Geekscape

Geekscape 398: Camping Out With 'Gravity Falls' Composer Brad Breeck!

Brad Breek is a musician and composer with some of our favorite TV credits, including Disney shows 'Gravity Falls', 'Star vs The Forces of Evil', Nickelodeon's 'Fanboy and Chumchum' and MTV's 'Awkward'! He drops by to talk about how he got his start in TV composing and where he gets his inspiration... and maybe why it's not always a plus to be first in school! I also profess my love for MTV's 'The Shannara Chronicles' and we try and give Brad the perfect nickname! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 09 Feb 2016
Audio Format:: other

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Me and the world behind. All your friends are waiting. [MUSIC] Two weeks in a row. I didn't do anything wrong at a time. I was following the countdown from our studio and I, you know what, this is a relationship and we're learning together. Do you blame him on the lag? I'm going to blame him on the lag, just like a gamer. Yeah, the game is the lag. It was the lag. It was the lag. We're all good here. I'm Jonathan Lennon. This is GeekScape. We talk movies, getting games, comic books, TV. Anything you should have abandoned in adolescence, but you said, you know what? No, the real world is too mean. I'm going to hug this to me like Linus is blanket and hang on tight because the world's not getting any cooler and I'm not getting any cooler. So this is GeekScape and we're geeks well into adulthood. We're broadcasting from the T Radio V studios. We're loving it here and we've got, I got to tell you, this is episode 398. What? Yep, we're going to do it for 400. That there is Kenny Craig. That's Will Sterling, my co-host. And for 400, I'm still kind of banding it about, but it's going to be big. We might do a party. We might do a livestream so the GeekScape is can Skype in and be a part of the show themselves, but I'm still kind of putting the details together. So GeekScape, if you want to be a part of GeekScape 400, you can and it's going to be fun. I'm trying to line up guests. I'm trying to line up the whole party thing. And I'm just trying to promise you guys that it will be a GeekScape unlike any other. Yeah. So we'll see. Good. They're like good. Yeah, they're like good. Something in listenable. But yeah, this is GeekScape. This is what we do. We talk movies, idioms, and comics because you know what? We're going to do that anyway. So why not record it and put it out for you guys? Because I think that's what you're passionate about too, if this is not your first GeekScape. It is your first GeekScape. I just told you the lowdown. And yeah, the one thing about GeekScape that we do too is we invite a guest in the studio. This GeekScape is no different. Our good friend Brad Break is here. Different stuff. Oh, I think everyone. That's right. Brad Break. Now, Brad, you have to be very careful picking through that name because it's Brad Break. Yeah. And you can say Brad Beak. But Brad Break. Say that really fast. Right. It's treacherous. You can say point break. Yeah, point break. A lot of people say point break. That's why they go wrong. Yeah. The point is no way to break my name. So weird. Could that be a nickname? Could that be a nickname? Perhaps. It could be a nickname and I'm... Brad, point break. Or just Johnny Utah. He used to call me Johnny. Brad, ex-presidents. Or just to keep on it. Yeah. Okay. You are an FBI agent. We can do this. We can figure out a good nickname for you. We have the show. By the end of the show, we will have... Brad's a pretty solid name. Pretty solid. Right. Easy name. What have we called Brickneck? That's me. Because that's how he lives life. Brickneck? Oh, I think he said breakneck. Yeah, because that's... Yeah. It was a plan on breakneck. And then I realized that somebody in the city has actually broken their neck. I'm so sorry. Brickneck. No, that goes back to the Patrick Swayze in when he finally arrived that way. All right. Well, what happened to him? You know what? We got some time. We're going to find a nice nickname for Brad. And you guys were wondering, what's the big hula balloon about this Brad guy anyway? Why does he even need a nickname? Well, guys, I hate to tell you, but you've probably heard Brad's music on shows like Gravity Falls. He's a composer. He's a musician. He's a rock and roll performer. And he's made some of the music for some of your favorite cartoons. You've done some live action as well, right? How would you describe your job as a musician, as a composer? Or just as a... I guess a composer is probably the most accurate. That's probably how I make living. It's as a composer and songwriter. But how do you view yourself? You know, because Kenny... I'm a music dude. Doesn't view himself the way he makes money. Like music. I'm a major. I'm a minor in music dude. Oh, okay. You're probably a better musician than I am. Oh. I consider myself a really shitty musician who can... Has some okay ideas and somehow, you know... But how did you get... Partly that it's making a living. But you studied that at school though, did you? I did study it, but I was the worst student. Do you see... Are you being like... You're normally totally was the worst student. No, is that just an inferiority company? No, I was probably the worst student. And I think that's why I'm able to make a living in. Because I think I have this theory that if you're really good... You didn't even need to be the best. Like really fucking good. Yeah, not even valedictorian. You need to be the best guy at the best school in the country. Okay. Or you need to be like the worst guy to like succeed. This is a totally bullshit theory. No, no, no, no. I think I know where you're going. No, this is real. Yeah, if you're like... So there were guys in my program who were way better than me. Like really good. I was in like a jazz program. Okay. Guys that were really good. Like real mom back. Yeah, real mom back. I think he was one as well. But those guys, I shouldn't say this in public. But I felt like those guys were... They were not quite good