Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville
Jun 23, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
# **Show Notes** Grammy-nominated composer, producer, and immersive artist **James Hood** joins Tony Mantor for a fascinating conversation about pushing the boundaries of music and storytelling…
James HoodGuestTony MantorHostBefore we dive into everything you've done, let's take a moment to catch up on what you're working on right now.
Well, what I'm doing right now is I'm making, I'm doing the music for the next show.
What everyone is experiencing is the new show, Astronomica, which of course I finished about six months ago, but that's the thing I really am excited about right now, is it's starting to play all over the country and it's just an interesting, just an interesting show, I think.
I mean, with, is, uh, VR with people, so you can experience something that's all around you.
It's part of what we call a, a sort of new wave of immersive entertainment or experiential entertainment.
The fact is in a planetarium, the music is surrounding you, and, uh, the visuals are all 360, so you can't notice everything.
And what that does is it sort of throws you into some kind of a benign passive trance where you just let everything roll onto you.
The music's very rich and emotional and melodic and, uh, dynamic, and the visuals are just...
You know, I mean, every two years the resolutions are getting more and more sharp, you know, so really can't tell the difference between real life and what's on the screens now.
Now tell us a little bit more about how your shows are going in the planetariums.
Well, planetariums, I mean, there are about 300 viable planetariums for us to play in.
At the holiday season, I think we were up to about 90, but now we're down a little bit, but, uh, you know, 50, 60 every weekend, and that's all over the country.
Before we dive into everything you've done, let's take a moment to catch up on what you're working on right now.
Well, what I'm doing right now is I'm making, I'm doing the music for the next show.
What everyone is experiencing is the new show, Astronomica, which of course I finished about six months ago, but that's the thing I really am excited about right now, is it's starting to play all over the country and it's just an interesting, just an interesting show, I think.
I mean, with, is, uh, VR with people, so you can experience something that's all around you.
It's part of what we call a, a sort of new wave of immersive entertainment or experiential entertainment.
The fact is in a planetarium, the music is surrounding you, and, uh, the visuals are all 360, so you can't notice everything.
And what that does is it sort of throws you into some kind of a benign passive trance where you just let everything roll onto you.
The music's very rich and emotional and melodic and, uh, dynamic, and the visuals are just...
You know, I mean, every two years the resolutions are getting more and more sharp, you know, so really can't tell the difference between real life and what's on the screens now.
Now tell us a little bit more about how your shows are going in the planetariums.
Well, planetariums, I mean, there are about 300 viable planetariums for us to play in.
At the holiday season, I think we were up to about 90, but now we're down a little bit, but, uh, you know, 50, 60 every weekend, and that's all over the country.
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