Composer Michael Lande has come aboard Hank Smith Music, the San Francisco-based studio owned by composers Mark Harrison and Blaise Smith. For the past three years, Lande had worked out of Hank Smith on a freelance basis, while also maintaining his own entity, Clang Buzz Thump, Oakland, Calif. Per the deal, Hank Smith has absorbed Clang Buzz Thump’s client roster and outstanding commitments, including music for a CD-ROM game via interactive design firm Imaginengine, San Francisco. The project is based on several Nickelodeon programs, among them SpongeBob SquarePants and Hey Arnold!
Prior to joining Hank Smith, Lande scored via Clang Buzz Thump the opening segment of the trailer for this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival, Mill Val-ley, Calif., which was created by San Francisco agency Scheyer/ SF. Radium, San Francisco, produced the initial sequence, which blends CG with some footage of a gas station, introducing a complicated scenario that is played out in the film’s remaining segments.
Through Hank Smith, freelancer Lande recently composed music for three :30s promoting the Mercury News, which were created by Saatchi & Saatchi, San Francisco, and directed by Jayson Moyer of bicoastal Believe Media. The black-and-white spots feature people reading bad news in the newspaper. For instance, "Restaurant Review" finds a chef reading an unfavorable review of his own restaurant, while "Dot Com" shows a downsized Internet employee riding a bus and reading about plummeting Web stocks and the end of the online gold rush.
Lande’s other noteworthy freelance credits via Hank Smith include scoring an international Polaroid campaign out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, which encompassed a half-dozen spots promoting the Joycam and i-Zone. Peter Care of bicoastal Bob Industries directed the ads. According to Harrison, Lande "is great at orchestration and his jazz chops are incredible." Lande has also scored spots for Sprint, AT&T, Sears and Disney.
"I really enjoyed working with Hank Smith, and I like the kinds of projects coming through the studio," said Lande, explaining his rationale for formally joining the company.
Lande has worked as an independent musician for the past nine years, both in San Francisco and in Lawrence, Kan., where he lived from 1994 to’97. He began his career as manager of the San Francisco Audio Network, a recording studio. Upon returning to the Bay Area three years ago, he formed Clang Buzz Thump.
In addition to his commercial credits, he has worked in film and new media. His music credits include: the documentary Across Time & Space, by Kathryn Golden; the PBS series Livelyhood; a promotional CD-ROM for "You Bet" horse-betting software; and an industrial video for Hewlett-Packard. While he works primarily as a composer, Lande has also collected credits as a sound designer, including the documentary Their Own Vietnam, by Nancy Kates, which won a student Academy Award.
Hank Smith was formed 10 years ago, and Harrison said the company is currently expanding, in both staff size and office space. Lande brings the studio’s composer roster to four, including Harrison, Smith and Darin Wilson, while the music house continues to rely on several specialized freelance musicians. In the near future, Harrison said, the company will add additional recording and composition space to its current location.
Hank Smith is repped on the West Coast, in the Southwest and the Midwest by Los Angeles-based Rachel Finn and San Francisco-based Mary Saxon of Finn Saxon.
