Commercials
The full catalogue
Years of campaigns, placements, and stories from the trenches. Some of these ran for years. Some were buyouts. Some are crimes against music — Adam's words, not ours. All of them are part of the catalogue.
Movie night — track is called 'Me Oh My', originally made for a Clinique ad. Guitar and rim shot doused in spring reverb. I own a spring reverb unit by Quad 8 that came out of the Los Angeles Motown studio — allegedly used by the likes of Marvin Gaye. Though you cannot beat the Pioneer SR-101 for stereo tube spring reverb.
From the Netherlands, again, Scandinavia. Not keen on this piece of music — I did another track which I thought was better, but hey, they liked this one and that's all that matters.
"Doh Rei Me" — a track by Rei and me. Rei on bass, me on drums and guitar and Doh, well, just because.
Vocals are Kitty. Library adapted.
Vocals: mostly Victoria, but some Ooos from myself.
Ikea. Sweden. Lockdown. Hmmm. No comment.
Some jazz for Ralph Lauren. 10 spots, all slightly different musically — the same track.
An Oceans 11 Trap remix for Denny's.
Lots of different versions, all slightly different. Something special for my boy in the Riviera Coat: hand claps. Funky hand claps for my boy with the style.
New Bryston amp in the place. B5 ST THX. Bryston on the NS-10s and Bryston on the Auratone. THX, as in George Lucas. Dab.
Classic Telecaster on mid pick up.
Some more Traparoonie with Alicia Angeles on 'vocals'.
Originally composed for Revlon, but Revlon went with one of my other demos for them at the time.
First track done with my new Moog Rogue. For the low end. Nice.
"It was at this moment… he knew….."
Erm… nothing to report. Actually, Kitty on vocals.
One of several currently doing the rounds internationally.
Four tracks, three of them new, across 15 spots. "All About The Melody" is probably my favorite Aveeno track in three years of doing the campaign. The secret to Jen's sound is a slight Jamaican late 60s/early 70s reggae sound — think Jimmy Cliff.
Track 7 of 13. Beat out dozens of tracks from three agencies. 7 spots, domestic and international. Vocals from Kitty.
This beat out 37 tracks. Me n Rei doodling in the studio. Those drums are one mic, loads of distortion and one take. And Rei is a first class bass player.
A track called "Movies From the 80s". Heavy on the Juno 60 — classic 80s synth, probably used in every movie made between 1981 and 1985. Then the DX7 came along and stole its crown.
After much deliberation, a cover of last year's track. "The Sound of Tubes" nearly made it — recorded to a reel to reel recorder from 1956. Not a great idea to get something past corporate, but the preamp just sounds too good. And Old Man Winter, my upright piano, sounds like a champ too.
More Aveeno. Yay! This year's 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 in my library, they both chose the same one. Different sectors though, so it's all good. Furniture and Cheese.
My favorite music house in Chicago just sold "Late" again. Jim's sold this several times. Also from way back — Bank of America, 2008, just after the crash. Whoever the supervisor was on this was spot on, because this track is about extreme loss. No joke.
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.
Originally done for the US where it played like forever, now getting royalty statements saying it's playing in the UK. Seven years after me and Jay sat in my bedroom studio — me with a mandolin and he with a ukelele — and bashed it out along to the movie file a couple of times. 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. Aveeno, Johnson and Johnson. Ten of them. English, Spanish, Fifteens, Thirties, cut downs, 25/fives, 20/Tens. It went on for weeks. Not a single hitch. Plain sailing, just get it done. And to think, the agency thought I might not be capable because we'd been doing Neutrogena for so long. Hell no, I'm a folk musician first. Easy stuff.
A fun little job. Several vocalists called in for different versions of the hook 'don't stop the music'. Kitty, Laura, Rei and myself all doing different versions. Lo and behold my vocal/track won the job. My favorite outtake is Don't Stop 02 Kitty — I never heard someone from Thailand sing with so much soul. Or is it pain. Either way, it sounds good.