Be a Better Artist

About Be a Better Artist

Demystifying the Creative Process.

Publisher

Markus Junnikkala

Category

arts · education · music

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

17 Aug 2020

Latest episode

15 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

109 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Sept 2026

   Why He Walked Away From Writing Music for Hundreds of Millions of People — Seth Tsui

   Seth Tsui has written music heard by hundreds of millions of people — League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games, fifteen films across Vietnam and China, and sample libraries like Jade Ethnic Orchestra and Arabian Ethnic Orchestra. Earlier this year he left, because the job on offer was management and the job he wanted was writing music. We cover the whole arc: the trombone kid who walked away from the orchestral audition track, the all-nighter that got him hired at Remote Control Productions, why he's building his own sampler at Nomad Sounds, how piracy reshaped what libraries he could afford to make, and the jazz improvisation game about birds of paradise he's making entirely alone. 🔗 SETH TSUI LINKS Website: https://www.sethtsui.com/ Nomad Sounds: https://nomadsounds.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sethtsui Markus Junnikkala is a Composer from Finland. https://www.markusjunnikkala.com/ Support this podcast by becoming a member: https://markusjunnikkala.com/membership/ Want me to answer your question? Ask it on social media: https://www.instagram.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.facebook.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://x.com/markusjunnikkal https://www.reddit.com/user/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusjunnikkala/ Subscribing, sharing, and liking helps the podcast. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:00) Bangkok heat, hospital bracelets and mystery symptoms (00:04:15) The lounge-chair studio and the composer's ergonomics problem (00:14:37) Best known for League of Legends, best known for Jade (00:16:07) Nomad Sounds, Kontakt's limits, and the Key Engine sampler (00:19:31) Piracy, subscriptions, and pirated on day one (00:26:07) Selling software in China, and making customers feel heard (00:29:43) What happens to Kontakt now that NI has been acquired (00:33:01) Owning samples vs owning a 100-year-old trombone (00:38:42) Cincinnati, trombone, and an indie rock album with ten genres (00:43:51) LA, the Logic technician ad, and the all-nighter that got him hired (00:48:07) Remote Control Productions: no sleep, endless conforming, knowing when to quit (00:51:16) Stress, introversion, and which relationships actually work (00:55:40) Breachway, space games, and meeting Elon Musk at a game jam (01:01:12) Birdland: birds of paradise, jazz, and an improvisational rhythm game (01:11:50) Big band jazz for birds, and a three-year solo build (01:15:42) Two career tracks at Remote Control, and waiting for the magic wand (01:20:21) Joining Riot, the manager track, and the $120 air conditioner button (01:25:07) Shared vision, egos, and whether a project needs one boss (01:27:52) Five composers, one band: making Remix Rumble (01:31:18) Leadership is sacrifice: "You don't count, you're the leader" (01:37:44) Selfishness, love, and why it has to be demonstrated (01:43:54) Two kids, imperfect parenting, and how to introduce music (01:49:42) Piano at three, nine years in a boy choir, and where a style comes from (01:54:43) Pressing one key isn't music: the F1 car problem (01:57:00) How much should a sample library hold your hand? (02:04:46) How Jade Evolutions was actually built (02:07:31) Buying down to a single instrument, and why there's no demo (02:13:18) Hong Kong, Norway, and emigrating from America for a better life (02:19:36) Parents who knew nothing about music — the greatest gift (02:24:12) Why game scores become part of people's souls (02:26:06) Nintendo 64, and the teacher who deleted his game (02:31:02) Why film scores inspire him more than game scores (02:33:20) Markus's one album, and why Seth resisted becoming a composer (02:37:25) Jamming as a superpower, and the worst career advice he ever got (02:41:03) The hardest creative decision: leaving Riot (02:44:34) Does creativity fade with age? (02:48:36) The plan to win Riot a Tony: a musical about Jhin (02:52:18) Advancing the art, and writing an arrhythmia into a trauma song (02:56:44) Hardware synths, modular, and boutique pedal regret (02:59:46) Sci-fi, Childhood's End, UFOs and Area 52 (03:04:15) What is an artist? (03:05:36) A message to every lock screen on Earth (03:08:19) The guest he wants next, and the ideas still stuck in his head (03:13:45) Advice for young composers in the age of AI

2. 

