Jeff Koz, creative director/ composer/owner of HUM Music + Sound Design, Santa Monica, is proud to say that Johnny Mathis sang the first commercial tune he ever wrote. It was the early ’80s, and Koz was working as a recording artist and B movie music composer when he was asked to write a song for a local radio spot that was to be performed by Mathis and his band. Koz wrote and produced the song—but then the radio station changed its format, and the ad never ran.
The setback proved temporary though, because someone at the agency heard Koz’s song and recommended him for another project, which began his career in advertising. Today, Koz heads up HUM with his wife, Unique, who is co-owner/head of sales. Some of HUM’s recent credits include several spots in the launch campaign for Sega’s Dreamcast video game system via Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco. The initial spot in the campaign, "Apocalypse," directed by John Moore of bicoastal Headquarters, relied heavily on the sound design created by HUM’s head of sound design, Marc Levisohn. The ad features a woman stealing the Dreamcast hardware in post-apocalyptic Tokyo in order to prevent it from being released to the public. The sound design, complete with ominous-sounding alarms, highlights the thief’s frantic attempt to escape from the city with the stolen technology. Other commercials in the campaign that were sound designed by Levisohn include the computer generated "Opening Day," "Old Days," "Drive In," and "Daydream," all of which were produced at Pacific Data Images (PDI), Palo Alto, Calif., and directed by Larry Bafia of PDI. HUM has also worked on ads for Diet Dr Pepper via Young & Rubicam, New York; HSBC Bank out of Lowe & Partners/SMS, New York; and Pizza Hut for BBDO New York.
The Koz Brothers
Jeff Koz founded HUM in ’96 after leaving Who Did That Music?, a Los Angeles music production company and library he had started with partner Dain Blair in ’92. (Blair is now president/owner of Groove Addicts, Los Angeles, and maintains the Who Did That Music? Library.) Before that, Koz had his own company, Koz Music. With HUM, Koz has been able to build a company where "what matters is the process." In addition to his spot work, Koz recently produced and wrote several songs for his brother Dave Koz’s new CD, entitled The Dance. Jeff Koz has also worked on longform projects such as the feature films The Idea of Sex and Pair of Aces.
In three years, it has grown from a staff comprised of Jeff Koz, Unique Koz and Levisohn, to a company of ten, including another in-house composer, Garron Chang. HUM also exclusively represents two outside composers: Billy White Acre, who is a rock singer/songwriter, and Martin Erskine, a classical composer.
HUM now finds the edgy, technological sound it created for Sega very much in demand. Koz says he doesn’t mind the company being characterized as youth-oriented or cutting edge, noting that Chang excels in that style. He points to the recent spots "HP Tour" and "HP Eclipse," for Titleist, the golf equipment manufacturer, as an example of Chang’s contemporary style. Both ads were directed by Zack Snyder of bicoastal HSI Productions for Arnold Communications, Boston. "HP Eclipse" features a trippy techno track to promote Titleist’s new golf ball, which uses dual core technology.
Not long ago, HUM was best known for orchestral music. Now, with a diverse roster of composers and sound designers, the company has ventured into new musical soundscapes. Koz believes this diversity allows the company to be more competitive. What is most important to Koz is that the music has integrity. "Even if it’s a straight-ahead jazz swing piece, I want it to sound like the real deal," he says. "I don’t want it to sound like a commercial emulating swing music; I want it to be swing music."
To create that authentic sound, Koz prefers to be brought into the spot process early. The earlier HUM is included, the less likely it is that the company will be asked to duplicate someone else’s temp track that the client has fallen in love with on the rough cut. HUM released its 98-track sample CD as a proactive attempt to turn such situations to its advantage, and the disc has proven so popular among editors that two more are on the way.
HUM executive producer Ceinwyn Clark says that everyone at the shop is responsive to everyone else’s opinions, and credits this atmosphere with making her job more interesting. "Marc, Jeff and Garron allow me to become part of the creative process," she says, "and for me, that’s really appealing." Levisohn says that calmness and fluidity characterize HUM’s modus operandi. He believes this style attracts clients who are "very enjoyable to work with, and who do very good creative work."
Among these clients is San Francisco-based agency Red Ball Tiger. The shop earned Koz’s respect with an unusual approach to spotmaking. For Moore’s, a regional clothing chain, the agency’s creative director, Greg Wilson, asked HUM to compose four pieces, each four minutes long and in a different style, without seeing a single frame of the commercial. So HUM assembled a multi-ethnic group of musicians to play the pieces—African chanting, traditional tango, a lighthearted Italian film score, and world pop contemporary—and recorded them live in its studio. The agency then took the tracks, cut them up, and put them in the spots.
"It was really a turn-on for a music house to have a client say, ‘Just have fun’," Koz remarks. "[The creatives] were here and they were smiling the whole day because they were getting exactly what they wanted, which was some very free-sounding music that was going places that nobody really expected it to go."
HUM is looking towards expansion. Plans to build two more recording studios, a new machine room, a couple of offices and a nursery in its current building are in the works. There are also plans to look for another composer and/or sound designer to fill one of the new studios within the next year. But for all the exciting plans, Jeff Koz wants to contain HUM’s growth. "When people call me on a job," he says, "they’re working with me, and they have my concern and my care, and I want to keep it that way."
