Recording - April 2011 - 50

Continued from page 49 I’m surprised it’s that big, but I trust you, because you’re not only a guy who does it every day, but you’re a student and observer of it. It’s shocking when you consider how much it has flipped. Was there a pivot point? I’m guessing that it might have been some of Apple’s early spots that started using hipper bands, or was it before that? Peter: Apple can’t really be confused with advertising, because when Apple does an ad, they’re really an entertainment company, they’re not selling soup or cars. So they are happy to promote their own record label or music superstore that they are. But, of course, advertising being the ultimate copycat industry, they’re going to look at whoever is doing the hippest thing and go, “We want to do that.” And Apple kind of set the bar pretty high, then the rest of the industry started to look at what Apple was doing and wanted to equate their brand with that. That kind of lit the fuse for licensing and looking for real genuine artists to use their music in their advertising. It fit their demographic, and it was an attempt at a lot of these old stodgy companies, from companies to communications companies, to look hipper. Everybody wants that younger audience, everybody wants that key 18- to 34-year-old demographic, and you’re going to get that if you find music from young emerging artists. And that’s kind of where we are right now. The only thing I will amend—and this gets into the conversation we had not long ago—is that we are actually seeing the re-emergence of jingles, or songs written specifically for an ad. Kentucky Fried Chicken is using it now. Certainly McDonald’s has been doing it for really a long time, and has done it as well as anybody. That is actually starting to make a comeback, because we now we’re getting to the back end of the cycle of folks buying up pre-existing tracks, and maybe, well, what’s the new thing? Maybe we want to do our own McDonald’s kind of thing. So you can see how the ebb and flow goes. You know, there’s a certain point in time where that idea wanes and something else shows up. Stephan: The uses of songs are being driven by companies that have a new title, which is lifestyle. There are a lot of brands or companies now that are lifestyle brands, and they want to communicate to a younger audience. Certainly the car companies, the clothing companies, apparel companies, sportswear, Nike, all of these companies are looking to get a youth-oriented audience to buy their products. The best way they know how is through songs, because that’s what they’ll listen to. They feel there’s a direct correlation, a direct connection. So speaking of songs, how long have you been screening songs at TAXI now? Four or five months? And I would say it’s a fair statement to say that you, Todd
50

and Pat probably screen the vast majority of the advertising stuff that we filter and send to New York to Peter, which thankfully every time we send Peter a batch, he says,“Awesome.”One time we sent him 31 forwards and I thought he would take like three of those to the agency. But he thought they were all amazing and took all 31 to them! You and I were having a conversation, Stephan, in my office last week, and I said,“So now you’ve been here for awhile, have you noticed on submissions for the advertising stuff the same thing that we see on so many other submissions across the board, which is people not getting the genre right?”Do you remember what your answer was? Stephan: I believe it was something to the tune of looking at what is actually being asked for, as opposed to what it was they had in the trunk that maybe could float. There isn’t enough effort from the TAXI members to specifically target what is exactly being asked for here? It’s a visual medium that you’re trying to get your music coupled with, and you have to look at your music in a new way in that it’s something that’s going to be used as underscore to a visual, not a piece of music that you’re gonna go and listen to on the headphones and send to your friends and all of that. It’s not a stand-alone usage, it’s a synchronistic use. It’s a use where your music is going to add something to a visual and create a message. I think the number you said was close to 80% of the submissions it seemed like people didn’t read the listings well, and you made a comment like,“I wish I could teach them how to read the listings better.”They should go through and underline the actual genre, underline the references. What they’re submitting is what they want the listing to read like, not was the end user is actually asking for. Stephan: Well, it’s a different mindset. It’s what I just said, it’s the mindset of the music that’s being used is used under a visual. It’s score, it’s not standalone music. So you have to learn how to think like that. Take a product… You have a request for a song in commercial, would your piece of music work if it was buried under a voiceover and sound effects and everything else? Would it still be effective? It’s not a stand-alone piece of music that you pull off your iPod. Peter: Can I just amplify that in a somewhat different way? If anybody gets a listing and goes, “Ah, it’s advertising, you lose.” Advertising wants authenticity and “cool” no less than video games do, film does, or the record industry does. Everybody I have ever worked with, every musician I work with in New York are the folks doing the records. The producers … the hippest people. I’m like a kid in the candy store. I have access to the hippest people on the planet. I can call Herbie Hancock. If I need the most burning bebop track, I can call Herbie. This is who you’re up against. This is not to dissuade you, but the competition is fierce. But you have to approach every project…. You have to write the coolest, best thing you can write. And if it’s an Indie

track—if it’s a Foo Fighters track, or if it’s a Miles Davis-inspired thing—it’s got to be the shit on every level. It can’t be halfway there; it can’t be 90% of the way there, because there are so many people who can absolutely nail it. And I’m saying that to inspire you. And what you should be writing is what you write best. But don’t in any way try and either downplay it or—I tell this to Michael all the time— don’t be clever. Be smart, be cool and be great, because that’s what they’re looking for. I had to do a Hip-Hop track for this Bacardi project, and wound up working with Timbaland protégé, a kid named Danja. He blew me out of the water. The loops didn’t match; shit was de-tuned, there was stuff goin’ on all over the place; and the sum total of it was the hippest, deepest thing I’d ever heard in my life. That’s your inspiration. You need to aspire to that level as if you were writing a song for your own album or a track for a movie. Stephan: And it didn’t cost them a lot of money. They didn’t have to go into a very expensive studio and hire a whole bunch of musicians. He did it the same way you guys [in the audience] do it—an obscure creativity. It’s just creative, tap into it. Something that I found hysterical was when I was in New York with Peter. He and I were getting ready to go to an agency, and he said to me,“Michael, this is the agency that everybody wants to work at. They are the coolest, hippest shop in town. They are small, but they’re mighty. Everybody wants to be a part of what they’re doing. When you get there, stress the A&R part of what TAXI does. If you go in there and try to sell them music, you’re just another guy trying to sell them music. But if you go in there as the CEO of the world’s leading independent A&R company, and they think that they have just discovered this awesome resource, then they’re gonna love it.” Peter: It’s cachet. It’s all about cachet, and it’s about the new cool. You know, “We do records, films and TV, and video games. We’ve never really dealt with advertising.” Then it’s like, “Please come and work for us.” You know, perception is reality. You’re casting a perception, but you’ve got to have the goods to deliver. And I will say the first project that I asked Michael to do… And I won’t tell you what the project is, or the agency, but I can tell you that it’s for a major advertisement for a major advertising agency, and it was for a new arrangement for a Beatles track, “All Together Now.” They wanted it to sound like Band of Skulls with Burundi drums. Peter: The direction was in the vibe of the band Band of Skulls. I got six tracks [from TAXI members] that showed up on my computer a few days later that absolutely floored me. So if any of you folks are out there, I got to tell you, man, you guys absolutely nailed it, because you went for it. And the proof is in the pudding, because I sent it to Continued on page 53

Recording - April 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2011