Mark Isham: Scoring Life, Film, and Everything In Between

Unglossy

Bun B, Tom Frank, Jeffrey Sledge

Entrepreneurship, Business, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.9 • 917 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Unglossy, the fellas sit down with Mark Isham — Grammy-nominated composer and trumpeter behind some of Hollywood's most iconic scores, including Crash, A River Runs Through It, Point Break, and 42. Mark traces the journey from San Francisco's jazz scene to landing a $35 million Disney film with no formal training and 90 bucks in the bank — and how a home-duplicated cassette changed everything. He breaks down what it's really like to score films for Jodie Foster, Robert Redford, and Kathryn Bigelow, the night he rewrote the entire Point Break score, and why silencing self-doubt has been as important as any musical skill. Plus: where film scoring is heading, a new series about the Irish gangs of Brooklyn, and a new album in the works Unglossy is hosted by Bun B, Jeffrey Sledge, and Tom Frank. The show is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. For early access, live recordings and more, join us on Merrick Studios+

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Ameri Studios podcast.
0:04.0	This week on On Glossy.
0:06.1	The jazz was always, you know, that's really what I wanted to do.
0:11.4	And so I would start hanging out in the jazz clubs or outside the door because they wouldn't let me in.
0:15.7	I was too young, you know.
0:17.0	And then eventually just met the cats, you know, the right cats to play with and just worked myself into the scene and became by my mid-20s, I was a working jazz musician as well.
0:32.4	From the top.
0:33.7	Go ahead.
0:34.8	I'm Tom Frank.
0:35.7	I'm Jeffrey Slitz.
0:37.1	And I'm Bun B. Welcome to ungloss.
0:39.5	Real stories, unfiltered dialogue, and the voices moving culture beyond the gloss of height and headlights.
0:45.4	So buckle up.
0:46.4	Unglossi starts now.
0:50.7	What's going on, fellas?
0:52.0	We are back for another unglossi.
1:17.5	Quick announcement we got to say before we get to an amazing guest is the network launched another big show this week. So we launched the heavy hitter DJ's podcast. Jeffrey, you got to tell us, you got fill us in on what that podcast is about. With DJ Enough, who started the heavy hitters, he's the founder and the head of the heavy hitters coalition, DJ's coalition.
1:22.0	This is DJ Enough, cast one, and DJ Camillo.
1:25.4	Well, DJ Cast one and DJ Camillo and Elle Bugs.
1:28.2	And they're all heavy hitters, obviously. And they're all heavy ears, obviously.
1:33.0	And they're doing a great show and they're interviewing DJs and artists.
1:39.2	And it's dope because there's a whole DJ kind of culture that people kind of don't think about.
	...

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