enough to like get a record deal and be like a jazz god or something. That's critical, right. Yeah, yeah. But they weren't bad enough, like me, to be like, what the fuck? I'm doing anything. Yeah, I've got to figure something out. So in a way they were good enough to buy into what locks them in with higher education, right? You totally get locked in, I think, in this kind of... It's a thought process. Yeah, I think so, yeah. And if you were the Brad Briggs of the world, you're like... I got to find another way around. You're like, fuck, fuck. I can't exist in this paradigm. JK Simmons was their music teacher. Would that have taken them to the next level? I had that teacher. You didn't have that teacher with that guy. You did. Did not help. I guess it kind of did based on the theme of that movie. You're like, you're not... Well, who's the guy? You're not Charlie Parker. So like I had to go a different way. And did you like jazz? Sorry, I'm... No, yeah, no, no. Let's keep all our hands where we can see them, folks. No, I'm too late. Because... Did you... Are you still enjoying jazz music? Do you still play jazz music? I don't play jazz music. 'Cause just one of the white dudes like nodding their heads. Yeah, it's kind of like... When you watch it live, it just feels like a bunch of... It's a dead arbor than my guys. Yeah, it's a dead arbor. So the guy reading comics. But I only read comics a lot. But comics are way more relevant than comics. But you've got... I don't think... Well, the reason I bring up comics is that jazz and American like superheroes are the two unique American art forms. They're the two ones that like... Of a rock and roll. It came out of a rock and roll too. I guess it's still an extension of jazz. It's an extension. Yeah, it does. Yeah, I mean, it just feels like those are the unique ones. They didn't come from the old country, right? They didn't come here. They were from the colonies. We are. And do you... Are you being sincere when you think of jazz as a... that art form? Do you think that there's not a market for that? No, I think there are... Look, this is all bullshit. I feel like not qualified to just go on this. No, no, no, no. What do you need to do? You know, I've been doing this for nine years and it is all bullshit. I don't think there's a lot to be said with that vocabulary. Like, I think there's some like kind of hybrid jazz stuff where you're like making weird noises with computers and improvising around that, which is like maybe relevant. Sure. But I don't know. Is it evolving or is it dead? I don't know, because what you're saying right now is it feels like it's evolving and it's giving way to the implementation of new sounds, new technologies. I'm honestly not in touch with that music enough to know. What are you running from? Yeah, I was like running for myself as an obvious. No, I'm not in touch with it enough. But whenever I do check in, I check out like what... what's the new relevant thing is. That's like nothing. It was like, yeah, you know, I feel like this has already been said. Well, not that I've done anything great myself, but just... That's my problem with criticism. Here's what... Here's my story with Gravity Falls is, you know, we have this booth at Comic Con every year. We're always at these conventions. And I would say about a year ago, I started seeing those hats, the blue-blue hats with a little tree on them. Yeah. And I was like, what is that? And people were like, dude, that's Gravity Falls. And you've got to watch it, because it's an amazing cartoon series. And what's great about it over, I guess, the long-running cartoon series, this is just a finite story. Like a Netflix series that is designed to only be X number of episodes, and their final episode is coming up. Oh. And then you have the complete story. Right. And I love that. That's a nice idea to drop. And you couldn't have done that 10 years ago. It's really only been the implement... It's only been the advancement of things like the internet, and maybe the British television that said, okay, the way it's to go is these shortened series that are shaped to the story, not the story being forced into the... It's like Last Airbender was like the first big one for the States. Yeah, that movie was great. What a great film. Really. You're on probation. Yeah. You're on probation, sir. Why don't you sit over there and try and think of a nice nickname for Brett? Okay. But what informs your storytelling when you're a musician? Like, what informs your process? If you were the guy who flunked out of school, and you were like... Fuck it. You didn't flunk out of school. But if you're the guy who kind of had this amorphous approach to how you make music, and the rules that were thrown at you, you didn't approach from the direct way. You approached from the side and discovered them for yourself, what informs your music? I think if I have maybe my theory was... Because Brett did the Gravity Falls theme song. Sorry, I just wanted to wrap that up. Well, this one I got at school, it was like I'm not gonna be a jazz musician. I'm gonna go to primitivism. I'm gonna... Because I'm not gonna learn... Make our pans and stuff. Yeah, I didn't learn all the stuff I needed to learn at school. Like, my favorite composer was John Cage, people who just... You were interested in sound, not in music, you know? And formal music. So, I was like, I'm just gonna go... I'm gonna be a primitivist, kind of, and approach it from that way. And just do what comes naturally to me. And that means building it. Yeah. Which kind of shoot... I mean, it shot me in a foot eventually, because some of the tools that you do learn by going through orchestration classes and theory and all that stuff are useful when you start scoring TV shows. But I think the reason... Imagine that! Yeah. But I think the reason I started to get... I kind of started to make a career was that I was approaching, kind of, from a different angle. Like, I'm not an incredible, like, piano player or guitarist. So, when I have to write something, like, I'm doing it kind of clumsily. And I