Thinking In Sound: Perfecting Performances with Jeff Lurie

Jeff Lurie has nearly 20 years of experience in the advertising and music industry. He began his career as a composer, writing music for brands such as KFC, Ford, and Rice Krispies. He later became an award-winning voice and audio director at TA2 Sound and Music, as well as a voiceover actor for companies like Coors, Kia, OLG, and Hyundai.

Additionally, he has sung animated theme songs for shows such as Netflix’s 'Pets of the Universe'. Jeff is also the creator of the children’s book and animated series The 'Adventures of Jaime Jangles and Her Zany Dad Jeff'.

LBB> When you’re working on a new brief or project, what’s your typical starting point? How do you break it down and how do you like to generate your ideas or response?

Jeff> To answer this question, I’ll wear two of my TA2 hats. As a director, I like to know exactly what the client wants, exactly what the agency wants, all of the background information regarding, voice, music and SFX AND to top it all off, a quick but thorough chat with the team and our EP before we get rolling. That side of the job is a bit more about filling in the blanks with the right info and making sure it's a smooth process leading up to having fun in the session and playing around with the voice. 

As a composer, my typical starting point is to see what the reference is, listen/watch it once…maybe twice, and then forget it only remembering feelings and grooves - yaaaaaa man!

Then I look at my screen, all the instruments I have in my studio, take a breath…and just start! It’s fun, I’ve learned to suppress my choice paralysis from the past and just go with it…Go ahead Jeff, grab that penny whistle or french horn! Once I let go a bit, I make some decisions, then more decisions based on my past decisions and so on…hopefully they all work well together at the end!

…breath.

LBB> Music and sound are in some ways the most collaborative and interactive forms of creativity - what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to work solo or with a gang - and what are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?

Jeff> I’m a bit of a strange case when it comes to how I work the best. The answer is BOTH.

In my life, I’ve taken both routes (solo and gang) to get better at whatever discipline I am trying to improve at and/or have fun. 

I’m an only child and took up squash as a kid, represented Canada, and competed professionally as an adult, so I know how to hunker down myself, train alone and be the only one accountable - although this can be quite lonely. This was my relationship with guitar. I learned by myself, played by myself, and as a kid didn’t know other kids that played - other than jamming sometimes with my Dad.

But then I went to university and met influential musician friends to play with and form bands. This lonely only child loved the group aspect of being together, working with others, and having a similar bond; the reason I fell in love with baseball as a kid. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. 

Today, although I still focus on improving independently, I am always (without much surprise to my mom and my school teachers) interested in being social, and working together with people to achieve something great; and to have fun and create good memories along the way. (sniff sniff)

LBB> What’s the most satisfying part of your job and why?

Jeff> I love when we hit it out of the park for a client. 

It’s a great feeling when the clients and the agencies love the process of working with us - and of course it’s always fun to see what we come up with as the end result. 

I also love being able to play around in a studio all the time! I love audio, fidgeting over it, playing all sorts of instruments, talking about it, seeing/hearing its relationship to picture and then sharing it to the world.

LBB> Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?

Jeff> There are so many influences and champions up in my noggin. 

I’ve been so lucky to have met many influential people and even work with some of them too. But I’d have to say that Fred Penner might take the cake. Not only is he a legendary Canadian Kid’s folk star, but he is one of the nicest people ever!

In a world (movie voice) where there are so many problems, he focused his efforts on the happiest of places - kids entertainment; and has impacted multiple generations. I was able to work with him on a project years ago and his professionalism, his spark, his friendliness AND his guitar playing were all inspiring.

During some down time he and I got to play some James Taylor and some Blues - that was bliss. He also is a member of the “Jangles International Orchestra” in 'Jaime Jangles: The World Tour'. (my kid’s book/animation series) Thanks Fred! 

Silver and bronze go to my Dad and my trumpet coach Tom Moffett (who also randomly knows Fred) - you guys rock!

LBB> When you’re working on something that isn’t directly sound design or music - are you the sort of person who needs music and noise in the background or is that completely distracting to you? What are your thoughts on ‘background’ sound and music as you work?

Jeff> I love having music on in the background - but not when I have to concentrate concentrate, I can have “jazz in the background” or “simple classical piano” and still process and think efficiently, but not anything too distracting.

When and if I studied in uni, I had to have complete silence - because music would make my brain wander into musician or producer mind, and I’d just want to be playing music instead of studying Modernisation Theory of Latin American in politics class. (Jeff closes books and walks home from library to jam with roommates).

LBB> I guess the quality of the listening experience and the context that audiences listen to music/sound in has changed over the years. There’s the switch from analogue to digital and now we seem to be divided between bad-ass surround-sound immersive experiences and on-the-go, low quality sound - how does that factor into how you approach your work?

