1) The creative team on the agency side was so passionate about the work that they didn’t confine themselves to the whole “fixed length” thing in the edit. They were sending over :63s, :57s, :72s… We knew it would eventually end up as a :60 for broadcast, but of course we obliged their requests to make it work a bunch of different ways. At the end of the project there was a feeling of accomplishment that came from more than just long hours… I think what we really learned was more of a reminder… that taking the long way around, raising the bar, pushing past a familiar set of confines can ultimately loosen things up and allow the creative process to flourish. It’s good when people care about things.
2) The North Face “Neverstop” spot was special to work on. Mainly because so much of the music was written in real time and in person… and because our client really believed in what we were doing. I also thought that license of “Fantastic Man” by William Onyeabor was great in the Apple “Barbers” spot. We had nothing to do with that, but it worked!!! Hats off to stuff that works.
3) I think music shops function best as partners. Dedicated, committed… not just to writing and creating but to communicating about one of the most subjective and visceral parts of the creative process. An evolution I’d say has been a tendency (for reasons that totally make sense) for people to cast wide nets… and while wide nets keep you safer, they don’t actually write music. People do. Finding something nobody hates isn’t as cool as creating something somebody loves. I think the evolution of the music shop is to focus on that.
4) What year is it again?
5) Despite one of my partners and several of our composers being gaming maniacs, we haven’t done many projects within the VR/AR space yet. we have friends who do, though. outside of the gaming world – and even within the gaming world – we haven’t sensed the kind of demand for content that would necessitate us entering the space. We’re very much intrigued by it, however.