think maybe I have a slightly different vocabulary because I'm approaching it in a different way. So, you're like the graphic design artist who created the Nike check mark of the music industry. Sure. You could create something super simple. Yeah. But it's very, ever... It's well-known when anyone sees it or, therefore, hears it when it comes to... Well, I think... I think technique in music is so overrated. Listen, like, most of the great music is so simple. It's just done, like, in a masterful way. So, I think that was like... I'm going to have the least... I'm going to have a very minimal amount of tools at my disposal. But I'm going to listen to a lot of music and I'm going to have, like, a broader vocabulary in terms of the music I've been exposed to than other people. That was my idea. I'm going to like all the music that most music nerds don't like. Right. I'm going to, like, weird stuff. Rock and Noise Music, which, like, if you're in a conservatory program, my thing I always say is like... Like, no banana type stuff? I love them up there. They were like, "I've never been." Yeah. Like, my whole thing... We used to play them on the radio. Yeah. Yeah. People were like, "What is this?" It's crazy. That's what it is. You can listen to it. You're not going to turn it off. Yeah. I think I always say, which is... It's done... All this is bullshit. But it was, like, music students that I was around in school had the worst fucking taste in music. When I went to art school, I went to the school called "Kell Arts." I've been in Santa Cruz. A little school. Yeah. A school called "Kell Art." Yeah, yeah. It's right near me. There, like, I started hanging out with art kids. That's why I went there. I went to hang out with art students and film students instead of fucking musicians. And the art school kids knew all the interesting music and, like, they had broader appreciation of music. So, yeah. That's my philosophy. It was like... All these musicians don't know any good music. Right. So I'm going to like good music and have no skills. Are we hearing theme music? Yeah, we're hearing some of them. So it's the "Kell Arts" theme. Oh, yeah. I think they're... Gravity Falls? Oh, is that the Gravity Falls music? Oh, it is, okay. Oh, you guys are awesome. You're very awesome. We don't have a license for this, but we'll see if SoundCloud pulls us or not. Hey, we have to press "new made it." Yeah, it's enough. And if we maybe we talk through it, maybe we talk through it. Oh, this SoundCloud won't identify it, and pull us for using licensed music. Let's go to commercial before we play any more of this stuff, because, again... Get 30 seconds. We're going to get cold. Yeah. You're listening to Geekscape, guys. We're going to stop for Station ID and we will be right back with Brad Break, and maybe his nickname here on Geekscape. Thank you, guys. All right, Geekscape as we hit the post here on the way back here. Nailed it. I think, I think... You got it. The T-Radio V studio and I are starting to learn to love each other again. Mm. What? Wow. I love what T-Radio V is. Well, you know, did you love this place? I do love it. But remember we had Jake? Yeah. We have Justin, but Justin went back to school. Yeah. He went back to school? Yeah. Well, either that or he would just rather do something else than listen to us. OK. Now we got some other guys in the T-Radio V studios. And you guys can throw on the mic right now. No bad saying some other guys if you don't know their name. Well, there's a lot of... There's two. And I'm not smart. Well, there was a third dude in there. Where'd he go? He made me out of the table. Look at his smiles. Look at his smiles. He's totally under the table. He made me surfacing these guys. So listen, that's why they're doing so well. Yeah. But they're always smiling at us the entire time. It was a third guy. Now I just see a pair of hands. Big as you can. Whoa. No. Oh, this is a children's show. I don't like our show. It's not a children's show. This is Geekscape. We're talking movies, video games, comics. Today we're talking music because we got Brad Brake in the studio. And he is the composer of Gravity Falls. Some of the other shows. What are some of the other shows you got? You got Randy Cunningham, ninth grade ninja. The Nickelodeon. Let's see, Star Wars is the Force of Evil. Pickle and Peanut. Those are just-- are those just Disney shows? And then we're at Nickelodeon. You've got fanboy and chum chum. No. Hey. Hey, what was it? Why does it make you laugh? Robot and monster. And then this MTV show coming up awkward. Oh, well, that's another season. Guys, I would tell you, my mom loves awkward. Really? Like teenager? No, yeah. My mom. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the most hilarious thing in the world. Like, my mom watched all of Gossip Girl. And then she's like, I need the replacement for Gossip Girl. It's coming back. What is it? It's coming back. Oh, Gossip Girl is coming back. Yeah, we posted on the site. Yeah, Gossip Girl is having your reunion. Oh, boy. How long was it gone for? I don't know. A year? I don't know. A reunion? But it's coming back. It's not like fucking friends. It's coming back. We posted on the Geekshape website. And I think it's either like an Amazon or a Netflix thing. But yeah, they're coming back. So-- Netflix is like, we'll take anything. Tell your mom. And we'll make a living. Yeah, my mom. My mom, like, I told her girls. I told her that she's like, ask if awkward's coming back. I will do that, my mom will do that. I would make fun of the Gossip Girl fans. But as far as MTV shows go-- You would get killed. As far as the MTV shows go-- Yes. Guys, I'm all about Shinara Chronicles. Are you really? Yeah, elves, like-- Teenage elves longingly looking at each other. It's tight, yo. See, like, I saw-- I saw some pictures from it, and I was like-- I saw the pictures of just like the Shinara Chronicles. And it looks like a fucking spaceship in the background. And I'm like, I'm in. Not a spaceship. It's future Earth. Well, oh, that's OK. This is-- If you read the Terry Brooks-- I