Soundtrack Your Life

Cultural theorist and host of the Nicstalgia Podcast, Nicole Tremaglio, joins Nicole and Ryan to discuss the soundtrack to the year 2000 McG directed film, Charlie’s Angels. The film was a huge success at the box office and the soundtrack was also a hit, with lead single “Independent Women Part 1” topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 consecutive weeks. Billboard named it the 18th most successful song of the decade (2000-2009)

We dis...

Film Critic and writer, Lex Briscuso joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about the 2006 Sophia Coppola film, Marie Antoinette and it's iconic soundtrack. The soundtrack pulls from the 80s, 90s, and aughts with tracks from Gang of Four, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Strokes, Aphex Twin and more! Coppola put the soundtrack together with soundtrack supervisor, Brian Reitzell, who had worked with Coppola on her previous films, Lost in Transl...

Composer and pipa virtuoso, Ms. Min Xiao-Fen is our guest this week to talk about her recently released album Metta, which features the scores of 2 Chinese silent films, The Romance of the Fruits Peddler and Romance of the Western Chamber. These scores were commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute in 2023.

We also discuss:

• Growing up in a musical family
• Going from a classical background to collaborating with jazz greats like Joh...

Writer, Stephen Lee Naish joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about 4 soundtracks from films that Dennis Hopper directed: Easy Rider, The Last Movie, Out of the Blue, and Colors. Stephen just recently released a book on Dennis Hopper and these soundtracks called Music and Sound in the films of Dennis Hopper, which can be found here:

https://www.routledge.com/Music-and-Sound-in-the-Films-of-Dennis-Hopper/Naish/p/book/9781032737690

We talk t...

It's that time of year again! Nicole and Ryan are here to break down the 2024 Oscars Best Original Song category. Did you know that "I'm Just Ken" was written by the same people who co-wrote another Oscar winning song? Will Diane Warren finally win after being nominated for the 16th time? Why is Ryan glad that Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn't get nominated? Find the answer to these questions and more as we break down the category and th...

Emmy nominated composer, Robert Honstein is our guest this week to talk about the 2021 Peter Middleton and James Spinney directed documentary, The Real Charlie Chaplin. Honstein's Emmy nominated score for the documentary was just released in December of 2023. It is his first film score.

We discuss:

• Honstein's classical composition background and how that contributed to him being brought onto the project
• Trying to record for the s...

Perseverance Records founder, Robin Esterhammer, joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about his label's recent release, Forsaken Themes From Fantastic Films Vol. 2: Who Wants to Live Forever? The compilation features selections from Resident Evil (Mario Beltrami), Phantoms (David Williams), Dragon Soldiers (Edwin Wendler), as well as unused music from The Serpent and the Rainbow (Charles Bernstein), and a re-recorded selection of music fr...

Nicole and Ryan are back on February 5th with Season 5 of Soundtrack Your Life! Season 5 will be split in 2 halves, each half containing 10 episodes.

The first half will be released between February and June (2 episodes per month)

The second half will be released between August and December (2 episodes per month)

We have an exciting mix of new and returning guests, and we'll also continue our tradition of breaking down the Best Origin...

Happy Holidays! We've made it to the end of 2023 and Nicole and Ryan are ending the year by paying tribute to the great Paul Reubens aka Pee-Wee Herman, who passed away earlier this year.

Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse was released in 1988 as a primetime special but it still holds a special place in the hearts of our hosts. It's a special packed to the brim with guest stars and musicians such as: Grace Jones, KD Lang, Little Richa...

Pop culture writer and co-host of the InSync Podcast, Rachel Brodsky, returns to Soundtrack Your Life to talk to Nicole and Ryan about Howard Deutch's 1986 film, Pretty in Pink. Rachel previously guested on this season's Dirty Dancing episode which you can find here:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/c8a28688-3efa-4f2a-899a-82edfb335f01

Pretty in Pink is considered one of the best soundtracks of all time and we break down the big h...

