Recording - November 2013 - 51

NOVEMBER 2013

TAXI Road Rally 2011

Best of Film & TV Music With the Houlihan Clan
Moderated by Michael Laskow
Editor’s Note: The lovely woman who normally
transcribes our interviews recently broke her
wrist and is in the process of healing. As we
began to search our archives for some “best of”
material for this month’s interview, we came
across the three-part series we did with John,
Julie, Patrick, and Kevin Houlihan—all of whom
are in the business of music for film and TV.
John and Patrick are music supervisors, Julie is a
music supervisor and music editor, and Kevin is
songwriter/artist who’s been involved with film
and TV most of his adult life. He is currently the
V.P. of A&R/Film & TV Music at TAXI. We’ve handpicked some of the best interview segments for
your reading pleasure.
Kevin, what goes through your head when you
sit down and start going through 300 submissions from TAXI members?
Kevin: I’m just am looking to do what I can
to help the artist get plugged into a TV show
or film. There’s a lot of great music out there,
and a lot of the submissions that we get at
TAXI are strong songs, but often not exactly
on target. So I’m sort of the middle-man
between the artist and the supervisor, figuring out what they need. I’m really just trying
to do a service to the artist to get their music
out there into the world, and a service to the
supervisors to try to make their job easier, so
they don’t have to stay up until three o’clock
in the morning.
John: I’d like to add that for someone in
Kevin’s position [at TAXI], he’s got to earn
and keep the trust of the people looking for
the music, because if he sends in music that’s
too far out of a narrow lane, there are other
people who are playing songs that might be
more accurate and more worthy of their
time. So you don’t get many chances before
someone goes, “You know what? It’s not
going to go to so-and-so for this search,
because he comes back with the wrong music
that no one has time to listen to.”

The Royal Family of music supervisors? John, Julie, a cardboard cutout of Patrick, and Kevin Houlihan pose for a shot after their
panel at the 2011 TAXI Road Rally. Patrick was on a family vacation, so he joined the panel via telephone from Martha’s Vineyard,
and we used the cardboard cutout to fill his seat on the panel.

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

Continued on page 51
51



Recording - November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2013

Recording - November 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Creativity And Community: A Chat With Kristian Bush
Reviewed & Revisited: Apple Logic Pro X
Write—Record—Release—ROCK!
Yamaha HS7 Monitors And HS8S Subwoofer
The Windup... And The Pitch
DPA Microphones d:facto II Handheld Vocal Microphone
Focal Spirit Professional Headphones
Songwriter’s Intervention
Millennia Media NSEQ-2 EQ For The Universal Audio UAD-2 and Apollo
Be Ready!
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 23: Compression—Part 2
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - November 2013 - Intro
Recording - November 2013 - Recording - November 2013
Recording - November 2013 - Cover2
Recording - November 2013 - 1
Recording - November 2013 - 2
Recording - November 2013 - 3
Recording - November 2013 - Fade In
Recording - November 2013 - 5
Recording - November 2013 - Contents
Recording - November 2013 - 7
Recording - November 2013 - Talkback
Recording - November 2013 - 9
Recording - November 2013 - Fast Forward
Recording - November 2013 - 11
Recording - November 2013 - 12
Recording - November 2013 - 13
Recording - November 2013 - Creativity And Community: A Chat With Kristian Bush
Recording - November 2013 - 15
Recording - November 2013 - 16
Recording - November 2013 - 17
Recording - November 2013 - 18
Recording - November 2013 - 19
Recording - November 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Apple Logic Pro X
Recording - November 2013 - 21
Recording - November 2013 - 22
Recording - November 2013 - 23
Recording - November 2013 - 24
Recording - November 2013 - 25
Recording - November 2013 - Write—Record—Release—ROCK!
Recording - November 2013 - 27
Recording - November 2013 - 28
Recording - November 2013 - 29
Recording - November 2013 - 30
Recording - November 2013 - 31
Recording - November 2013 - 32
Recording - November 2013 - 33
Recording - November 2013 - 34
Recording - November 2013 - 35
Recording - November 2013 - Yamaha HS7 Monitors And HS8S Subwoofer
Recording - November 2013 - 37
Recording - November 2013 - The Windup... And The Pitch
Recording - November 2013 - 39
Recording - November 2013 - 40
Recording - November 2013 - 41
Recording - November 2013 - DPA Microphones d:facto II Handheld Vocal Microphone
Recording - November 2013 - 43
Recording - November 2013 - Focal Spirit Professional Headphones
Recording - November 2013 - 45
Recording - November 2013 - Songwriter’s Intervention
Recording - November 2013 - 47
Recording - November 2013 - Millennia Media NSEQ-2 EQ For The Universal Audio UAD-2 and Apollo
Recording - November 2013 - 49
Recording - November 2013 - 50
Recording - November 2013 - 51
Recording - November 2013 - 52
Recording - November 2013 - 53
Recording - November 2013 - 54
Recording - November 2013 - 55
Recording - November 2013 - Be Ready!
Recording - November 2013 - 57
Recording - November 2013 - 58
Recording - November 2013 - 59
Recording - November 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 23: Compression—Part 2
Recording - November 2013 - 61
Recording - November 2013 - 62
Recording - November 2013 - 63
Recording - November 2013 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - November 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - November 2013 - 66
Recording - November 2013 - 67
Recording - November 2013 - 68
Recording - November 2013 - 69
Recording - November 2013 - 70
Recording - November 2013 - 71
Recording - November 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - November 2013 - Cover3
Recording - November 2013 - Cover4
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