mean, here's the thing. I was-- believe it or not, as a host of geekscave when I was in middle school, I was not very popular. But I would read all those Dragonlands books, and all the TSR. I love those. All the books like Dragonlands, Forgotten Realms, all the things you're dragging stuff. And of course, Lord of the Rings, you're going to read a million times. And then the Shinara books were Terry Brooks. And you read, like, the Dragonwriters-- you read all that stuff. But I love the Shinara books. And the series-- I got to tell you, it's like the guys who did Smallville-- Milan, Go-- and then I totally botched that. And then John Favreau. OK. Right? And they have this show, and they shoot it in New Zealand. And it looks like a damn Lord of the Rings fantasy show. And it's awesome. It's got the dude who played-- remember in Arrow, what's the name of the dude who played Mirakudu soldiers, who played Deathstroke? Yeah, Deathstroke. Oh, yeah. He's in it. He's the best part of that show. There's a lot of-- he's great in it. He's done a lot of cool stuff with us. John Rhys Davies, who hasn't seen a fantasy script, he didn't want to be in. What? From Lord of the Rings, like-- at least something he just plays Salah. Yeah, he should be like, us, but he dings it. Bad date. But guys, I like Shadara. It's good. Yes, it has that teen heart through our romance going down, but-- My mom will love it. Every now and then, you've got to let your heart open. What is awkward about? What is awkward about? What's awkward about-- You make the music, dog. Basically, about how teenagers have sex. Oh, OK. So it's like-- So you remember MTV stripped? You remember that? Oh, totally stripped? When I interned at MTV, that was the show was stripped. Oh, really? Yeah, totally. Yeah, when I was like 12 years old-- The girls are so hot on that show. I don't know, like there's half naked scenes and showers. You're like, all right, I'm glad I finally have a TV in my room. It's true. It's like a replacement for that. But just a little less like naked-y. I got to watch this. I don't remember. OK, so will Brad's music help my mood or hurt my mood? It helped mine. Because here's the thing. Now that I know Brad, and I know you, Brad, now that I know Brad, if I'm watching these shows awkward. And I'm like, it's time to get a little in the mood. Oh, wait. I can't do this to Brad's. It's like having a parent watch you. You know what I mean? That doesn't make it better for you. Well, I figure if I know Brad and I hear his music, I'll feel like I'm being watched by a friend, a collaborator. Sure. I'm actually watching you. That's the thing. I have some magic on TV. Any music. Any show I write, the music where I can see the people watch. Yeah, it turns out that all kinds of method you explore. I didn't know we had to turn it back. Why are you drawing boobs on your shoes on your hands? I'm drawing an eye. You're drawing boobs. There's definitely boobs in my body. Boob your boobs do not have boobs. This is Brad. And he's got his X-Men powers. He's got his trucker hat. And those are shoulders. And above the boobs. This hat was a mistake, guys. He's very excited. I apologize. Now she's just-- This is him, very excited about watching me watch awkward. Yep. And what is it? No one can see that. It's very awkward. That's what I was giving him. How did you get into this game of composing a cartoon music for you? My wife was an animation student at CalArts. She had a friend doing it. That's where you met. You met her at CalArts? She had a friend flop. Yeah, I went to have sex with her, and then I did. And then we got married. Right away. You just did all of it. It can't happen. Keepscape is it can't happen. I got to look into this sex thing. It's called art school. You have sex. Bring a razor. Wait, what? I recommend art school for Augie. It's the easiest way to get it. So you can make your own major and that there, right? She was an animation major. Yeah, and she actually, after we got out of school, she had a friend doing a short at Nickelodeon. She hired me to do that short, which led me to being able to demo for other shows and write pitch theme songs. So I kind of got in the door that way, which got me to Disney. And then DreamWorks. And they love you, Cartoon Network. Yep. They're like, hey, no, they love me. Hey, no, he's a boy. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Dude, so that's what you were to college for. All right, life stuff. Yeah, I think that's why the life stuff. You did college right. I don't want to hear you say a bad word about your studies again, sir. You were doing the right thing. I think, yeah, I ignored the unimportant stuff. The noise and the important stuff. Like, yeah, I ignored this school work stuff. And you were like, yeah, I found the girl and the sex and marriage. Geekscape is if you're in college and you're listening to this, you guys got to go out. You guys got to go out. You guys got to get in school work. Go out of cow art. If you've given up on having a life and you're still listening to Geekscape and you're in college, listen to this, man, because it's not just the books that give you an education. All right. You're a cute girl. It's never too late. Yeah, it's never too late. So you got to college, then it's too late. When you get to college, yeah, it's too late. