Sound Business with Akash Thakkar

Hosted by Akash Thakkar

Business Entrepreneurship Interviews ArtsInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

100

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

About the show

Akash Thakkar interviews successful audio professionals from every corner of the music and sound industries. From educators, performers, pop stars, game audio professionals, voice actors, composers, sound designers, plug-in designers, audio programmers, and everything in between, we dive deep into the business and mindset skills it takes to ”make it” in the worlds of music and sound.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 17, 2026Episode 10042 min

From Musician to AAA Game Audio with Chris Bolte

#94: My guest today is Chris Bolte, who is a technical sound designer and audio implementer based out of Massachusetts. Chris has built a wide-ranging library of sound effects used by creatives all over the world, co-wrote the book Elevate Your Audio Production with REAPER, and is most known for his work on the hit game Ghost of Yotei, where he implemented and designed sound across tens of thousands of assets at Sucker Punch Productions. In this interview, Chris talks about how he pivoted out of a music career in 2022 and decided to go all in on game audio, how he learned his game audio skills so quickly with zero prior experience, how he landed the job at Sucker Punch working on Ghost of Yotei, and so much more. Find Chris here: Website: https://bolttracks.com/ Portfolio: https://christopherbolte.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherbolte/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/christopherbolte Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bolttracks.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bolt.wav/ Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

April 15, 2026Episode 9952 min

Building a Composing Career from Game Jams with Virginia Leo

#93: My guest today is Virginia Leo, who is a composer, sound designer, and pianist based out of Austin, Texas. Virginia has worked on projects like Wobbly Life, had her work played by orchestras around the US, and is most known for her work on the hit game, The Baby In Yellow, which has hit over 300 million downloads to date. In this interview, Virginia talks about her shift into video game music & sound after a classical music upbringing, starting out in game audio by doing game jams, how she landed the huge project The Baby In Yellow, how she keeps her career fun, sustainable, and interesting, and so much more. Find Virginia here: Website: https://www.virginia-leo.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginxel/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzhERvVB_ChM7GIOKGduVQ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1V7owLSpwbwiLVmSmpV2m5 Bandcamp: https://virginialeo.bandcamp.com/ Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

February 25, 2026Episode 9849 min

Working Across Film, TV, Games, and Youtube with Kevin Senzaki

#92: My guest today is Kevin Senzaki, who is a sound supervisor and sound designer based in Los Angeles. He has an incredibly diverse background starting first as a visual artists but then transitioned into sound during his college days. He got his career started during the early 2010s when he staretd working with YouTube Creators who would become massive like RocketJump and Corridor Digital. Since then, he has worked with clients like Netflix, Apple, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, HBO, Adobe, and Dolby across a huge amount of projects across pretty much every medium from film to TV to video games. Kevin has won four Emmys for his work and was most recently nominated for two Emmys for his work on the HBO documentary 100 Foot Wave. In this episode, we talk about how Kevin managed to get his first gigs with those early day YouTubers, how he managed to keep working during an economic crash, his minimalist approach to sound design, and so much more. Find Kevin here: Website: https://senzaki.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinsenzaki/ IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3339978/ Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

February 11, 2026Episode 9749 min

From Indie Freelance to full-time AAA Sound Design with Beatrix Moersch

#91: My guest today is Beatrix Moersch, sound designer based out of Montreal, Canada. She has worked on projects including Dead By Daylight, Gears 5: Hivebusters, Museum of Symmetry, Stories: The Path of Destinies, and is currently the audio lead at Don’t Nod Montreal, most recently working on Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. In this episode, we talk Beatrix’s transition from wanting to work in film and sound design and then game audio specifically, how she started her career in quality assurance and did freelanced in game audio on the side, and how sound designers can find paid work in the game industry, and so much more. Find Beatrix here: Don’t Nod: https://dont-nod.com/en/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatrixmoersch/?originalSubdomain=ca Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

