micro/Maker by Loose Leaf Transmissions

Staves, stems, and page turns carry more than notes. Marc Mellits explains how a copyist’s eye shapes his notation—prioritizing clarity, flexible tempos, and performer ownership—so rehearsal time goes to music, not decoding. He and Tyler Kline dig into the psychology of reading (iPad vs. paper), why a single word can guide interpretation, and how to write for players you’ll never meet.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Brett Copeland traces his path into electronic and electroacoustic music through artists who treated the tuba as a flexible, expressive engine rather than a fixed orchestral voice. Influenced early on by Nat McIntosh and the genre-blurring work of Youngblood Brass Band, he became fascinated by acoustic sound manipulation—multiphonics, vocal effects, and timbral shape-shifting—as a foundation for later electronic exploration. That curiosity deepened through performers like Brian Wolf, whose use of effects, drum machines, and live processing opened the door to Brett’s own experiments with signal chains, distortion, and degradation using tools like Ableton Live and Max/MSP. What began as playful experimentation eventually became a philosophical stance: honoring virtuosity while deliberately breaking sound apart, embracing grit, noise, and punk-rooted disruption as a way to expand what the tuba—and composition itself—can be.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Carlynn Crosby reflects on the winding, often precarious path that many writers face after college. She shares how freelancing, food writing, and side gigs shaped her post-grad years—and why, for her and many others, writing has remained a passion even when it couldn’t be the primary paycheck.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on social media @loose.leaf.transmissions.micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Caterina Schembri reflects on why introspective, unhurried music feels truer to her nature—and how that sensibility shapes the pieces she writes. She talks about resisting the pressure for velocity or density, instead choosing to make work that asks listeners to slow down, pay attention, and stay inside a single sonic space long enough for something subtle to change. The conversation moves into the lived experience behind that aesthetic: the pull toward quiet in a world fixated on immediacy, the relief that comes from music that breathes, and the intuitive ways she shapes pacing, harmony, and atmosphere. She also opens up about collaboration as an introvert—how trust, resonance, and shared artistic values make creative partnerships feel possible—and how her long relationships with performer friends ultimately helped her bring Sea Salt and Turpentine into being.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Annika Socolofsky fell in love with the Hardanger d'Amore—a Norwegian fiddle with sympathetic strings that ring underneath, creating resonance like built-in reverb—when her teacher Dan Truman left her alone with one in his office. She knew if she played it, she'd have to attend Princeton. She played it. The instrument slowed her down; fast Scottish reels gave way to sitting in single notes, which felt like enough. She brought it to Kansas to play for her grandmother and great aunt, identical twins with dementia living in the same nursing home. Music made connection easy when conversation couldn't. The fiddle filled their muffled rooms with warmth. Turod, written after they both died, means "a break in the clouds." The instrument made her spectrally sensitive, attuned to verticality and resonance in ways melody alone hadn't. It also taught her fragility could be beautiful—she didn't need to justify delicacy or write forceful music to deflect gendered judgments. A single note, imperfect and exposed, could be worthy of the stage.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Declining PhD offers for “one gap year” sent Tyler Kline down a decade-long side road: composing at break-neck speed while climbing the ranks in public-radio hosting. He recalls the crash that followed, the food-and-sound series Terroir New Music, the 50-miniature piano set Orchard, and why launching Modern Notebook felt like a healthier way to uplift fellow composers instead of competing against them.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

When Nathan Hudson first heard author Ben Loory’s story The Duck on NPR’s This American Life, he knew he had to set it to music. That impulse sparked a collaboration that’s grown into years of friendship, concert tours, and a forthcoming album. Hudson reflects on jumping headfirst into vocal writing—despite never having written for voice before—and the challenge of setting Loory’s full, unedited texts to music. The result? Works like The Duck and God that blur narration, chamber ensemble, and song, grounded as much in human connection as in musical invention.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Gabriel Bolaños is fully Nicaraguan, though his parents fled the Sandinista revolution in 1979 with three kids and two suitcases. Growing up abroad, moving every few years, Nicaragua remained the one constant—summers with family, guitar lessons with folk guitarist Julio Vásquez, marimba training. But Bolaños resists incorporating those traditions into his notated work. He learned early that folk music's vitality lives in embellishment and performance practice, not the bare-bones transcription on the page. To him, presenting Latin American folk music in concert halls with polished instruments and performers disconnected from its history feels disrespectful—like putting something living in a cage. Even when expectations arise, he holds back, only hinting at those roots sparingly, as hidden gestures rather than central features.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissionsmicro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Emma O’Halloran reflects on Ira Glass’s famous “gap” quote—the reminder that every creative must endure the distance between their taste and their early work. She shares her own struggles with that gap, the importance of making “bad art,” and why practice is as vital for composers as it is for performers. From clearing space with meditation and movement, to filling the well with curiosity and new discoveries, to the discipline of showing up every day—Emma outlines the pillars that sustain her creative practice.micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions.micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.