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Go ahead. Oh, no, let's go ahead and say, what goes into, like, when you actually compose the music, the song? Like, do you actually use instruments? Or is it all just like in logic or-- Yeah, it's probably 90%, 95% in the computer. I use Pro Tools, but they think. Yeah. Yeah, mostly these days, we work in the computer because you can recall things quickly and you can work quickly. Yeah, you can share it. And you have, like, the whole world of sound that you're discussing, you know? It's just not practical to do it without using that tool. Right. For the kind of stuff. You have to mock up a huge orchestra. You have to do a John Williams-ish queue. You're going to have to do it with your computer, because you don't have $100,000 to do that with real people. Right. What do you think it is about Gravity Falls that people are relating to? How did it become such a cult show so quickly, you think? I think it's because, well, Alex Hurst, the creator, is brilliant. I think the way he approached the show, which I don't think anyone had really done, for kids' animation. But I think animation in general for TV, was he gave the characters real emotions, real problems, real relationships with each other. He treated it like a real drama, not like a kid show. Sure. And I think that's why. There's real emotional stakes for all the characters. And also, it looks like no other show. It's fun. And it's super funny. Like, a teamer works for adults. I guess most of them don't. And I think that's the key to any children's programming, is if you talk down to kids, kids are not dumb. You know, like, ET. ET has those moments, so it's really intense, emotionally at any age, because Spielberg, making those movies, never talk down to kids. He was with them. And I mean, I love that opening scene with the pizza and the divorce issues in ET, and Gravity Falls's testament. Don't talk down to kids. We will not talk down to you either here on Geekscape. We're going to go to a spot break here at T-R-A-D-V. We'll be right back with more Brad Brieck and Kenny's nickname for Brad. Yep, I got it. So, hold on to that. We'll be right back. Hey, we're back here on Geekscape with Brad Brieck. And we're talking music, and we're talking a little bit of artistry. Thinking about, you know, where you get your inspiration. A little bit of art. That's a little bit, a little bit. Finding your place in life. Brad had a journey. We know that. It's called an art school. It was a journey. He drank ayahuasca with a shaman. And that's a great break. And Milwaukee's best. He came out of that journey, and he provided some of the theme music and scores for some of your favorite TV shows. So we all have our own journeys, and maybe you'd be so lucky. Brad, you don't just make theme music, though. You have bands. You have a rock band. I used to. Get past on the end bands. I used to be in a band. A spazzy band called the Mache. I heard them, and I liked them. Oh, thanks. What happened? Well, we were critically praised, commercially unviable. You mean you were a band, but exactly. OK. Yeah, I also just-- like, I hate touring. I get social anxiety. Sure. So I didn't want to do it anymore. And that's basically it. I like being at home with my family, and working in my little room downstairs. You know, using my own toilet. Yes, touring that with you. That's a good point. I didn't think of that. How much did you guys-- the Mache? Yeah. How much did you guys tour? I mean, what was-- I toured probably a total of two or three months, but the other guys toured a lot more. But actually, I kind of like just became kind of the producer in the band. Go without me. Yeah, go sing these songs, because I don't want to sing them anymore. You were the fifth beatler, kind of. And then, what about this skull tape band? Oh, that was just like a solo project. I like that music, too. Oh, thanks. That was total failure. Well, that's OK. That's OK. In what way? Nothing is a failure if you stop. It's only a failure if you stop. Yeah, it's only a journey. Yeah, you're right. I should have kept. It's only a journey in pushing. But I also, like, I kind of did it in hiatus. In spurts. And it was like, I just wanted to-- I just wanted to make-- it was kind of like Mache songs that never got made, that I wanted to just get out there. Do you still have that little voice in you that it's like, go and perform some songs? Yeah, totally. Even if it's like the Hotel Cafe or some crap. Like, you just go and play some songs for your friends. You get 20 people in the audience. And you're like, I just don't want to play these songs in a bedroom. You have to practice, then. It takes a lot more time. You do. You do have to practice. You have to practice. That does sometimes make perfect. Yeah, I've heard that one. I don't know. I don't know. That he learned that in the school. You know, the one that he was the worst student at. But the first thing he discarded. Well, Brad, whenever you're making these shows, is any part of the live performance aspect of being a musician. I mean, yeah, but you have a girl already. So there's no point to that. I know. I really enjoy performing. I like jumping around on stage and taking my clothes off on stage. I'm getting into it. Yeah, I like to do it. I like to do it. Nothing. We call that going full Coachella, I think. You're going full Coachella when you go full mushrooms and molly and Coachella and you find yourself wandering in from the desert five days after the festival's over. May have happened. Jesus may have put some selfie stick because there's no longer allowed there. Yeah, selfie stick is what is in you. That's what when Coachella gets when Coachella goes bad, you are the celebrity. Yeah. Take a mental picture. You are the iPhone. So I have a story that I'm not going to repeat of it. It involved Burning Man, one of those festivals. But I'll tell you. Was it actual Burning Man? It's real quick. A guy went up there. He was a friend of a friend. So you. No, no, I was with a friend. And I was like, do you ever go to those weird ass festivals where people just do molly out in the desert, like Burning Man and Coachella. And she told me that Burning Man, a friend of hers that had a family and kids and stuff like that, had gone out there. No, no, no, he had gone out there by himself and like a part of like a midlife crisis. I was like, I just want to live. Right. That's bullshit. And that a couple had asked him to videotape them during their intimate moments, a kind of tent. And then midway through the videotaping, we're like, hey, put down the camera and have a little game with us and be a part of this. And then he just went in a full bone. Like, we're just going to have orgies all the time here. And his marriage fell apart. Oh, no. What? Because he was listening to a band called The