The wife-and-husband team of executive producer Kiki Einziger and executive creative director Ben Einziger has launched CAYA Music & Sound. The new venture provides advertising clients with services including original composition, sound design, music supervision, sonic identity, voiceover and final mix.
The Einzigers came up with the company moniker–which stands for “Come As You Are”–based on it being a mantra they embrace. “However you identify, come to CAYA as YOU. People are inherently unique beings, and often times, insecurity and fears can steer us into uniformity,” said Kiki. “We encourage our clients to stand out! Authenticity is crucial to our process. We invite you to tell us your story, and together we’ll discover its authentic sound.”
True representation is paramount to the CAYA founders. “As a Cuban American woman, I feel a strong sense of pride that CAYA is a female and minority-owned business,” said Kiki. “I’d be proud in any climate, but reading the headlines reporting that Latina and Black women currently hold the highest unemployment rate in the U.S., it feels even bigger to me right now.”
Ben and Kiki met in advertising, and worked as colleagues for years before becoming lovebirds. Having started on the agency side, Kiki led the production department at MassiveMusic for almost a decade. During that time, she produced music for brands such as Target, Coke, Hulu, Budweiser, Dr. Pepper, and Taco Bell.
At Massive, Ben was the creative director with a focus on business development. Ben comes from a strong musical background: his mother was an opera singer; his brother is the lead guitarist for Incubus; and at age 23, Ben saw his first rock band sign a deal with Atlantic Records. Ben was first given the opportunity to compose for a broadcast commercial 14 years ago while he was touring the world with his band. Pairing his ear for composition with a mind for business development, the rest is, as they say, history.
“Ultimately, Kiki and I decided it was time to leave the nest and start a new adventure,” explained Ben who noted, “As a composer, I won’t write for a project that’s outside my musical wheelhouse. That’s the beauty of being a creative director, knowing when and which virtuosos to bring in that genuinely understand the true sound of the requested genre.”
To that end, CAYA has curated a pool of over 100 composers and sound designers located all over the globe, each specializing in particular genres. Having a reach to composers in varying time zones is a huge logistical advantage for CAYA, as it means production occurs on a 24-hour cycle.
The ability to laser in on the brief and emerge with spot-on sound is showcased in CAYA’s advertising debut, the Nike spot “You Can’t Be Stopped.” Ben explained, “Based on AKQA’s creative direction, we knew the music needed to feel contemporary, lively, authentic, and human. It’s not in us to ‘fake the funk’ so we ended up recording a live horn section and gospel choir. I’ve watched the spot probably 200 times, and it still makes me want to dance every time I hear it.”
CAYA has a handful of other projects already out the door, including the recent creative campaign for wellness brand NOOM, and spots for KIA and Taco Bell. Additionally, CAYA is crafting bespoke sonic identities for several major brands slated to be released later this year.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More