I might even go for walks, just kind of come up with ideas in my head and then even sleep over it. And, yeah, the next day, when I wake up in the morning, I feel like that's when the ideas come, because you kind of wake up fresh and clean. You're not influenced from music on the radio or any other source.

I can almost see the music. It comes in the form of colors - colors jump out at me, and that translates into notes. They come fully formed: the orchestration parts, not just the melodies. Even though they're not always the right ones to use, the initial idea comes like that.

I'm a very visual person when it comes to writing music. I like to see something besides just a script, even if it's just a storyboard or pictures from the set.

'Game of Thrones' is one of the most groundbreaking series on TV. The fact that I get to make music every day is such a privilege, and I'm incredibly grateful to be doing so with an amazing show such as this.

I'm actually really good at keeping secrets.

When you know you have great support from the studio, that's a great feeling, and when it's the creative support, that's great.

When I write music, these colors pop out of me. It's hard to describe, but basically when I write music, I paint, and I add colors, and I add notes.

There's so many great themes from the '80s: 'Magnum,' 'Miami Vice.'

What's so great with 'Game of Thrones' is that there are so many characters and they're so many locations and that it's just very inspiring.

What I like about 'Game of Thrones' is that there's such a wide range. We have everything from very small, just solo instrument pieces, just the solo violin or solo cello, and then we go all the way to these bigger action moments.

There's been a great development with scale on TV, but my approach is always the same across projects, whether it's a video game, a movie, or a TV show: I always try to set up my sounds and my themes. I really try to stay with the characters and do the storytelling through the music.

Performing was always something that I actually used to do before I settled in the studio as a composer.

At the beginning of each project, I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project.

Deep down, classical Romantic music is what I love: Brahms, Tchaikovsky, the Romantics.

I used to love American Westerns, growing up in Germany.

Absolutely, I'm living my dream. Yeah. My wife always jokes, says I'm a big kid, you know, playing in the studio and coming up with melodies and sounds. And, you know, I wouldn't know any other way because I just have music in my head all the time, and I just love it.

I used to just scribble things on a piece of paper whenever an idea would - came to mind. Now with cell phones. It definitely has gotten a lot easier because I can just take it out and just - I'll just sing into my phone.

I always really wanted to do film scoring, largely because I hate writing lyrics. I just won't do it. I need help with the words.

With 'Westworld,' the player piano plays a very important role.

Most of the time, I'll be conducting the orchestra, but there will be some pieces that I'll be playing an instrument as well, just because I love playing. There's pieces where I want to grab an instrument and play with the rest of the group, like 'The Light of the Seven,' for example; I would love to play the piano for that.

I would sit at the organ and just start making up things by myself - I was maybe 7 years old, which was too young to even know how to notate music. So I never wrote anything down, but when I'd make things up, I'd memorize them.

I love to do animation movies, and those might be some scores that are lesser known, unless you really kind of dig through my work and see.

My dream that I followed and that I'm living now is that I actually always wanted to go to music college, play in a band, do a world tour, and then eventually get into film music.

I feel choir just has a great sense of power when used with an orchestra, or even by itself.