Colin Aguiar: Composer

Colin Aguiar is an award-winning Indian-Candian composer based in Los Angeles who specializes in film scoring. In this conversation we talked about his youth, growing up across parts of India, the Middle East, Europe and Canada and studying the music of various cultures, learning different instruments with a start on drums as a toddler, as well as his love for the music of Arvo Pärt and other great composers. Colins spoke about some of his mentors including Mychael Danna. This episode with Colin is the first release of several film composers I have interviewed recently, and I find it fascinating how diverse their musical backgrounds are and what a challenging and little-understood part of the music world this is. During the episode you’ll hear some clips from Colin’s compositions, used with permission. Like all my episodes, this is available on your favourite podcast player as well as a video, and the transcript is linked as well to my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/colin-aguiar

https://colinaguiar.com/

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:18) toddler drum set, Dad’s band

(05:47) Parents’ travels and emigration from India, different cultures

(09:17) intro to music from Fly

(12:41) music from Fly

(16:01) intro to music from Torn from her Arms, Arvo Pärt

(17:59) music from Torn from her Arms

(19:42) synthesizers, working with session musicians who play by ear

(22:51) immigration stories

(25:15) arrangement of El Salvadorian anthem

(26:25) learning drums and cultures through music

(30:52) practicing 5 hours a day, learning different instruments

(33:32) starting to compose and arrange

(35:41) composition studio gear

(38:46) intro to music from film “Construct”, use of dubstep

(39:45) music from “Construct”

(40:43) Mychael Danna and learning the job of film scoring

(48:14) Lou Natale, challenges of time pressure for composers

(51:29) intro to palindrome

(52:18) clip from palindrome written for Construct

(54:23) learning from other composers

(56:55) composition Roman Toi

(58:29) mentors Lou Natale, John Welsman, glenn Morley, Mychael Danna, Robert Dunca, Christopher Young

(01:00:10) internal music soundtrack, being able to remember music with precision

(01:02:41) Kathakali, other parallels with film music

(01:06:00) different styles of film scoring, decision making, time crunches

(01:13:16) use of temp tracks

(01:16:27) Canadian film industry

(01:17:46) pandemic shutdowns