Feature film and television composer John Swihart–who recently signed with Visual Music, Woodland Hills, for commercial, film trailer and promo representation–has completed work on his first national spots: “We Get Technology,” “We Get Laptops” and “We Get Business” for CompUSA through The Richards Group, Dallas.
The :30s include a myriad of sounds like the acoustic guitar, flute, dobro and electric bass. Akin to the quirky music he wrote for Napoleon Dynamite, the unique sounds drive unusual imagery. But, instead of gangly teenagers, the CompUSA spots show employees alternately interacting with miniscule and giant electronics, like a laptop that is much larger than the three people who are plugging a cord into it.
Though he has done a smattering of commercials work before, this campaign, which includes several radio spots, is Swihart’s largest to date.
“Commercials are fun because you pour a lot of energy into thirty seconds. There is something interesting about it that is unique to itself,” Swihart said. “With every work experience you learn things and I feel lucky that I get to do what I do for a living anyway. Doing as many different kinds of work [as I can] I think just makes me a better writer.”
Swihart is also currently composing music for the CBS series How I Met Your Mother and has recently completed the music for the feature Champions, which is scheduled to premier at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival (SXSW Film). He has also written music for the upcoming films Full of It, The Great New Wonderful and The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang.
Swihart attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and has been composing music for television, features and shorts for the past four years. He made the leap to the West Coast with Blue Man Group in March of 2000. He performed with the group for four months in Boston. Then the show opened in Las Vegas and Swihart seized the opportunity to get closer to Los Angeles; the city he noted was always his “final destination.” By January of 2001 he left Vegas and completed his journey to L.A.
Noting that the composer plays many instruments including the guitar, saxophone, bass, mandolin, dobro and pedal steel, Visual Music creative director and producer Tom Seufert related, “Most people don’t know the range of what John is capable of doing as a composer and as a performer–he is a really good performer.”
Swihart has also completed the theme music for Bandai’s Tamagotchi Town Web site (TamagotchiTown.com) and nine variations of that theme through Colby & Partners, Santa Monica.
MUSIC TO HIS EARS
It was the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack that first exposed Seufert to Swihart’s music. Seufert’s teen daughter was a fan of the film and played the CD for her dad. “When I first heard the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack, I said, ‘Who would do this? Who would just have an electric piano and an organ and no base and a drum machine? Who does this?’ Nobody does this,” Seufert remembered.
Early last year Seufert met Frederick Wedler, who was the line producer on Napoleon Dynamite. Wedler in turn introduced Seufert to Swihart. Since the two have started working together and pursuing projects, Seufert has found that “there’s a lot of affection for [John’s music]” among agency staffers. Seufert describes his music as having elements of Thomas Newman (American Beauty and Jarhead), T-Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain) and Danny Elfman (Corpse Bride and Big Fish).
The Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack, which was a compilation of work from various artists and included Swihart’s original score, was nominated for a Grammy Award this year for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
“Napoleon was a lot of fun. My keyboard chops where pretty tight by the end of that gig because it was such a stripped down production; it was a lot of takes and getting the performance just right,” Swihart related. “It’s really great when you get something that makes you laugh while you’re working on it–not a bad way to spend the day. Every project is fun and torturous at the same time. You slave over stuff hoping people receive it well. Luckily for this one, it has been true.”
On his approach to composing music, Swihart shared, “If I can do something that’s different, that’s always fun. Composers often get asked to do something that sounds like something else and that’s never quite as much fun as trying to do something you feel, at least, is original.”
For the CompUSA spots credit at the agency goes to John Christian, producer; Todd McArtor, art director; and Danny Bryan, copywriter. They were directed by William Lebeda via Los Angeles-based The Picture Mill. Rebecca Baehler was DP and Kye Kraute edited via Picture Mill. At Visual Music, Seufert was creative director and music producer. Jared Hess of bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures directed Napoleon Dynamite.
