Brad Music, a five-year-old music production house based in Pleasant Ridge, Mich., has expanded by opening an outpost in Chicago.
Brad Music Chicago is headed by Chicago-based sales rep/ office manager Debbie Ives, who previously spent seven years as a scheduler at audio production facility, Ron Rose Productions, Southfield, Mich. Brad Music’s full-time staff composers-company owner Brad Fairman, John Nixon, Colton Park Weatherston-will divide their time between the Michigan and Chicago offices as projects dictate. Also available to Brad Music is West Coast-based composer Tommy Coster Jr., who serves as a part-time contributor.
The Chicago branch is a writing/recording room that duplicates one of the three rooms in the Michigan office; it includes a Yamaha O2R digital mixing console and a Mac G3 with Logic Platinum Audio, along with assorted synthesizers and samplers.
Fairman said that, until now, Brad Music hasn’t really pushed for work in Chicago because the company always had plenty of jobs from the Detroit-area market; he said that in the last five years, they’ve worked for many of the major Detroit agencies. And although the company formerly had a Chicago-based rep, Fairman added, people were reluctant to travel to Detroit to do music for projects.
"I wanted to put a room in Chicago so that I could feasibly pitch work in town and have it finished here," said Fairman. "In the past, we’d have to fly in and work at Chicago Recording Company and rent a room to finish the project. In order to get more work out of Chicago, I felt it necessary to have a complete running facility. And, we finally have enough people on staff to where we could make it work."
Recent Brad Music projects include a ’98 Gold Clio-winning spot "Asteroid" for the Detroit Zoo via Doner, Southfield, Mich. Other spots include Lowe’s, Blockbuster, La-Z-Boy, Coca-Cola and B.F. Goodrich, all via Doner; White Castle via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit; Chrysler-Jeep and Plymouth out of Bozell Worldwide, Southfield; Chevy via Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich.; Lincoln-Mercury via Young & Rubicam, Detroit; Ski-Doo out of Ogilvy & Mather, Dearborn; Cadillac via DMB&B, Troy, Mich.. In addition to the company’s spot work, Fairman and Coster Jr. supplied the dramatic score for the ’98 Miramax feature film I Got The Hook-Up directed by Michael Martin.
