Composer Jon Mooney has joined the New York operation of bicoastal music company Face The Music. Most recently, Mooney was a freelancer. His last staff position was at the Santa Monica office of bicoastal tomandandy, which he left in 2000. At Face The Music, Mooney’s credits include AOL’s "Teen/All Your Senses " via Gotham Inc., New York, and GMC’s "Better" via Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York.
Mooney is a native of Galway City, Ireland, who took up the piano at age four and later played guitar in a band. He studied civil engineering at the University of Galway City, but dropped out in his final year and enrolled in a three-month sound engineering course at The Sound Training Centre, Dublin, in 1992. "I was making demos and producing other bands," he explained, "so I decided to try music production." Mooney worked in Dublin for about a year before moving to New York in ’93 to try his luck as a sound engineer.
Soon after arriving, Mooney went to Clinton Recording Studio, establishing himself as a studio engineer. He spent two years there before relocating to Los Angeles in ’95, where he joined Record Plant Studios. There Mooney worked as an engineer on Michael Jackson’s Blood on the Dance Floor release, as well as on several songs that Sting recorded for Disney.
Eventually, however, Mooney tired of his job: "I got burned out; I was engineering formula R&B and hip hop acts—it was really not creative," he said. In ’98, Mooney’s friend Tim Boland, a composer at tomandandy’s Los Angeles office, suggested that Mooney might enjoy working on spots: "I was cynical, thinking, ‘I don’t know if I want to do commercials,’ " Mooney admitted. But he was favorably impressed by what he heard at tomandandy, and soon joined the company as an engineer. Within a few weeks Mooney was composing music for spots such as Cadillac’s "Power of People" and "Action/Reaction" via D’Arcy Detroit, Troy, Mich.
Also at tomandandy, Mooney met producer Sara Weeks. The two became friends, keeping in touch after Mooney left the shop in ’00, to travel and compose on his own. Through Weeks, who by last fall had become a producer at Face the Music, New York, Mooney started freelancing for that company’s Los Angeles office. Towards the end of ’00, Weeks told Mooney that Face the Music was expanding its New York roster, and suggested that he meet with owner/executive producer Adam Joseph and owner/producer Joe Sicurella. Mooney came to New York, talked with the owners and was offered a place at the shop.
"Clients really respond to Jon," Sicurella offered. "He’s got a unique sound and approach; there’s a lot of depth to his work. He’s been exposed to all different kinds of music, and he demands a lot of himself. …" Referring to his musical style, Mooney commented, "I come from an experimental background. … There’s no formula to what I do; I’m constantly exploring the possibilities. I just did a branding campaign for Showtime Women [the cable network Showtime’s new channel; the assignment was direct from the client], where I did everything from hardcore electronica to ambient jazz."
Face the Music’s other composers are Eric Rehl and Joe Hudson in New York, and producer/composer John Author and composers Paul Robb and Paul Rhim in Los Angeles. Face The Music also represents composers Kevin Sergent, Ronnie Paris, and Electric Wonderland (Brian and Ken Foreman), all of London-based Traxx, in the U.S.
Face the Music is repped by Sharon Lew of Lew & Co., New York, on the East Coast; Marguerite Juliusson and Dawn Ratcliffe of Juliuson/Ratcliffe, Chicago, in the Midwest; and Claire Worch of Claire & Company, Manhattan Beach, Calif., on the West Coast.
