By Kristin Wilcha

Sam Spiegel is a Los Angeles-based composer, producer and DJ who’s worked with the likes of Jurassic 5, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, scored films such as Pretty Things, an upcoming HBO documentary about burlesque shows, and Sky Blue, an animated film from Korea that recently opened in select cities stateside, as well as Yeah Right!, a skateboarding DVD. Through his Squeak E Clean Productions banner, which he opened in 2001, Spiegel also scores spots, and of late has made that a priority.

Spiegel–the 24-year-old brother of Spike Jonze–made his spot debut in 2002 with Levi’s “Crazy Legs,” out TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and directed by Jonze, who is now with bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ). (“Crazy Legs” was the last spot he did out of now-defunct Satellite; the Levi’s account is now with Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York.) The ad featured a Levi’s-clad guy walking down the street, listening to music. As the music builds, the young man’s legs start to move to the beat. But the movement, while dance-like, is out of control. His legs flail in different directions but the rest of his body remains calm and motionless. The guy dances to a track by Control Machete, which was remixed by Spiegel.

After “Crazy Legs,” Spiegel began getting offers to work on spots. “I really took to scoring to picture,” he says. “There’s something that’s really fun about commercials. It’s very much about keeping and moving the action, and also about mood and feeling, and that’s something that I really like in music–music that really makes you feel a certain way, or puts you in a certain mood, or you want to hear when you’re in a certain mood.”

Diverse work followed. He composed and produced the music for Converse’s “College Hero,” out of Modernista!, Boston, directed by Stacy Wall of bicoastal Epoch Films; and arranged and produced a track for Reebok’s “Outperform,” via The Arnell Group, New York, directed by Mehdi Norowzian of Joy@RSA, a satellite of bicoastal RSA USA and RSA, London. The latter spot involved sessions in Los Angeles and London with a 90-piece orchestra.  He also worked on T-Mobile’s “Anthem,” out of Publicis, Seattle, and directed by Tarsem of bicoastal/international @radical.media. Spiegel additionally created the sound design for Saturn’s “Door Music,” out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, which was directed by Mark Romanek of bicoastal Anonymous Content. Nominated for an Emmy Award for best primetime commercial, the spot is an homage to the dent-resistant panels on the Saturn Ion which features one thing after another being hurled at the car–a football, a bicyclist, shopping carts, etc.; the various impacts create a rhythmic beat. (Dave Baker of Abalone Music, San Francisco, created the spot’s score.)

Spiegel likes the pace of spots, versus that of producing albums, as well as the diversity of styles. He recently completed work on an adidas spot out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, which was directed by his brother, and features a dream sequence powered by adidas running shoes. “The music is very simple and soft and sweet–piano, cello and viola, and for percussion we just took two drum sticks and hit them together,” says Spiegel of the spot’s track, which features Karen O. “It’s really simple and pretty, and it just fits the spot really well–it’s very dreamy. It’s a surreal [commercial] and the music adds an even more surreal feel to it. [The dream] doesn’t really make sense, and I think the music really helps that a lot. And it gives it that soft, sweet, sleepy feeling.”

Spiegel enjoys collaborating with his brother, noting that the two communicate well. “Sometimes with people that you don’t know that well, it’s tough to establish communication, and be able to say stuff where people’s feelings aren’t hurt,” he explains. “Music is really hard to communicate about. And a lot of times there are agency people that give me real vague direction, and sometimes I like that, because it gives me a lot of freedom — but with Spike, he tells me something, and I know exactly what he means, because we’re really close, and we have good communication, so that’s a really good aspect of it.” In addition to scoring spots for Jonze, Spiegel also created the soundtrack for the aforementioned Yeah Right!, directed by Jonze and Ty Evans.

Spiegel, who grew up in New York playing the flute and cello, and performing in the Metropolitan Opera’s Children’s Choir, was also immersed in hip-hop culture, and began making beats in high school. “Even when I wasn’t making music, I was always taping off the radio–I had my radio shows I had to hear every week, to hear the new songs coming out,” he recalls. “I grew up in New York, and there so much great hip hop radio around, so I was obsessed with hearing all the hip hop songs when I was a kid.”

He notes that he hopes to one day to do a film score with a large orchestra that combines with sampled drums, and other more eclectic tunes.

Spiegel recently completed a spot for Schick out of JWT, New York, and is working on an album called Stop The Virgins, a do-wop album with Karen O, of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, that also features, among others, Kim Deahl of the Pixies, John Frusciante of, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Money Mark, who frequently collaborates with the Beastie Boys. Additionally, he has his own project, NASA, which stands for North America South America, which will showcase American and Brazilian street art and culture, and is centered around an album he is recording with Brazilian hip-hop DJ Zegon. He also continues to DJ, at events for the likes of Prada and Diesel and at Los Angeles clubs like Moomba, Star Shoes, Bar Deluxe and El Centro.

Squeak E Clean is repped on the East Coast by Peter Ziegler and Jonathan Jakubowicz of Ziegler Management Group, New York, and by Steve Monkarsh on the West Coast.

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