   11 Aug 2026

   How Do You Make a Keyboard Believe It's a Guitar? — Greg Schlaepfer, Orange Tree Samples

   Greg Schlaepfer is the founder of Orange Tree Samples, where he's spent seventeen years solving a strange problem: how do you take an instrument with six strings and two hands doing completely different things, and make it playable from a keyboard? We talk about the magic trick that gave the company its name, why he pays royalties to every musician and engineer who works on a library, and what it actually costs to spend eleven years finishing a single project — three scrapped interfaces, several rounds of burnout, and 376 instruments later. Along the way: chasing realism versus loving lo-fi sounds for what they are, why impressing people is the weakest way to move them, and what it means to be an artist on the days you feel like anything but. 🔗 ORANGE TREE SAMPLES LINKS Website: https://www.orangetreesamples.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/orangetreesamples X: https://x.com/OTsamples Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orangetreesamples/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orangetreesamples Markus Junnikkala is a Composer from Finland. https://www.markusjunnikkala.com/ Support this podcast by becoming a member: https://markusjunnikkala.com/membership/ Want me to answer your question? Ask it on social media: https://www.instagram.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.facebook.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://x.com/markusjunnikkal https://www.reddit.com/user/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusjunnikkala/ Subscribing, sharing, and liking helps the podcast. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:00) Night owls, kids and the creative sleep problem (00:07:32) Filming your children, AI cameras and privacy (00:18:24) Cargo bikes, thieves and California drivers (00:30:36) Welcome: who is Greg Schlaepfer? (00:33:42) Making a guitar playable from a keyboard (00:42:54) Why "Orange Tree"? A magic trick from the 1800s (00:55:45) Developers Greg admires, and conducting your DAW (01:06:32) Brainwave MIDI, MiMU gloves and the VR that never arrived (01:14:28) Are the tools good enough? Osmose, Seaboard and MPE (01:23:28) Born in Austin: Greg's parents, teaching and music (01:29:28) Recording from a keyboard, Breachway and game music (01:34:51) Starcraft, Commander Keen and growing up with computers (01:40:52) Siblings, kids young vs late, and piano as a family rule (01:50:21) Almost quitting piano — and the keyboards that hooked him (02:01:57) SoundFonts, dial-up and the free Ultimate Guitar Kit (02:09:20) Chasing realism vs loving lo-fi sounds for what they are (02:16:53) Hired at 17, a jazz piano degree, and no obvious path forward (02:24:26) Kontakt 2 and founding Orange Tree Samples in 2008 (02:27:24) Scrappy forum marketing and self-promotion (02:39:20) Royalties, ethics and why Greg won't be a CEO (02:46:30) AI instruments, who gets paid, and the early Orange Tree years (02:55:24) Breakthrough releases and 11 years of Latitude percussion (03:06:23) Drums, room mics and great recording engineers (03:13:02) What's next: modernising the engine, bespoke samplers and R&D (03:22:54) Film and game scoring: ego, restraint and every note (03:31:47) Greg's own music, and the instruments he still wants to sample (03:38:47) What is an artist? Night work, curiosity and closing questions (03:57:07) Wrap-up and where to find Orange Tree Samples

3. 

   17 Feb 2026

   Music That Builds Worlds – George Strezov on Instinct, Atmosphere, and Imagination

   In this episode, I talk with George Strezov about how imagination, world-building, and instinct shape the way he writes music. We dig into growing up in Bulgaria, discovering film and game music through RPGs and early PC games, and why “vibe” often matters more than rules or theory. George shares how he thinks about atmosphere, writing to picture, and creating music that places the listener inside a world rather than explaining it. This is a conversation about how music works on a felt level — how it creates space, meaning, and immersion — and what happens when you trust instinct over formulas. 🔗 GEORGE STREZOV LINKS Website: https://www.strezov.net/en Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/george-strezov/958294122 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2DNnA9F0OrEmC80UWEwrMi?si=jQrJ7S9HQcCPyP47jkEyNw Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Strezov Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strezov/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/George.Strezov 🎻 STREZOV SAMPLING LINKS Website: https://www.strezov-sampling.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/StrezovSampling Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strezov_sampling/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StrezovSampling/ X: https://x.com/StrezovSampling Markus Junnikkala is a Composer from Finland. https://www.markusjunnikkala.com/ Support this podcast by becoming a member: https://markusjunnikkala.com/membership/ Want me to answer your question? Ask it on social media: https://www.instagram.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.facebook.com/markusjunnikkala/ https://x.com/markusjunnikkal https://www.reddit.com/user/markusjunnikkala/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusjunnikkala/ Subscribing, sharing, and liking helps the podcast. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:00) Introduction & meeting George Strezov (00:03:30) Bulgaria, culture, and creative roots (00:10:30) Family, upbringing, and early artistic influences (00:18:30) Discovering film music & formative listening (00:27:30) Art vs commerce and creative identity (00:38:00) Childhood, curiosity, and non-linear learning (00:50:00) Role-playing games, imagination, and world-building (01:02:00) First steps into music production and game music (01:15:00) Education, self-teaching, and musical foundations (01:30:00) Entering the professional world of composing (01:55:00) Large-scale projects, orchestras, and collaboration (02:20:00) Burnout, balance, and sustaining a long career (02:40:00) Philosophy of music, success, and the future (02:58:00) Final reflections and closing thoughts

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

87

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

68

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.