Bicoastal music/sound design house tomandandy has named Andy Muson as executive producer of its West Coast operation. Muson, who comes to the shop after three years as music supervisor for Fox Family Worldwide, succeeds former West Coast executive producer John Author, who joined the company about a year ago (SHOOT, 10/15/99, p. 7). According to tomandandy co-founder/composer Tom Hajdu, Author left to explore freelance producing opportunities, and may collaborate with tomandandy in the future.
Muson joins the company, which is headed by Hajdu and partner/composer Andy Milburn, as it takes on additional office space that doubles the size of the Santa Monica facility to approximately 6,000 square feet. The executive producer’s immediate plans are to "streamline production and expand into the new space," which will house additional studios and client services suites. Muson plans to bring in additional composers and sound designers, as well. Currently, the West Coast staff consists of Hadju, composers Sam Retzer and Tim Boland, and sound designer Michelle Garuik. The company brought Garuik on board earlier this year.
"Andy is really experienced and brings a background in management as well as an understanding of music production and technology," said Hadju. He added that the executive producer will be instrumental as the various business units within tomandandy "start to converge." Tomandandy also comprises a record label called atomcandy, a technology and new media division, and original merchandise.
Since joining tomandandy, Muson has been involved with spots for clients such as the Lincoln Navigator, Brita and Cadillac. Lincoln Navigator, out of Young & Rubicam, Irvine, Calif., was directed by the agency’s producer Robert Parker, with music composed by Retzer. Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions, Santa Monica, directed the Brita spot via DDB, San Francisco, with music composed by Boland and sound design by Garuik. The Cadillac commercial, out of D’Arcy, Los Angeles, was helmed by Darius Wolski of Los Angeles-based Ritts/Hayden, with music composed by Retzer and sound design by Garuik. Recent longform projects at tomandandy include the film No Maps, directed by Mark Neale.
While at Fox Family Worldwide, which consists of the Fox Family Channel and the Fox Kids Network, Muson supervised music for Digimon: The Movie, as well as several ads for Digimon merchandise via J. Walter Thompson, Los Angeles. He was also involved in such cable films as Casper Meets Wendy, Dangerous Waters and National Lampoon’s Men in White.
Prior to his tenure at Fox, Muson spent two years as a producer at 7th Level Studios, Glendale, Calif. While there he co-produced the CD-ROM Music and Man with Quincy Jones.
Muson moved over to 7th Level after a stint at now defunct Passport Designs, a music software firm. Earlier in his career, he spent several years as a freelance musician and composer based in Los Angeles and New York. During that time he collaborated with artists such as James Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono and Manhattan Transfer. Muson studied music at the Juilliard School of the Arts, New York.
