Everything Band Podcast

Episode 100! John Mackey joins me for a conversation about his hugely successful career, from Commodore 64 through his remarkable "Places We Can No Longer Go" that was recently premiered at CBDNA 2019! Topics: The story of how John went from writing primarily chamber and orchestral music to becoming one of the most celebrated composers of music for wind ensemble and band. John’s background growing up and learning music and how to compose not in a traditional band, choir, or orchestra but instead on his computer through thousands of hours entering music via a joystick and reverse engineering what he was transcribing. The value of self publishing and the story of John’s growth from printing and shipping everything himself to having two employees to handle his current workload. The impact of writing dance music and how it’s influenced his compositional style and then an extended discussion of impostor syndrome, including John’s feelings about his most recent work Places We Can No Longer Go written about his mot