Meet Dan Radlauer | Music Composer/Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dan Radlauer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dan, what do you attribute your success to?

As a listener of music, composer of music, and a musician, I think my success has been directly connected to my willingness to listen to and fall in love with almost any kind of music. Then my ability, both learned and possibly innate, to analyze, understand and embrace the elements of this wide variety of genres.

In scoring music for Media, a composer is “underlining” the emotion of a scene or message. Whether it’s in Cinema, Television or Commercials, the music sends the message through a different receptor. Music is the underlying emotion. As composers, we tap into the cultural and textural emotions carried in music. The more cultural and textural angles you can apply, the more impactful the music.

I have been told that this “wide lens” is one of my “special” qualities as a composer.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I write music for both fun and profit. On weekends, I’ll get together and Jam with other musicians. In the evenings, even after a long day of “music for pay” I’ll come into my studio to work on various passion projects. I also teach, both paid and volunteer. I have been part of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Jazz Intensive Staff for over a decade. (after being a student in the program in the late 1970s!) I volunteer as Co-Director of the Pacific Palisades High School Jazz Band.

Recently I was honored with the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for “Best Score” for Theme Park Attractions for my score in the new Griffith Observatory Planetarium show called “Signs of Life.” Opening Spring of 2022.

This is a tough business. It’s art, but it’s also competition. A lot of people love to create music, and there’s only so many places you can actually make money composing. Somehow I have the mixture of tenacity, talent and dumb luck to have done so for decades.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Griffith Observatory (don’t forget to see the Planetarium show, and don’t be distracted by my amazing music… 🙂

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is also a great place. There are a multitude of great hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains.

We are blessed with a fantastic rainbow of people from all over the world that have come to Los Angeles. Sample their culture and food in the many ethnic enclaves through out the city…and don’t forget the African American contributions as well.

Both Getty Museums are fantastic, as is the Hammer Museum in Westwood…speaking of Westwood, the sculpture Gardens at UCLA are a very nice experience.

Yes, the traffic sucks… but leave enough time, have a nice conversation or listen to good music or an interesting podcast and accept that it’s part of this amazing city.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The world is filled with so many great artists. Without even knowing it, they have influenced and taught me the power of music. (and other arts as well). I have been blessed to work with so many great musicians. Some stand outs are Carl Verheyen, Dan Higgins, Wayne Bergeron, Mark Hollingsworth, Matt Johnson, Alan Palmer, Tom Hynes with apologies to those I left out.

Also, while there are many wonderful musicians and composers who haven’t “Studied” and yet are amazing, so many of us, myself included owe a debt of gratitude to the many music educators of all types. Maybe it was a beginning guitar teacher, or maybe it was a High Level Contemporary Classical Composition teacher.. whomever, they fed us hungry students the food of music! Mine have been: Terry Blackley, John Prince, Brent Pierce, Albert Harris and my mother, Ruth Radlauer.

Website: www.RadMusic.net

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsdFR5CIgAY

Other: You can find me… just Google Dan Radlauer