Milwaukee-based musician, producer and composer Peter Buffett has made his name as a respected film score composer. He has released four discs on Milwaukee's Narada Records and has scored New Age chart hits. But there's more to Buffett than meets the eye. He was also the drive behind Comet 9, an alternative rock band that released an LP, "," on Don't Records.

His latest project is a collection of 14 tracks recorded at his East Side studio with guests like Robyn Pluer, The Gufs' Goran Kralj, Citizen King's Malcolm Micheles, The Great Outdoors, Narada artist Kim Robertson and others. Many of the tracks are featured in the film, "Full Ride."

We recently talked to Buffett about the record and his career.

OMC: Tell me about the genesis of this new CD.

PB: I was scoring an independent film that needed some "pop" songs. Normally, on a bigger budget film, a music supervisor would handle the licensing of songs. But in this case, it was up to me to either write, or find, the appropriate songs for the movie. While looking through the catalog of songs I'd recorded, I found that I had the makings of a potentially interesting record.

OMC: I assume you had a large pool of tracks to choose from. Was it hard to select just 14 or did these 14 jump right out at you?

PB: There were definitely contenders that didn't make it (and make for the beginnings of a volume two if this is successful!). But it was fairly easy to zero in on the 14 that made the cut.

OMC: One track in particular -- Robyn Pluer's "C'mon Boy" -- is especially intriguing because it is so unlike her other recordings. How did that come about?

PB: According to Robyn, this is the first song she has written (with John Sieger and Paul Cebar). We run into each other fairly often at various East Side haunts. She asked if I wanted to try something for fun in the studio. She and Paul came over at about 7 in the evening and by about 2 that morning we had what you hear on the record. They were both so much fun to work with. And it was definitely done in the spirit of experimentation -- which makes the studio experience so much fun. We are both looking forward to doing more.

OMC: You've got the biggest collection of Goran Kralj tunes since the last Gufs LP. Do you anticipate a lot of interest in the disc for this reason?

PB: There's no question that The Gufs' (and Goran's) fan base will drive some of the initial interest in the CD. Goran and I had been working for the past year or so on a number of songs. Hopefully, it will be fun for Gufs/Goran fans to hear the Robyn Pluer song, or a song like "Sugar Baby."