Ben Davis has been named a producer at the New York office of bicoastal music/sound design house tomandandy. He will work closely with the shop’s Manhattan-based executive producer Scott Brittingham. Davis comes over from the agency side of the business, having served as a music producer at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York.
Davis views his role at tomandandy as bringing him deeper into the music discipline. He observed that at Saatchi, he was "on the periphery of what the agency was about, whereas at tomandandy my job is more central to what the company does. My experience and energy will go a lot farther here. That said, I think it would be a beautiful world if everyone spent time on whatever the ‘other side’ is. It allows you to take a step back and understand another agenda. My agency experience is what snaps me back into our clients’ reality when whatever we’re creating doesn’t work for them …"
He described his agency tenure as invaluable, in that it helped him to learn "most importantly how to translate the needs of clients and agencies into a vocabulary useful to composers and music houses. At the same time, I honed the organizational, managerial and technical skills that helped me shepherd three years’ worth of music productions successfully from the proverbial ‘light bulb’ to the airwaves."
Recent tomandandy endeavors include spots for such clients as Mello Yello, Nautica fragrances, Sony, Dodge Neon and Blue Cross.
In addition to commercials, Davis’ music experience encompasses long-form and the record industry. He has produced and played on albums, and is currently producing the score for a feature-length documentary for public television. The latter project entails meshing music from Vietnam and Mississippi, the two prime shooting venues for the film. He noted that "solving different kinds of music-for-picture problems has repeatedly given me a fresh creative perspective in my advertising work."
