Some ad agencies have music producers who work as part of their production department, but Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, has set up a division, Music Aid, solely devoted to finding music for spots. Composer Ira Antelis, who formerly headed the now defunct Chicago-based firm Antelis Music, heads up the new division.
"Creatives now have the ability to come downstairs and listen to twenty-five different things because of the library of music I’ve brought with me," says Antelis, who previously worked with Leo Burnett on music for spots promoting Kraft, Hallmark and Philip Morris. "By playing things, it will help in their final decision about what kind of music they want."
Music Aid officially launched in November, but Antelis started setting up the division in September. He says he’s been incredibly busy ever since then—by late January, Music Aid had already done 100 jobs. Antelis composed music for about a third of those ads, including the tracks for: the U.S. Army’s "Dog Tags," directed by Andrew Douglas of bicoastal Anonymous, and Nintendo’s "Cut Outs," directed by Chris Milk of bicoastal/ international @radical.media. Additionally, Antelis has used music houses such as Sound Deluxe, Los Angeles; Amber Music, New York—the shop also has a London office; and Catfish Music, Chicago.
Jonathan Davis, director of television production at Leo Burnett, says Music Aid has "been set up to provide a creative, knowledgeable professional service for helping us with our music tracks, and to ensure that we get the best possible quality for our creative product. [Antelis] is there as a resource for the producers and the creatives."
Antelis, currently the only composer with Music Aid, relates that the division came into being because of his close working relationship with Cheryl Berman, chairman/chief creative office of Leo Burnett USA. "I do most of Cheryl Berman’s music," he explains. "We collaborate on a lot of stuff." The pair has teamed on both spots and non-commercial projects. This work includes "This Is Your Hallmark Gold Crown Store," the McDonald’s song "What You Want Is What You Get" (the McDonald’s account is now with DDB Chicago), and "It’s Time To Remember the Magic," which was used to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Disney World.
"Because of our relationship, and because of her responsibilities here at the agency, it became more and more difficult for her to leave the building and come to music sessions," he notes.
One day Antelis remarked to Berman, " ‘I’m just going to have to move my studio into your building. It’ll make your life easier.’ Then we got to thinking, ‘Why not do something like that?’ " he recalls. "We could continue to do music, and there’s so much that goes out of here that I think she felt could be improved on. She wanted somebody to oversee it and help all the creatives. That’s how Music Aid got started."
One of Antelis’ main challenges at Music Aid is to find the right composer and/or sound designer for the job. "If the creatives say to me, ‘We would like you to do this,’ I’ll say, ‘I think I can do it,’ or I’ll suggest someone who’s better at it than I am. When there are songs involved, that’s usually my strength.
"I’m the first to say, ‘Here are four or five music houses that can do it,’ " continues Antelis. "My idea is not to force my music down anyone’s throat. I’ve been listening to [and watching] reels and have opened doors for people who have never worked here at the agency before."
Antelis often collaborates with talent from other music houses on projects. The composer, who’s been writing jingles for more than 15 years, knows just whom to call when he needs help. A good example of this sort of collaboration is Antelis’ work with Mike Pendowski, of Mike Pendowski Music, Chicago. The two have collaborated on some soon-to-air work.
"Mike is one of the best big-band arrangers in the country," says Antelis. "I thought I could do this job, but I really needed a great horn arrangement. Even though it was done through Music Aid, I contracted him to do the horn arrangements. I could never do that before. It’s the best of all worlds."
"Sometimes I might not give [composers] the jobs, but they’ll work with me because later on I’ll hopefully give them some work," he observes. "There’s a guy in town, Jeff Jacobs, who’s in the band Foreigner. Even though Jeff has his own music company [that works on ads], he’ll come in and play keyboards for me. He doesn’t look at it as competition anymore."
Antelis, whose main instrument is keyboards, frequently uses another local musician to work on rhythm tracks for Music Aid projects. "Matt Walker, who’s played with the Smashing Pumpkins, comes in and does a lot of my rhythm stuff with me. He’ll play drums and do programming."
Antelis points out that there can be problems when a non-musician heads up a music department. "Where people have made mistakes is when they’ve hired music people, who don’t play music, to organize things," he states. "The key is finding somebody who’s really done it. If somebody brings me a musical problem, I can sit down at the keyboard and tell him where the problem is. I can play it twenty different ways and say, ‘Which solution do you like?’ as opposed to saying, ‘Here’s twenty thousand dollars; go figure it out.’ "
The head of Music Aid believes that his status as a veteran of the commercial music business makes him well suited to overseeing an ad shop’s musical needs. "There’s no problem that I have not met in this business," he states. "That comes from being in the studio every day for the last twenty years of my life. Somebody who hasn’t had that experience might not be able to bring what I bring to a position like this."
Davis—to whom Antelis reports —says that Music Aid has made the process of creating music for spots more efficient. "It does definitely save time," he stresses. "Music is always quite a hard area. It’s like speaking a different language, and it’s nice to have somebody who is very knowledgeable and can get right to the heart of whom you should really be talking to.
"[Having Music Aid] has cut down on the amount of time it takes to make a choice on music houses," continues Davis. "It has made [the process] a lot more focused. In doing that, it’s really helped on our costs on music production, as well. With Ira came his producer, Bonny Dolan, who is also there as a resource for my production department to check budgets that are coming in from music studios. We found that there have been great savings. She has truly earned her money since being here." Bolan serves as music manager of Music Aid.
Does Antelis plan to expand the division, perhaps by hiring more in-house composers? "My hope is that, as we grow, there will be other people I can bring in," he replies. "For instance, sound design is not my thing, but I’d love to have somebody around who could do it. If creatives needed to explore some ideas [with sound design], they could just come downstairs and talk to somebody."
Antelis, a native New Yorker, earned his a degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1980. He taught music at New York University, and also started to write jingles. He eventually moved to Chicago, where he worked at now defunct TMK Elias and at Klaff/Weinstein. In the late ’80s, he formed Shafer/ Antelis Music with composer/ arranger Steve Shafer, who is now a partner at SPANK! Music and Sound Design, Chicago and Santa Monica. "We did ‘Be Like Mike,’ for Gatorade, which put us on the map in a big way," recalls Antelis. In ’96, he opened Antelis Music.
As well as writing for commercials, Antelis has written and/or produced songs for numerous recording artists, including Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony and Patti LaBelle. He’s also written two theatrical musicals: Just One World and In Sarajevo. In addition, he and Cheryl Berman penned the Chicago Bulls theme song, "Only the Bulls."
Antelis credits Berman, his frequent collaborator, with teaching him a lot about the ad music business. "I think she’s helped me learn what advertising and music should be," he states. "She’s brought me here to help spread that a little bit." r