Musician and cat lover, Sean Faust, joins Ryan to discuss the soundtrack to Kevin Smith's directorial debut, Clerks. Being a New Jersey native, Sean has a deeper connection to the film than the average movie fan. He has also performed on a Christmas album with Brian O'Halloran and Scott Schiaffo's Wandering Wannabes. Ryan and Sean talk about how this small budget indie-film launched Kevin Smith's career and birthed the View Askewni...

Dan Delgado, host of the Industry podcast and fellow Feedback with Earbuds list curator, joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about the Coen Brothers' 2013 film, Inside Llewyn Davis and its folk heavy, T Bone Burnett produced soundtrack. Juliard graduate, Oscar Isaac cut almost all of his tracks live, actually playing the guitar and singing.

We Discuss:

• How this very bleak film is also very rewatchable
• How this is an enjoyable film about...

Manager of The Apples in stereo, Daniel Efram returns to Soundtrack Your Life to talk to Nicole and Ryan about Chad Stockfleth’s recently released and extremely well received Elephant 6 Movie, which Daniel was involved with as an executive producer.

While the film doesn’t technically have a soundtrack, we talk about many of the great artists that make up the Elephant 6 Recording Company such as The Apples in stereo, Neutral Milk Hot...

Pop culture writer and songwriter, Tara Giancaspro, returns to the podcast to talk to Nicole and Ryan about Josh Schwartz's television series, The OC, which ran 4 seasons between 2003-2007 and launched the career of Schwartz (Chuck, Gossip Girl, Marvel's Runaways) and the many bands that were featured on the show. From Phantom Planet's iconic theme song, "California", to Seth Cohen's favorite band, Death Cab for Cutie, we try to co...

Brian Colburn of My Weekly Mixtape returns to Soundtrack Your Life to talk to Ryan about the 1993 soundtrack juggernaut, Judgement Night. In season 2, Brian was our guest when we covered That Thing You Do with him, so he definitely knows his way around a rocking soundtrack!

We Discuss:

-How this soundtrack was the brainchild of Happy Walters, manager of Cypress Hill and House of Pain

-The enthusiasm of most of the artists towards thi...

Courtney E Smith, host of the Songs My Ex Ruined Podcast, and writer for Eater Dallas, joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about the soundtrack to Ben Stiller's 1994 film, Reality Bites. The film is still thought of fondly by many because of how it captures the spirit of the 90s. The soundtrack was also successful and it even had a Billboard Top 100 #1 single with Lisa Loeb's "Stay", the first #1 single from an unsigned artist.

We Discuss...

*We’ve changed our Twitter (X) handle to @soundtrackcast to match our IG.*

Scott and Katherine from This Is the Greatest Song I’ver Heard in My Entire Life join Nicole and Ryan to discuss the soundtrack to the 2023 Greta Gerwig film, Barbie. (The episode starts spoiler free and mentions when the discussion of spoilers will begin.)

Among topics discussed in this episode:

• Does this soundtrack hold up independent of the movie?
• The rol...

Brad from the Pop Culture Yearbook Podcast is our guest to talk about the 1996 Ted Demme film, Beautiful Girls, which features the acting talents of Timothy Hutton, Noah Emmerich, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino, Martha Plimpton, Laruen Holly, Rosie O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Matt Dillon, and Natalie Portman. The soundtrack is equally stacked featuring songs from Pete Droge, The Afghan Whigs, Howlin' Maggie, Chris Issak, Ween, and Neil...

Jim from the Film Rage Podcast joins Ryan to talk about the 1986 film, True Stories, a film that was written and directed by David Byrne. David Byrne also stars in the film opposite the likes of John Goodman and Spalding Gray. Of course, with David Byrne, there will be a discussion of music!

We Chat About:

• How The Talking Heads album, True Stories, isn't actually the soundtrack to the film
• Why David Byrne isn't the only credited s...