Mays. No. No. I heard that music poisons your mind. But yeah, it was one of the fucking festivals, man. So you be careful. I don't think it was the festival, to be honest with you. It sounds like a scenario in which I was going to fall apart. Yeah, it sounds like that guy. It sounds like that guy was listening to me. Fucking Burning Man. He was so happy. I know that moment. It was a bit of a different calling going on. I didn't know you knew Charlie Sheen in that scene. Oh, yeah. That's-- So Brad, I mean, does that little voice like talk to you at all? Yeah, yeah. Performing is super fun, but-- The preparation of the film. Yeah. And also, like, I have kind of a crazy workload. So it's hard. I don't really have time right now in my life for that. Do you know-- Do you know Linus Dotson? He does some music for shows. And then there's Perry Gripp from-- Yeah. So Perry does some cartoon shows, too. And he's an narrator. Yeah, I love that guy. A friend of Geekscape. And those guys have a chance to go-- There's a new nerf herder album coming up in a week or two. Yeah, I am envious of that. I cannot do that. I can't find time to do both things. But I just maybe I don't know how to, you know. I think-- Like, you know why you're getting real right now, but I like to do live performances. Because episode 400 is coming up. Yeah. Jonathan is really looking like anybody, anybody. No, no. No, I would like to have a band for episode 400. It does not have to be Brad, but Brad isn't invited. Brad isn't invited to hang out. He will keep his clothes on and out. What? Maybe. Yeah. If I perform, I close, come on. That's what performing's all about. Hey, kids, here's a new Gravity Falls. No, here's a new-- here's a nude Gravity Falls. I said my Gravity Falls. I will show you what it means to have Gravity. Theme song? Theme song? Anyway, it seems like-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Do you-- do you-- like Gravity Falls-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Do you do all the music for Gravity Falls? It's got quite the variety of music. Except for like the exception of one song. OK. Yeah. You do all of the music. Do you hate that one song? I love that song, which I'd written it. It runs the gamut. It runs the gamut of sounds. That's kind of the gig with the TV, especially the cartoon stuff, is you kind of need to be able to do everything. Right. And you need to be very nimble and be able to work fast. But yeah, you kind of have to be able to do every style of music. It's exciting to you. It sounds like it pushes all the buttons, really. You have to do a lot of-- it doesn't get boring. You get to explore. And you have to use your creativity. I mean, because you have to watch the scene and then create the music for it, right? Yeah, you end up watching the show. It doesn't work the time. It's not even like a show to you anymore. You just just like single scenes. Does the director say, hey, I'm thinking about something that's a little bit in this direction before? Do you throw them something first? Yeah, usually for the kind of stuff I work on, we meet ahead of time, and we watch it down. Usually, there's music in there, because in animation, by the time it gets to me, they've been working on it for nine months or something. So they've seen it a million times with whatever John Williams or Michael Gichino music they had temped in. Temps for you. Yeah, and they usually already love that music, so you have to try to beat that some mileage. I was going to say, how hard is it to break people of temp music? Because I was a film school student, and film students were just like, no, I'm just going to use it, John Williams. Whoa, that's not-- Yeah, it could be really hard. Who's Bernard Herman? Bernard Herman? Yeah, who's that? A good thing is they can't easily afford to keep that music right now. Well, you can when you're just making your little YouTube video or whatever it is. My baby can eat this month. But I can't afford John Williams. Who are some of your biggest inspirations from that? I mean, do you listen to film school? I'm not like, recreationally, I love film music. Like, my favorite film composer, I guess, of all time is like Ennio Morcony, you know, he just did the-- He just did the "Hable A" and "Hable A." He's probably going to get a lifetime achievement or something. He'll probably get the Oscar because-- He better, I hope so. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm like current film composers. I love Alexander Despois. He did like-- Everything beautiful? Like any movie that's like literally an Oscar movie? It's like "Oxy Despois." Like the revenue for music. No, that was not a Japanese composer. Rayuichi Sakamoto and Alvin Oto, Carsten Nikolai. Nice. Wow, that was great. Yeah, nice. He did "The Danish Girl." OK. All right. Alexander Despois. And if a song has lyrics or something in it, is that you? Yeah, it depends. Sometimes the writers will have written lyrics, and then I create a melody to it. It's sometimes I'll write lyrics, it depends, yeah. I mean, do you sing the craziness? I sing a lot of songs. Like, I do this show on Cartoon Network called "We Bear Bears," and I sing most of the songs on that show. Is it fun? I mean, is it that your freak flag fly or what? Yeah, it kind of gets that performance thing out of my system. It's awesome. To a certain extent. And how old is your kid? He's three. So like, is he like in the room with you, and you're like, let's see if you can get him smiling or something, or like, is he a good audience? Yeah, he doesn't, but he's usually watching something else. No, horrible parenting. So we need to watch in this cartoon, you're loving the music, just know that it's a father crying for attention. So it's a dare of the sounds of a father wanting approval from someone who used to look at his father as the only thing in his life. And now he's looking at his father as that guy who won't stop making faces with me. To the break, bad daddy issue. It's not a bad place to end on for a break. Let's go to a spot break real quick. TD Radio V team. Are you okay with that