Farmington Hills, Mich.-headquartered commercial music production company Yessian Music has signed Manhattan-based composer/arranger/sound designer Hayley Moss for spot representation.
Moss will work from her Tribeca loft studio, which will be available for the other Yessian Music composers. That lineup consists of company president/ executive producer/composer/ arranger Dan Yessian; composers/arrangers Danny Beckerman, Brian Brill, Chris Plansker and Kurt Schreitmueller; and sound designers Jeff Buikema and Tom Myers.
This is the first commercial music house affiliation for Moss, whose lush, ethereal scores appear on several new age/ambient music compilation CDs, including Space Shuttle Lounge and Miambient. Her composing credits also include Beautopia, a documentary feature about the fashion industry, which premiered at the ’98 Sundance Film Festival; and a ’96 documentary feature Mirror, Mirror, which has been screened at assorted festival venues, including the Berlin Film Festival.
In addition, Moss has scored a number of theatrical dance performances by the Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre, among them Temptation, Falling Angel, Babylon and Fear of Flying.
Moss, who had been handled for spotwork by New York-based rep Maria Stenz, has garnered sporadic commercial scoring jobs over the last four years. They include the spots "Destination" and "Fuel Quality," for British Petroleum via Doner, Southfield, Mich.; "Boundaries," for Putnam Investments via Margeotes Fertitta + Partners, New York, and "Poetry," a PSA opposing violence against women, sponsored by Liz Claiborne via Gotham, New York.
The addition of Moss rounds out the company’s talent roster, said Dan Yessian. "Haley offers new colors and ideas within the realm of electronica, techno, ambient and atmospheric texturing," he stated. "She’s more on the musical side of sound design. She may take things that she created herself and combine them with another musical texture."
"She’s not afraid to experiment," continued Yessian. "She may bring in someone from another discipline—for example, the recording business—people who are a little more on the exotic side in their thinking, like she is. What evolves is on the unusual side—not enough to destroy the message or the picture—but something that really underscores the message in a different way."
Moss answered a blind ad that Yessian Music placed in SHOOT, which sought a left-of-center composer, related Yessian. Impressed by her reel, the company gave Moss—along with other Yessian composers—the opportunity to contribute compositions for several projects. Moss’ score was chosen for a Lincoln-Mercury spot for the Mercury Grand Marquis, titled "Indulge Yourself" via Y&R Detroit, and for "Race For The Cure," an industrial piece promoting Komen Race For The Cure, a series of 5K runners’ marathons benefiting cancer charities. The latter was sponsored by Ford Motor Co. and created by J. Walter Thompson, Detroit.
Relating that she’d never wanted to join a music house because she likes being independent, Moss said she’d sent her reel in response to the ad as "a fluke." She added, "I was curious to see how they’d respond to my reel. They asked how I’d feel about trying the Lincoln-Mercury job; I did it as a freelancer and it worked out really well. I loved working with them. It was nice to have a production team behind me."
After she began talking with Yessian Music about coming aboard, Moss noted, several other music shops also began pursuing her. "I told them I wasn’t interested in joining a music house, but that I liked Yessian Music so much; I liked the people. It just seemed right. It works out great for both of us: Yessian gets its foot in the door of the New York market, and I have access to the Midwest." Moss is currently at work on several demo projects for the company.
Sales for Yessian Music are handled in-house by Helen Kaye, who covers Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Florida and Colorado; Brian Yessian, who handles Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Canada; and Caroline Stephens, who focuses on the rest of the country, including the New York and California markets.
