BILL HOLLAND: Okay. We’re still at Mutato Muzika in Hollywood, and I’m here with Silas Hite, one of their other composers here.

SILAS HITE: Hello. How are you doing?

BILL HOLLAND: Pretty good. And what’s -- I mean your setup looks like you use Logic as well.

SILAS HITE: I do, you know.

BILL HOLLAND: What’s the rest of your stuff? Because this stuff, I see an M-Audio inteface.

SILAS HITE: Yeah. I’ve got the M-Audio FireWire 410 I use here for just plugging a guitar or bass, knocking out ideas. If I need a better sound, I’ll go into Studio A and set up an amp or whatever and use one of the live rooms. We have a huge guitar collection. Did you guys see it?

BILL HOLLAND: Oh yeah.

SILAS HITE: Yeah. So, I’ve got, you know, I can use whatever. I’ve got a ’72 Telecaser in here that’s Mark’s that I -- I like to keep this in here to knock out ideas and it’s pretty great, and then use the plugins in Logic, the Guitar Amp Pro or I’ve got also the Guitar Rig and Guitar Rig 2 and use those sometimes, yeah. Yeah. Other than that, if I need to do vocals or drums, I’ll just head into Studio A and use the tracking room.

BILL HOLLAND: What do you do to begin composing for a film or video or video game? How do you start?

SILAS HITE: Usually, we have a talk with like the director, the creatives, and they’ll send us a picture hopefully and then they’ll say, you know, we’re thinking this direction or sometimes they just say go wild and just be creative and so that’s the best. But you know, sometimes it’s nice also to have like a guideline. If they’re saying, “Well, we definitely want something orchestral,” then that’s nice to know right off the bat, and so I just take a look at the picture and suddenly just follow my instincts and do what feels naturally pretty much and then we usually, you know, we’ll play stuff for the creatives or the director, whoever, and get their reaction, and usually pretty on track, so.

BILL HOLLAND: Awesome. What’s your favorite you’ve done here so far?

SILAS HITE: Oh man, that’s a hard question right off the bat. I did a Martini campaign that’s only in Europe, and Robert Rodriguez directed and George Clooney starred in it, and yeah it’s really cool, and the music was sophisticated, and I got to play accordion and guitar and some percussion and I whistled on it and that was really cool. It was a big hit over there and I'm looking to continue that campaign in different ways, so.

BILL HOLLAND: Awesome. I bet all the other guys hear this during my time here. How did you get into this? How do you end up at Mutato Musika?

SILAS HITE: Well, Mark is my uncle, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh.

BILL HOLLAND: That helps.

SILAS HITE: It helps. Yes. So I knew about this place for a long time. I’ve been playing music since I was 11 and I always wanted to write music more than perform it, and so I knew this is where I wanted to work because I had been coming here, you know, when I was younger and just saw what a cool place it was, you know, and so I tailored my college career towards getting a job and working here specifically like I studied not only music but music business and also art because obviously art has a big place -- you know, plays a big role here. And so I, you know, I brought a reel out for Mark, a demo, and a resume, and he didn’t know I was going to ask for a job, and I did and he was very reluctant. He didn’t want to hire me. I think mostly because I was family but also they because weren’t looking for anybody, and I played them my stuff, and he’s like, “Wow. That’s good, you know,” and I said, “Look, just give me a shot, you know, and I’ll prove it to you that I’m worth it.” He’s like, “Okay. I’ll give you a chance,” and so he did. And after -- I forgot we had a short trial period, and then he hired me after that, and I’ve been here ever since just knocking stuff down.

BILL HOLLAND: Talking the way out of it? Awesome. For somebody trying to get into composition for video or video games or film, you’ll probably say go to school for music but also look into music business, that type of thing. How would you -- I mean obviously in your case you had a little more of a clear path because you had in the family and you kind of understood what was required, but what would you recommend to some like you got some kid in, I don't know, Michigan who wants get into this? They’ve got not a lot of resources to do it. What route would you recommend them taking?

SILAS HITE: Well, I don't know if I had an insider perspective or not because I mean I saw Mark and Bob doing it but they were in Devo and that’s how they got into it. I don't think that option’s open to most people, so yeah I went to school for it. I just played in as many different kinds of bands and studied as many different styles as I could because that’s what interested me, and so I would recommend doing that first of all, just exposing yourself to all kinds of music, getting into every kind of style, learning to play different instruments. But then I would suggest if you’re looking to score films, go to a film school, find directors that, you know, that have movies and that you have good rapport with, offer to do scores for free, do some, you know, learn from that, work with them, and first of all you’ll establish contacts and second of all you’ll gain experience which is the most important thing, and then you’ll be able to build a reel from that, and then you can take that to places and say, you know, “This is work I’ve done. I’ve got some experience.” That’s the best way to do it. That’s what I’m saying.