nickname? Nice. And we'll be back here on Geekshable. We'll talk a little bit more on Brad Break. We'll finish it up. And I know you guys are all on the edge of your seats with this whole nickname situation. I thought I was giving it this time, but all right, perfect. We're teasing it along. We're just teasing it. That's what they call it. Biggest disappointment ever. Yeah, well, I think that's the host of the show. Yeah, it'll make the rest of the show seem better. You're welcome. We'll be right back on Geekshape. I'm ready. And we're back on Geekshape. So it's the walkthrough of the movie. OK, so this is a little behind the scenes. When you guys are listening to the Geekshape, and we go to commercial break to run some spot IDs or whatever we got. And then we come back. The two radio V team in the studio gives me a countdown from five. And I like to tell them I'm ready for the countdown by beating my chest like I'm ready to go into battle. In the wall. Magic economy. They're taking the harvest of Isaac God. So yeah, that's how I tell them I'm good to go. I'm ready to come back to the show. I'm ready to finish this one up. And I think because of the home stretch, we got to get business out of the way. Kenny, what's the nickname? Are we-- I thought-- are we serious to the gentleman? You're not prepared? Kenny, what the fuck, man? I've been prompting this for, like-- Listen, the camera is on you, and they're just watching you. I need to grab my notepad. I wrote about 45 different things down. I'm not sure. Hey, this is a nice great algebra. Let's do it. This is a pop quiz. You've been prepared, please. I've Brad Lee. Brad Lee, OK? Sorry, I don't know where I got the term Lee from. I have no idea where I got the term. OK, Kenny doesn't know this, but his continuation on the show is based on whether or not he does this. [INTERPOSING VOICES] I came up with Point Break off the top of my fucking head in the beginning of the show. He did. And that's pretty solid. That was really good. I said, "Breakneck." OK. Because you looked at the scar on the back of my neck, so you could thank me. You know what, man? It's not all about you. It's all about you. Let's make it about Brad here, and let's give him a nickname before he walks out. And he has to have more insecurities, right? I've got a sleek brick, but it has a middle name. Whoa, not bad, not bad. It has a middle name, though. That's like a sleek fuck school and bitches break. Oh, Jesus. [INTERPOSING VOICES] That's improper, kids. Don't do that. Yeah, but it's what he did. I know. He probably has a tattooed on his body somewhere. But please, can we see? We have to do a live performance or to see if it's on his body. Well, I saw one of the skull tape shows. Anyway, that's what I could make out through all the sweat and haze and blood. Anyway, Kenny, what else you got over there in the think tank? I have Dawson's Creek brick. Oh, Dawson's Creek. No, I'm going to reject that one. But I don't want to wait, you know, all lives to be-- I don't want to wait for a nickname. What you got, Holly? Bradley Cooper. OK, all right. Oh, well, Will. Someone else. We're working hard on the episode 400. Kenny, you can't wait for you to watch it. Anyway, I'll do a live performance of making nicknames for people. We're just going to-- what we're going to do is just go to hijack his turn. He's just going to be doing circles. I can't stop. No microphone at all. I can't stop. I'm ready to stop. Stop, guys. But you put a microphone on me while I'm yelling. OK, so Brad, we talked a lot about feature films. Is that an interest of yours, perhaps, to do with some composing for the silver screen? Yeah, sure. I like the silver. Ironclad Brad. That's pretty good. Oh. It's not bad. Wow. The man in the iron. Yeah, let's see. OK, man in the iron. Hey, Kenny, Kenny, Kenny, Kenny. Kenny, Kenny, just getting crazy over there. I've seen Brad fastener. Kenny, we're good on that, anyway. No, you passed. No, continue to kind of say conversational now. He'll continue to interrupt it. Are you-- I mean, is that a goal for you to maybe do-- I don't know if it's a goal. I'm interested. It's a tough jump to make. You know why it's also-- It's also a user to me. You know, they're just kind of separate worlds, you know, like just the-- Networking style, like business-wise or artistry? Is the artistry any different-- No, no, I think the artistry that approaches-- that's a different approach. But I think the tools you need are similar. Yeah, it's just difficult to jump from TV to film. Because people-- Do you feel like people might have been holding you into this? Yeah. Oh, he's a cartoon TV guy. Yeah. So what I'm going to say is, would it help if perhaps we got the audience to be like, OK, Gravity Falls is ending. A lot of these finite series that end end up with a movie. Do you think there would be hope if the fan base is rabid enough for a Gravity Falls movie? Do you think that's a possibility? I can rule that out completely. Why do you hate dreams? I only like reality. Well, he's probably seen the last episode, and who dies? If they all live, I mean, trees get knocked over. OK, so everybody lives. So Gravity Falls movie? I'm going to say yes. Yeah, you heard it here. Let's run it across the air-- Break news. Yeah, that's his new big name. Break news. We got it. Yeah, get it, you're fired. We got it. All right. So guys, there's going to be a Gravity Falls movie. All I'm saying, Brad, is if there's a Gravity Falls movie to which we can start a little bit of a petition or maybe a little bit of a thunderclap building itself to a crescendo, you can then go in and say, hey, guys, I've done a feature film. Gravity Falls, the movie, and then give me the Revenant 2. We'd be my manager. I could be your manager, but your kid has to eat. Could it be your hype man? I could be your hype man. I could be your hype man for someone else. So you were going to the concert last week for a hike. Oh, dude, last week, our very own Will Sterling had to leave the episode early and go do a-- what the hell was it? Were you in the hip hop dance? Sump the