For summer 2016. After much deliberation, a cover of last years track.
“The Sound of Tubes” nearly made it, and probably didn’t because I strove hard to maintain the integrity of the sound of the pre amp I used to record it. A reel to reel recorder from 1956. Yeh, not a great idea to get something past corporate, but hey, the pre amp just sounds too good. And Old Man Winter, my upright piano, sounds like a champ, too.
More Aveeno. Yay! This years campaign. 14 of em. All day, everyday, in ya face. Great for me. Not so great for you. Sorry about that.
This played like, for ever. It’s probably still playing somewhere.
No stories about this one. Except, I only just realized it’s not a Neutrogena commercial. I’ve been working on it for a week, thinking it was a Neutrogena. Doh! Super easy, though. They went through two music agencies. Maybe they just ran out of time.
Sofia and David Koch sharing a track. Licensed the same week, go figure. Of the thousands of tracks I have in my library, they both chose the same one. Different sectors though, so it’s all good. Furniture and Cheese.
Nice way to end a Friday afternoon. My favorite Music House in Chicago just sold “Late”, again. Jim’s sold this several times. I don’t know what it’s for this time, and I really don’t care. And strangely I don’t have an instrumental of it, so Jim’s been selling the vocal version and I think they use the instrumental bits in the track. I should think so too, cause it’s a really sad song. Good mix, though, and a great drum track from Ravi. Now I’m off to buy this: Ferrari 360 Modena with custom fiber glass bass box housing 3 subs. It’s basically a Stereo on wheels.
And this is from way back, “Late” again, for Bank of America. 2008, I think, yeh, just after the crash, so banks were trying to be endearing and… ‘yes, we understand your pain, and we care, and your debt is safe with us’. Whoever the supervisor was, on this, was spot on, cause this track is about extreme loss. No joke.
I rarely do radio spots. In fact I think I’ve only ever done one radio spot and I can’t remember what is was, so maybe I didn’t. Anyway, just this last weekend, an Old Navy Back to School commercial. “Instant” got it, but “Dance Track” was the agency’s pick, which the client thought was too upbeat, or loud, or something. And also in the playlist are some other tracks that were submitted.
Originally done for the U.S. where it played, like, forever, now I’m getting royalty statements saying it’s playing in the U.K. Seven Years after me and Jay sat in my bedroom studio… me with a Mandolin and he with a Ukelele (or it might have been the other way around) and just bashed it out along to the movie file a couple of times. This was one of three Pedigree commercials I did with Fitz from Fitz and The Tantrums. Yes, the guy from Fitz and the Tantrums used to do Pedigree commercials. Awesome.
This was a thing. These’ll be playing for months. Aveeno, Johnson and Johnson. Ten of them. English, Spanish, Fifteens, thirtys, cut downs, 25/fives, 20/Tens. It went on for weeks. Not a single hic up. Plain sailing, just get it done kind of thing. And to think, the agency thought we/meaning “I” might not be capable because we’d been doing Neutrogena for so long, as if Neutrogena was all I might be capable of. Hell no, I’m a folk musician first. Easy stuff. And Adam at my Agency was brilliant at keeping everything organized and on track.
TTC Targeted Tone Corrector
Aveeno Good Nights Sleep 30sec Spanish Theme 04
My favorite out take/alt is Don’t Stop 02 Kitty, up the top, in at number one. Kitty Pipatcharoenkij is Thai, but I never heard someone from Thailand sing with so much soul. Or is it pain. Either way, it sounds good. By far my second favorite is “Dont Stop 07 Laura r1” which is me, Rei and Laura doing the 80’s rap treatment, as per requested, in fact I think it was a 90’s rap type that was requested but we went totally 80s. Recording the vocals on that version was one of those, ‘this is why being in a recording studio is so much fun’ moments!
This was a fun little job. Several vocalists were called in to do different versions of a hook ‘don’t stop the music’, as per clients request. Kitty, Laura, Rei and myself all doing different versions. Lo and behold my vocal/track won the job. Everyone did fantastic tracks and vocals though. In fact I might post some of the other tracks.
Pedigree Jumper