Recording - March 2013 - 55

Julie: I think tempo is a very key element of
that.

Me Nots’” song, they originally had White
Stripes, but she expanded the palate a little
bit to include a female vocal, and the song
still kicks ass, but in a different way, and they
didn’t have to rip off the White Stripes and
have anybody do a Jack White imitation.

John: I think the music supervisors who are
really trying to do distinctive work really
don’t want to settle for a sound-alike or something like that. There’s always a more creative
solution, even to open up a director’s mind.
It’s just lame to have sort of a watered-down
version if you can’t get the band Jet. You
know… just to do a “Do You Want to Be My
Girl” rip-off, there’s no value there. So, like
Julie did with the [TAXI members] “The Love

I can’t thank you guys enough for doing this. Having all four of the Houlihans here is just awesome.
Did you guys in the audience enjoy this?
[applause] Pat, thanks for doing this from your
vacation. I really appreciate it. I’m sure that the
minutes with your family are precious. So thanks
for taking an hour and 20 minutes with us. Ladies
and gentlemen, John Houlihan, Kevin Houlihan,
Julie Houlihan, and the cardboard cutout of Mr.
Patrick Houlihan! Thank you all. [applause]

Yeah, that’s a great word. Because it is all about,
“Does it have that same visceral impact as the
other song?” Probably not as much about the lyric.
Continued from page 52
word that Michael Stipe said on the first
three records, and they became the biggest
band in the world. So that’s just kind of
where music is at right now. But all the stuff
that’s sticking, all the Indie music that’s
working in advertising and that is making it
into films, pretty much is summing it up by
the time you get to the chorus, or there’s one
big phrase that everybody can hold on to.
I’m going to go to Patrick with a thought that
came in one brain cell and flew out the other:
sound-alikes. We just brushed on that. Julie
mentioned it. We get listings all the time now
from people looking to replace a song. The band
didn’t want to license it, or it doesn’t fit in the
budget, and the project needs a replacement. So
we have to say in our listing: “Don’t rip it off.
Don’t copy them, but we want a similar texture,
tone and vibe.” How close can somebody get
without you guys going, “Whoa, that’s dangerous,” and walking away from it?
Patrick: Pretty damn close. You know, obviously, if it’s too close, we won’t move forward
with it. But, like I was saying earlier, the journey that we all go on as we work on projects
is you usually start with the bigger more
expensive stuff at the beginning of the project, and under the guidance of the director.
And then, as you get through a couple previews and closer to the finish line and
finishing a film, you always have the sobering
conversation of, “Hey, we can’t afford all of

“Things move so quickly that you can
lose a deal by not having an
instrumental version ready to go for
every song you pitch.”
—Kevin Houlihan
this? We have to pick our tent poles and let’s
look for some stuff that creatively is in step
with what we temped in there, but is affordable to the budget.” So I would suggest,
again, it’s always a good drill as a songwriter
if you listen to the stuff that’s popping and
hitting, and is trendy… try to write something
in the spirit of that. But, that said as well, if
we give that description or we’re looking for
that specific thing, it’s usually because of
tempo and dynamic and song structure, the
way it’s settling in against picture, the way it’s
playing against dialogue, the way it’s helping
the emotion of the scene or the tension of the
scene. So it’s there as a guide, and we can get
pretty damn close without ripping it off.
John: We call them feel-alikes.

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Recording - March 2013

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