My College Roomate Composer John Sponsler.

(left: John, middle: Hans Zimmer.)

John and I were college roomates back at Cal State University, San Bernardino in the mid 80's. We both attended music classes and were both in the same band at that time. We had quite the bachelor pad in our dorm room. It was cool because John worked in a video store and so we watched a lot of movies together. John was my introduction into staying up past 11:00 PM during the week.

One movie in particular was a Yes' "90125 Live" concert (no longer in print). It was right when Trevor Rabin breathed new life into Yes and created songs like, "Owner of A Lonely Heart", "Changes", and "Leave It". I think John had seen them twice live that year.

A few years later, John and I had started a band and attempted to get into the whole Disneyland Musical Artists network. Our goal was to be THE band that performed in Tomorrowland Terrace; the stage that pops up out of the ground. We spent many hours auditioning, and practicing in L.A. while living in the same apartment. John is a very driven individual and the only interruption that got in his way was sleep. We could rehearse all the way up until 3:30 AM and then sleep until 10:00 AM the next day. Then do it all over again. We would rehearse at a recording studio after hours.

After we didn't make the audition for Disney, we all sort of went our separate ways; John still forming bands and playing in L.A. I lost touch with John sometime around 1991.

So now I'm finding old friends through MySpace, people I have not talked to in years. I did a Google search of John since I've been reaching old band buddies. Turns out John is a composer/songwriter and has collaborated with many L.A. heavies in producing movie trailer music and movie score writing for televsion and film. John has a writing partner named Tom Gire and they both work under the company name Magic Box and are composers for Brand X. Feel free to check out some of their work by clicking on the many genres on the left. Very impressive.

Magic Box has written music for "National Treasure: book of Secrets", Movie Trailer for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the last "Spiderman" movie, commercial spots for Scion, Navy, and Boeing, teamed up with Hans Zimmer for "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest", the sea battle score for "Pirates of the Carribean at World's End", worked with John Williams for "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Munich", and new music for Sunday Night Football for NBC. John, correct me if any of my facts are wrong.


Trevor Rabin (L), John Sponsler (R)

Most recently, John teamed up with now legendary film scorewriter Trevor Rabin. Yes the former guitarist from Yes that John and I used to watch in our dorms. They completed the second film for Disney's "National Treasure: Book of Secrets".

Best of all, John is a follower of Christ. Very cool. Anyway, check out both sites if you have some time and enjoy some of John's work.