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.
I must have missed the release of this, (I’m sure a lot of people did) but, once again, to show off the talents of my Beverly Hills mate Matt Kahn. This time singing in Spanish, his translation of a song written 22 years ago by my old room mate/flat mate Jamie Flynn called “Dreamer”, which for some reason, as I do now think is an awesome song. “Soniando”. I think it was used in a restaurant scene. In fact, I don’t like the production much. Skip it. Matt sounds good though.
Now this has been out for a while and is now on Netflix, I think it’s okay to put it up here, and it doesn’t give away any jokes, so it should be safe, BUT, you are going to want to turn it off at around 2 min. Trust me. 
There’s a cue missing from the above .MOV file, no idea why, but here’s the vocal version of the track in the cue. This version went on the soundtrack and has my Beverly Hills buddy Matt Kahn, doing a rap in full London cockney, with all the correct intonations, especially “get the fuck up”, and it’s funny, because he’s LA born and bred. His ‘artist name’ for this is Winston Cartier and it is entirely his invention. On top of my track The Grind, which was used in a ‘character does mad things in the middle of the night’ scenario. Also on the soundtrack album, but not used in the film, “Hey Now” from my good friend, James Langford, who’s straight outa South Central and is one of the sweetest guys you could ever meet. And, by far, the best rapper I know. Ah the injustice of this world/industry. Soon come.
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.
Why anyone would want a track like this for a Liam Neeson Taken type movie is beyond me. It must have been something to do with the lyrics. “mister lover, lover, you thought there was only one Barry White, but there’s another, that’s me you see sittin in the place, stuffin my face, Ihop, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, I’d like to see some sucker try and take it from me….PHAT” Far out. One of my best tracks yet and comes from an album called “Kill All Billionaires”. Release pending.
Dayum!
This was a fairly easy job. Except for the fact that I went into my booth for 10 nights and blew out my voice. We want Imagine Dragons they say. Yeh doesn’t everybody I say. What the hell, like, doesn’t anyone know the energy levels that go into a vocal like that? Imagine having to tour and sing like that every night. Anyway, I got one of three placements. The “Hey Mister”, used under who-knows-what circumstances.
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