About this episode
On California’s Central Coast, composer, producer, designer, and engineer Graham Palmer has built his career around one core idea: sound should serve the story.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara (B.A. in Film and Media Studies, minor in music) and Berklee College of Music (M.A. in Music Production), Palmer moves fluidly between records, radio, film, theater, and live performance, shaping projects from the inside out with a storyteller’s instinct and a musician’s ear.
Before stepping behind the console as a producer, Palmer spent much of his early adult life on the road as a touring musician with the Mad Caddies, performing in more than 30 countries and contributing to a catalog that has sold over 500,000 albums worldwide. The experience sharpened his sense of collaboration and improvisation—skills that now inform his production work at Surprise Studio, the creative space he built in 2021. There, he composes original music, produces artists, and designs immersive sound for screen and stage, including his recent score and sound design for UC Santa Barbara Theatre Department’s production of Animal Farm, directed by Sara Rademacher.
Palmer is also celebrating the release of Blood Waves EP, a new project created with bandmate Jordan Dalrymple under the name Redacted Choir.
LISTEN - Redacted Choir Blood Waves EP
Whether he’s engineering a podcast, scoring a short film, or producing a full-length album, Palmer keeps the process focused and collaborative. “Whether it’s a podcast, a short film, a live show, or a full album,” he says, “I try to keep the process fun, and rooted in good storytelling.”
Connect with Graham Palmer at graham@surpriseenterprises.com
SURPRISE STUDIO WEBSITE: https://www.surpriseenterprises.com/
Any and all proceeds from the Blood Waves EP will be donated to @immdefense to help protect our communities
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Graham Palmer's background
01:17 The inspiration behind Animal Farm score
04:11 Creating primal rhythms and farm sounds
06:50 The role of sound in storytelling
08:41 Studio environment and design principles
11:27 Graham Palmer's musical influences and career
16:18 The collaborative process in theater production
21:20 Future projects and scoring ambitions
26:10 Advice for aspiring sound designers
31:23 Closing thoughts and where to find Graham Palmer
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