micro/Maker by Loose Leaf Transmissions

Shruthi Rajasekar reflects on growing up in a deeply musical household shaped by her mother’s work as a Carnatic vocalist and collaborator across cultures. She and Tyler talk about the intersections of Indian and...

For Graeme Shields , composing started as play—long afternoons with friends huddled around the family computer, experimenting with Finale and discovering the thrill of sound on command. Those early experiments evolved...

For Fire Ecologies, Christopher Stark spent months working with field recordings made near California wildfires, and just as much time deciding what not to include. A long recording of an actual forest fire originally...

For Yue Song , confidence didn’t come first—it arrived after years of imitation, theory, and hesitation. Growing up in China, Yue learned piano alongside her sister, studying under traditional mentors who emphasized...

Biting into sound, Emily Koh tells Tyler Kline how meals became both inspiration and material for her music—from writing pieces based on chewing insects to dreaming up scores for specific dishes. She explains why chefs...

Nicolás Lell Benavides reflects on the intersection of art, ethics, and responsibility—how writing about water, folklore, and humanity connects to a deeper sense of duty. He and Tyler talk about motivation, artistic...

C. Jacqueline Wood describes her film This Is a Movie as a kind of funeral—for unfinished projects, abandoned ideas, and the dreams she didn’t have the resources or time to complete. Drawing on footage from nine...

Phong Tran explores the emotional core of his creative practice, and how performance becomes a vessel for vulnerability. He and Tyler reflect on how music schools often prioritize logic and technique — and how...

What some call “too personal,” Han Hitchen sees as essential: writing music rooted in lived experience. From family fractures to queer identity, Han’s pieces often begin with what feels intimate or unshareable—only to...

Mahdis Golzar Kashani reflects on her role as both composer and cultural ambassador, blending elements of Persian tradition with a sensitivity to international audiences. In this excerpt, she shares why it’s important...

When his pieces kept ballooning, Marc Mellits tried a radical constraint: present one idea, double bar, move on. The result wasn’t “no development,” but concise, targeted development—modular movements he could reorder...

Hannah Selin reflects on her fascination with the inner lives of sounds—the details we pass by without noticing. She and Tyler talk about slowing down, listening more deeply, and uncovering what exists beneath the...

Anuj Bhutani traces how Manu — a project that began as a collection of musical self-portraits — gradually revealed itself as something he'd always been working toward: a direct engagement with storytelling, identity...

Carlynn Crosby reflects on her deep generational ties to Florida and how her relationship to the state has shifted over time. She discusses the complex feelings of pride, frustration, and responsibility she holds toward...

Kurt Rohde examines the structural problems embedded in how opportunities circulate in contemporary music — how access, relationships, and institutional permission compound quietly over time, rewarding the already-known...