[ep 078] Martin MacPhail on music, scoring films & trailers and staying open to mystery

The Craft with May Globus

Martin MacPhail is a special one. His ability to immediately connect with people is a rare talent—one of many that he possesses. He's been a lifelong musician and after starting indie rock band Theset with his friends & touring cities, they landed a record deal and moved to Toronto. A record release and band changes later, the group morphed into Juno award-winning Blitz Berlin with Martin, Dean Rode & Tristan Tarr. Together, they now compose music for film, television shows, and trailers, including Top Gun Maverick, House of the Dragon, Bird Box, The Girl on the Train, Blade Runner 2036, and more.

He was born and raised in Victoria, a place that instilled a profound love for nature in him. His mother worked at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, before becoming a stay-at-home mom—she was also instrumental in Martin’s love for sound, enrolling him in a ‘Music for Wee Folk’ program as a toddler. His father has a passion for astronomy & paleontology, often taking the family on fossil bed trips. Martin and his brother also grew up practicing a martial art called aikido (which, wonderfully, is how his parents once met). After high school, he studied physics & astronomy, before leaving it behind to dedicate himself to music.

A lucky break led Martin, Dean and Tristan to scoring their first film as Blitz Berlin. The trio moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to be closer to the film & TV industry, finding a clever way to connect with the right people. Martin now splits his time between Vancouver & LA.

In this conversation, we explore aikido philosophy & how it helped develop his moral structure; nature informing his perspective & his preference for mystery; the process of creating a score; how the industry works these days & finding success as a musician; the connection between his love for astronomy & his work as a composer; his love letter to music; and much more.

[TIMESTAMPS]

8:21 - Growing up

24:02 - How music got into his life

40:52 - What makes it hard for artists to get a major break in music

47:39 - What his thoughts are on experimental music

50:59 - Their method of landing meetings with big industry names in LA

58:14 - Their creative process to film scoring

1:03:29 - Scoring films vs. Scoring trailers

1:06:00- The experience of winning a Juno

01:09:22 - Is there a connection between being a composer and the way he feels about astronomy

01:12:00 - What would he tell Dean and Tristan about the way he has seen them evolve throughout the years

01:14:35 - What the greatest thing that music has taught him/his love letter to music

01:16:44 - Final question

01:18:21 - Where to find him

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