yard. He had to do a hip hop dance. That's not the whitest thing you ever heard. I thought the jazz was white, but this is good to go. You had to step up to the street. How did I go with hitting Tatum? It was good. We did the performance on Friday night, and that was even better. Wait, what? Suck it. Yeah, it's on Facebook if you want to watch the video. Can I watch this video? Can we put it on the Geekscape feed? Can we just do it right now? What happened? So you stomped the yard, right? Can you-- was there a beef with the other yard? Well, you got to be so negative about something I enjoy. I'm asking a question. If you hear music, do you start dancing? Sometimes. No, not that bad. He's like a Spencer's gift toy. He's like, wait, hold on, I got a squeak scan. He's like, what are those fucking toy grutes? As long as you are, you're a toy grute. Maybe. So you're performing this weekend, too, Kenneth. Are you in the Bechata Festival, yes? The Bechata Festival. Bechata, a different type of dance. It is. Where a hip hop group is performing, yes, I did Sunday night. You guys need music from Bradbury? Do you guys need a new name? You're going to hip hop. As long as you're doing hip hop. There you go. How many of you are getting wider by the mini? How many of the hip hops do you need? I don't know. Three and a half minutes worth? OK. All right, I'm just saying, a little collab. We just need to get Brad out of his basement with the music. We need to get him back on stage where he can flourish. I'm going to give you a very soft deal. I'm a breech boxer. I'm a breech boxer. OK. My ride, we can work with it. Put a stick. I'm stealing my job that I got fired from. We can put it in the incubator. We can put it in the incubator, see what happens a couple of 10 minutes. We can take it out and brush it off. Let's see what we got. Brad, your dream of dreams as a musician. [LAUGHTER] No, he established. He hated your game of her. Could you see yourself continuing to do the cartoons and stuff? Yeah, I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I'm really interested in pop music. Sure. I would love to be-- I'd love to write songs for Katie Perry and stuff. Sure. I'd be fine. I'd actually like what I would like to do. Do you have time to do that? Do you have a chance to do that? I don't have time to do that. OK. Once people stop hiring me to do music for shows, I like to pursue that more. So maybe the petition is to have you fired? I don't know. Fire me. Don't hire me. You tell us what you want. I'll motivate the geektakers. I'll know to write the forces. But you tell me, you want to feature film or you want to get fired. You're giving me mixed messages here, pal. Help me out here. No, the cartoons are super fun. I'd be happy to keep doing this. But yeah, I'd be down to the school. I'd be down to write a song for Katie Perry or Taylor Swift. Give me a call. OK. I'm available. I think-- Who's a-- I don't know who's-- Kesha needs a new producer. Kesha needs a career. Yeah. We could get Kesha. That's an unfortunate thing. No, what happened to Kesha? That's not going to-- It was like a tragic accident or something? No, it's like-- She could come back-- Rapin' thing. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. I don't know anything. Anything that's happening that's like TMZ level, that's not geekscape. I don't know any of this shit. I'm a huge Kesha fan, so I'm following this. Oh, you are? A buddy when I was his guitarist. For her? Yeah. It was her guitar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do have a serious question. Yeah, go for it. When you spend so much time writing music, making music, thinking about music, four shows, do you have days where you're like, I just want to sit in silence? Yeah. I didn't listen to mute for like a few years. I never listened to music outside of work. OK. Because I was so just-- I couldn't hear any music. I didn't listen to this podcast or NPR. But I kind of like recently I'm into listening to music again. OK. The good news is that when-- That's when Brad several years ago discovered geekscape, he was listening to podcasts. That's right. All 400 episodes, he's gone back. I'll throw these guys a couple of listens, because they seem sad. And he came here in person and he kind of-- He goes, guys, it's my dream to be on geekscape and talk to you guys. Because I've been a fan for many years. And I said, yep, you and the president. Brad, where can the geekscape us find you and maybe stay up to date with all of your-- Maybe my sound cloud, Bradbreak. Just Google Bradbreak. OK. You know what? Do you do Twitter-- Google Bradbreak. Yeah. Do you do the tweets? I tweet occasionally. OK. I do the Instagrams. Most of the pictures of my son. That's nice. But Google Bradbreak. OK. That's the best. I think that's the best thing to say. I think, yeah. Google it. Where can we find you? The most relevant thing to be on the top. That's the way Google works. Like B-R-E-E. Was it C-K? Yeah. Yeah. Look for the imposter, Bradbreak, so don't follow them. Don't follow them. There's probably a few fake ones out of them. I don't know if we're playing our theme song or not, because it's slow. OK. So geekscape-- I don't think-- I just know that our time is running out here on T-Radio V. And that you can find us at geekscape.net. Just Google Geekscape. See what happens. You can also find us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook. We've got contests running all the time, if you guys want free blue rays and DVDs and your stateside. We're here on Geekscape. And of course, we've got two more episodes. We've heard Geekscape 400. It's going to be a thing. Kenny Craig's right over there. Yeah, follow him @crippledkenny. That's Will Sterling on Twitter as well. And I'm at Jonathan London. But Brad, you've been a great guest. Thanks for having me. The finale of Gravity Falls is coming up. If it gets big enough numbers, then the geekscapes are actually listened to. There'll be a movie. It's already going to be. You heard it here worst. Speaking of news. This is Geekscape. We'll see you guys next week.