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The Unstarving Musician


The Unstarving Musician’s Podcast features interviews with indie music artists an industry pros who share their experience and expertise on songwriting, recording, touring, getting gigs, marketing, and much more. It’s all intended to help indie artists to more of what they love–make music.

Feb 17, 2023

Ryan Miller and Jay LiftonMy guests for this episode are the film-scoring duo Ryan Miller and Jay Lifton. Ryan is a founding member and the lead singer of Guster, who recently celebrated their 31st consecutive year of touring and recording. He has scored over 15 feature films and has worked with directors Colin Trevorrow, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Lake Bell, and Zoe Lister-Jones. 

Jay Lifton is a Brooklyn-based composer who has worked with Alicia Silverstone, Kirsten Smith, Sean Baker, Paul Feig, and Errol Morris. He somewhat recently scored an episode of This American Life as well as the documentary RABBLE ROUSERS, which is about the forces behind NYC gentrification and urban displacement.

Both Ryan and Jay have great resumes for their work in film and commercials. The pair teamed up to score Reese Witherspoon’s film "Something from Tiffany's", which premiered this past holiday season on Prime Video. The film follows the story of a woman as her life gets upended when an engagement ring that was for someone else leads her to the person she's meant to be with. I watched the trailer and was struck by how beautiful it looked. Then, of course, I noticed the music.

We talk about "Something from Tiffany's," Guster, their respective journies toward film scoring, the value of attending film festivals, music in video games, and more.

Please enjoy my conversation with Ryan Miller and Jay Lifton.

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This episode was powered by Music Marketing Method, a program for independent musicians looking to grow their music career.

Music Marketing Method was created by my good friend Lynz Crichton. I’m in the program and I’m learning tons! I’m growing my fan base and learning about many ways that I’ll be earning money in the new year. It’s also helping me grow this podcast. How cool is that?

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This episode was powered by The Gigging Musician Podcast. Host Jared Judge says that playing music for live audiences is one of the most rewarding things on the planet. On his podcast, Jared dissects everything that goes into being a successful gigging musician. Hear it at www.GiggingMusicianPodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mentions and Related Episodes

JayLifton.com 

Stephanie Economou's soundtrack to Valhalla's Dawn of Ragnarök 

Guster 

@Guster on Twitter 

Axis, film by Aisha Tyler

Silversun Pickups 

Lost And Gone Forever by Guster

Teaching Music Production Online—Liz Cirelli Part 2 (Ep 151) 

Where Financial Fear, Elusive Fame, and Abundance Collide – Liz Cirelli

Resources

The Unstarving Musician’s Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo

Music Marketing Method – The program that helps musicians find fans, grow an audience and make consistent income

Bandzoogle – The all-in-one platform that makes it easy to build a beautiful website for your music

Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process.

More Resources for musicians

Pardon the Interruption (Disclosure)  Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission, at no extra charge to you, if you purchase using those links. Thanks for your support!


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