Jeff> I love analogue and appreciate digital. And I don’t say that in some pretentious audiophile way. Erin (my wife) and I had pretty much totally converted our lives to digital as most do - but then came the ever-so-frequent “Alexa play Taylor Swift, Shake it Off” from Jaime and Casey our daughters - so we immediately raided my parent’s basement and now we listen to records pretty often - way more than in the 80’s when I was born because tapes were seemingly better at the time. RIP Dance Mix 1994 that I lost on the bus. 

In my home studio, I have pretty awesome speakers and also some not-so-awesome ones to figure out what mixes might sound like to the rest of the world…and of course I have my extremely dirty iPhone speakers to listen to as well. 

At TA2 we have amazing engineers and a top notch facility that enables us to provide great mixes on any sound system. We have multiple ways to listen to mixes so that we can make sure our outputs sound good to all listeners - from a broken Android speaker to a top notch 5.1 surround setup!

LBB> On a typical day, what does your ‘listening diet’ look like?

Jeff> I really just rock anything on any particular day. I’ll press shuffle on my spotify “liked songs” and then just ride a wave until another activity or moment beckons another genre or feel.

I love world music too and often listen to the app Radiooooo with my daughters and play the “What decade, and what country?” game. The app allows you to listen to popular music from many countries in any decade you want.

LBB> Do you have a collection of music/sounds and what shape does it take?

Jeff> If we are going to talk about collections, I have mostly things to play, not to listen to. When I was in a band in my early 20’s and had the chance to record at TA2 for the first time, they allowed me to use any and all of their guitars. I remember not really understanding why someone would need so many - I mean soooo many.

But then I learned about the differences in sound and became obsessed with Craigslist and collecting guitars that could give me different sounds and be applicable in different places, i.e. telecaster for country, my strat for…everything, a hollow body for jazz etc.

But then I reached my limit of guitars (for now) and basically collect instruments that I will record, ranging from French Horns to Cellos to Irish Whistles in my studio. They look cool, have stories, and once in a while get to be dusted off and recorded for something cool!

LBB> Outside of the music and sound world, what sort of art or topics really excite you and do you ever relate that back to music?

Jeff> As mentioned I used to play pro squash and also taught it, as well as tennis for years to kids and adults at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. I loved working with athletes, shaping their swings and helping them play better - and monitoring the process of improvement.

I feel that my transition into audio applied a lot of the skills I acquired as a coach - now I direct voices and make little tweaks to performances the same way I did in athlete’s swings.

As a composer, I do the same with each take I play and when I work with musicians I love the intricacies in takes that some might not notice, but when put together make a difference and one heck of a record.

My mind, whether it’s a good thing or not, always rates and ranks things and I seem to focus on how things can be better; or worse. I find the search for the better take, better song, better performance is fun…and it’s also totally subjective, so it really doesn’t matter.

It’s like a personalised video game. I apply this to all things in life and like to draw references and similarities from all of my experiences.

LBB> Let’s talk travel! It’s often cited as one of the most creatively inspiring things you can do - I’d love to know what are the most exciting or inspiring experiences you’ve had when it comes to sound and music on your travels?

Jeff> If the setting was right and I could get over my stage fright, which I no longer have, I’d play some fun music around the world with people at various places.

My father-in-law had the Mexican mariachi band in Puerto Vallarta play Guantanamera with “featured harp player Jefe Lurie” (I don’t play harp). So that was more fun than musically amazing, but a great memory for sure and I sorta figured it out.

I once mustered enough Steve Lurie (Dad) courage to go up to a Cuban band and played the famous Buena Vista Social Club song 'Chan Chan' with them on the Tres! 

Another cool one was on my honeymoon in Costa Rica, my friend Ryan Malcolm (who I had met at TA2 years ago as a fellow Rice Krispie - he was Snap, I was Crackle) introduced me to a Czech man living in Arenal who gifted me his accordion. That was special jamming in the jungle with him and figuring out how to bring a giant accordion home along with the guitar I had picked up in San Jose.

I also just finished working with 26 musicians from 20 countries in our third instalment of 'The Adventures of Jaime Jangles and her Zany Dad Jeff: The World Tour'. Although we didn’t travel in real life, working with musicians from all around the world, and learning different instruments and rhythms from them was the coolest musical experience I have ever been a part of.

Working with Penner (as mentioned before), Australian Dan O’Brien from Bluey, Spaniard Pablo Dominguez (son of the great Chano) and others was life-changing and incredibly inspiring.

LBB> As we age, our ears change physically and our tastes evolve too, and life changes mean we don’t get to engage in our passions in the same intensity as in our youth - how has your relationship with sound and music changed over the years?

Jeff> I am trying to disprove your assertion! :) As I watch my kids grow and learn, I have actually been inspired to not just stop learning and/or regress myself. I’m trying as best as I can to find things that excite me and go with it. That mentality has changed my relationship with music in that I know I can get better.

It’s actually OK to be good at couple of things and not yet a master, but I just turned 40 and promised myself that this decade is for fine tuning each of those skills and also having fun with them. Let’s go!