John Swihart is a film and TV composer hailing from Indiana and who is based in LA. He’s written scores for numerous comedy films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Youth in Revolt, and you’ve heard his work for over 9 years on the hit show How I Met Your Mother among several other TV comedies, such as Red Band Society. His latest film is Staten Island Summer, produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels, which recently was released through Netflix. From his official website:

“Grammy Nominated musician composer, John Swihart has written music for over 40 films and 20 Television shows. Raised in Bloomington Indiana, John started his studies  at age 5 at Indiana University.  Swihart would leave Indiana to attend the renowned Berklee College of Music, in Boston, where he majored in composition and production and engineering. He is a multi instrumentalist who performs many of the tracks on his scores.

After years of performing in numerous bands, experimental performances such as Blue Man Group, studio session work as a guitar player, and remixer with local DJ’s. John moved to Los Angeles and into writing and producing music for picture.”

We had the chance to speak with John about his work on Staten Island Summer and How I Met Your Mother, genre hopping within and outside of comedy, and more. Check it out below, from our Youtube and Soundcloud channels.

Interview with John Swihart – Video Version

Interview with John Swihart – Audio Version

Staten Island Summer is now available to stream on Netflix, and the soundtrack may be purchased through Amazon and iTunes. 

Our thanks to John Swihart and Costa Communications for making this interview happen.