Beatles.
Creating music is the natural progression to loving music and diving deep into it. More recently, I am composing music for musical theater, as theater catches up to more contemporary musical tastes and styles.
What is your studio setup?
I am using Logic Pro X. I find the interface with the hardware to be the most seamless for composing. I use many UAD plugins with an Apollo.
Recently I have graduated to a Vienna Ensemble Pro configuration, with all my virtual instruments on a separate computer. This saves me sanity and CPU if I work in a large orchestral template. I use all kinds of virtual instruments and samples as well as effects plugins.
Part of this is just a never-ending curiosity on how to make creating music better.
Do you play any musical instruments?
I play guitar, banjo, piano, and bass, and have always sung.
What project are you the proudest of?
I am finishing a musical on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It was a tremendous undertaking. I ended up writing about 60 songs for what was refined to about 20 songs that were used for the show.
This was a unique project because it has varied musical styles, tells an epic story, and the songs have to be cohesive. It was like writing for 3 or 4 LPs or a huge concept album. But very rewarding to work through it and finish it.
On the Get the Show on the Road track for promotion of Broadway reopening, I used the Country Guitars sample pack.
What type of projects are you currently working on?
My most recent efforts are in musical theater, which can be almost any genre. I have written for country, jazz, pop, progressive rock, and bluegrass.
Musical theater is storytelling with music. It is a challenge and it causes you to look at integrating many songs into a single project.
I didn't want to be pigeonholed into one genre, and musical theater is wide open to any genre today.
What is your creation process?
Progression and usually lyrics are complete before recording anything (it's I have to start with a mood. What is the emotion of the song? What is the subtext? This typically involves creating an accompaniment of some kind that creates this mood of sadness, joy, fear, suspense, uncertainty, or whatever.
It is almost like I am scoring a film, so it most often starts at the piano or guitar and branches out from there to create a vibe. I then move to melody with a hook phrase or a title. Many times the hook phrase or title will guide the mood.
From hook phrase, the lyric is flushed out so that it tells a story that is cohesive and progresses. From there I fill out the arrangement with virtual instruments as a mock-up, which is usually then taken to session players and singers for a full mix that is a great demo or a finished radio-ready product.
Where can people hear your music?
Right now, you can check out bonhoefferthemusical.com
Why do you choose We Sound Human sounds?
I purchase We Sound Human libraries for inspiration and the ability to modify bits and pieces to make projects uniquely my own. As songwriters, we are always looking for hacks to quickly write and mock-up a song. The better the mock-up, the easier the pitch. We need ways to capture the emotion and the vision of the song. Guitar Pop Songwriting, for example, is just that hack for active songwriters.
I increase my efficiency in writing and inspire new ideas. No way to lose here. Just get them. Dive in. Be inspired.
We Sound Human simply ups your game. These libraries should be in the arsenal of every songwriter. Great product support, great sounds, great loops, and samples that are easily modified to make them your own.
"I am always expanding my palate as a composer and I have really enjoyed using your products."
Explore the Sounds of Country Guitars
Country Guitars is a massive collection of modern and traditional country guitar loops, county stringed instrument samples, and good 'ol country sounds. Country Guitars also contains an enormous collection of extras including one-shots, licks, and melodies. So whether you're needing some bonafide chicken pickin for your TV tracks or simply need some good ‘ol country banjo to give your commercials that authentic country vibe; Country Guitars has got you, covered son.
- Includes: 9 GB (20 kits) country guitar samples.
- Styles: Modern and traditional country sounds.
- Instruments: Slide guitar, banjo, lap steel & more.
- Xtras: One-shots, licks, chords, and melodies.
- Sounds like: Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs & more.
- Crafted for: Composers, producers, musicians.
- Formats: All music DAWs, loop & editing software.
Explore the sounds of Country Guitars