January 28, 2026Episode 9638 min

Teaching, Composing, and Organizing Community with Noa Beazley

#90: My guest today is Noa Beazley, who is a composer and music educator baed out of Boston, Massachusetts. She has composed for projects like Protodroid DeLTA, A Token War, and Phosfi working across a huge variety of genres all the way to dark folk music and everything in between. She’s also an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music teaching game scoring. She’s also on the Board of Directors of the Boston Game Dev community and is also an organizer for the Boston Game Audio community. In this episode, we talk about Noa’s classical music upbringing, how she rebelled against her roots, an instead went on to study jazz vocals, arranging, and media composition, how she managed to find her first bits of work, negotiates for projects, balances teaching, composing, and community organizing, and so much more. Find Noa here: Website: https://www.noabeazley.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noa-beazley-b74a7620a/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noabeazley/ Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

July 2, 2025Episode 9548 min

Finding your Uniqueness with Alejandro Pérez Heinze

#89: My guest today is Alejandro Pérez Heinze who is a composer, Flamenco guitarist, audio engineer, Kontakt instrument producer, and audio educator based in Mexico. He has worked on a wide variety of projects including Kontakt instrument production on Kena: Bridge of Spirits, also working with Austin Wintory on projects such as Thai Cave Rescue, and composing on games such as Frogreign. In this episode, we talk about Alejandro’s extremely broad career path, starting off as an electric guitarist, switching over to Flamenco guitar, going to college for Biotech, and switching to audio production and engineering. We also talk about his unique skillset and how it landed him work in the game audio industry, and so much more. Find Alejandro here: Website: https://www.alejandrophz.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandrophz/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alejandro.phz/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/alejandrophz Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

June 18, 2025Episode 9453 min

From YouTube to Composing for AAA Games with Venus Theory

#88: My guest today is Venus Theory, who is a music producer and Youtuber based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Venus Theory is known not only for his lush electronic music, but also his massive YouTube channel. He also recently finished writing the soundtrack for the hit game Avowed by Obsidian Entertainment. In this episode, we dive into Venus Theory’s rise as a musician due to YouTube, how he landed the Avowed project, how he bounces his many creative outlets, and so much more. Find Venus Theory here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/venustheory Website: https://venustheory.com/home Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venustheory/?hl=en Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

May 21, 2025Episode 9346 min

How to Freelance in 2025 with Jamie Brindle

#87: My guest today is Jamie Brindle, who’s actually our first ever non-audio guest for the podcast! Some of you may already be familiar with Jamie and his work on social media, where he helps out freelancers across all industries, focusing on aspects around pricing, dealing with client pushback, finding quality clients, and much more. In this episode, Jamie and I talk about the skills, mindsets, and experiences that freelancers need to develop to make sure that their career in audio thrives. Find Jamie here: Website: https://jamiebrindle.io/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejamiebrindle/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thejamiebrindle?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebrindle/ Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

May 7, 2025Episode 9259 min

Building the Blueprint of Game Audio with Alexander Brandon

#86: My guest today is Alexander Brandon, a game audio designer based out of Seattle, Washington. He has had an incredibly diverse and impactful career, starting off in the early ages of game audio working on projects like Unreal, Thief, and Deus Ex. He also contributed to projects such as Skyrim, Job Simulator, and so so many others. In this episode, we dive deep into Alexander’s initial start in game audio, and how he got started in the field before it was considered “cool”, his views on starting and building a business as an artist, how he transitioned from working on games to eventually leading teams, and so much more. Find Alexander here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-brandon-b84272/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexCBrandon/videos IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0999472/ Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/funkyrustic.bsky.social Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

April 23, 2025Episode 9152 min

Building a Career in New Age Music with Radhika Vekaria

#85: My guest today is Radhika Vekaria, a musician and recording artist born in the UK and based out of Los Angeles. Radhika is known for creating the album WARRIORS OF LIGHT, which was recently nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age Ambient and Chant category. In this episode, we dive deep into Radhika’s Indian music upbringing, how she became a mantra-based artist in the first place, the challenges she faced as she transitioned from writing music under pseudonyms to finally writing under her own name, and so much more. Find Radhika here: Website: https://www.radhikavekaria.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radhikavekaria_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/radhikavekaria Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6IuevEa6Y34J29zrVYD9Ie?si=54-42qwPSayDLahrQWjWGA Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro