Recent Feature News
Mark Mothersbaugh: His first break- a film score for Michael Tolkin’s The New Age - had nothing to do with children’s m
Captured at BMI Film TV Awards 2004
10 Questions: Ammar Malik

Ammar Malik is a guitar-toting songwriter from Virginia who, at 24, also happens to be one of pop’s hottest guns for hire. His involvement behind Gym Class Heroes’ “Stereo Hearts” sparked a pivotal camaraderie with that song’s featured vocalist, Adam Levine. That chemistry helped produce “Moves Like Jagger,” the massively infectious Maroon 5 single that needs no introduction. Taking stock—and a…
Catching Up with Dafnis Prieto, Winner of MacArthur Foundation Fellowship

When jazz drummer-composer Dafnis Prieto answered his telephone’s ring one day in October 2011 to find the director of the MacArthur Foundation on the line — informing him he’d been awarded one of the creativity fostering organization’s prestigious fellowships — he was “shocked, elated, humbled and proud all at the same time.” Prieto was also justly rewarded. The tireless work of the 37-year-old native of Santa Clara,…
10 Questions: Shawn K. Clement

Shawn K. Clement began touring as a guitarist for country and rock bands while still in his teens; after two years at the Berklee College of Music, he headed to Los Angeles to forge a career in film music. Along the way Clement avoided getting pigeonholed by film genre or musical style. His résumé includes such varied projects as TV’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the IMAX animated…
Indie Meets Mainstream: Geico Features Wrinkle Neck Mules in Latest Spot

Persevere long enough, and sometimes a stroke of great luck will come your way. That’s something Wrinkle Neck Mules have learned in recent months. This past November, Geico--yes, the insurance company famous for its Gecko spokes-creature--began airing a TV commercial featuring a snippet of “Central Daylight Time,” a song the Virginia-based band had recorded but not yet released. Neither the song-title nor the Mules are…
Anthony Hamilton Picks Up the Pace with ‘Back to Love’

“I haven’t been on a swing in years,” Anthony Hamilton explains as he glides on a friend’s swing in North Carolina. The Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter is taking breather as 2012 sets in, coming off the high of his recent release Back to Love. With a decade invested in music, Hamilton has carved a sizeable niche, due largely to his relatable songwriting hugged by his deep textured vocals.…
10 Questions: Skylar Grey

Skylar Grey will be hard-pressed to top 2011. Last year yielded a stunning Grammy performance—and nomination—festival appearances, and a European tour. But it’s all been leading to Grey’s debut album, Invinsible, expected in the coming weeks. Grey is again partnered with her golden-eared producer pal Alex da Kid, whose steely, mammoth-like beats hammered beneath Grey's vocals during last year's string of collaborations with hip-hop…
Trailblazer, Defined: Kirk Franklin

There was nothing at all timid about the words Kirk Franklin delivered as an intro to his 1997 gospel and r&b hit “Stomp (Remix).” “For those of you that think that gospel music has gone too far,” he challenged, stamping every syllable with streetwise churchly conviction, “you think we’ve gotten too radical with our message. Well, I’ve got news for ya. You ain’t heard nothing yet.” That…
One More Reason Sundance Matters: Peter Golub

If Peter Golub were much in love with vanity (and he isn’t), he could boast of a musical career as distinguished, varied, and influential as any almost any artist working today. “I got pulled into writing incidental music for the stage,” Golub recalls when reflecting on his concert music roots and musical contributions to now more than 100 plays. He has also composed four ballets and quirky…
Kathryn Bostic: A Storyteller Returns to Sundance

Whether she’s composing a film score or writing, performing and producing her own country and gospel-tinged solo record, what Kathryn Bostic is really doing is telling a story. “I’ve always loved the art of storytelling,” says Bostic, “and I’ve always loved film. I’ve always loved the different ways in which filmmakers define these stories. There’s such a vast array of choices, and to come on board as…
T. Griffin Readies ‘California Solo’ for Sundance

Many musicians are trying to find the right sound, but for composer T. Griffin that cliché takes on unexpected depth and dimensions. In addition to his lauded solo pieces and work with the band the Quavers, Griffin has earned esteem scoring a number of moving independent films, including Prodigal Sons, Children of Invention, and a number of works with Jem Cohen. His latest projects are Liza Johnson’s…
