What It Takes to Bring Ambitious Musical Projects to Life

It's not every day that you get to be a part of a project where the unique electrical signals of botanicals are used as the foundation of musical compositions, but here we are! For Suntory Roku Gin’s ‘Come Alive with the Seasons’ campaign we teamed up with VML, and enlisted world-renowned composer Aska Matsumiya to create two intricate, beautiful compositions. Each celebrates ‘Shun’, the Japanese art of appreciating seasonal flavours and nature at its apex. The campaign set out to not only invite people to taste Roku Gin, but hear it too.

From capturing the signals of various different botanicals, to an in-depth A&R process aiming to embody the authenticity of the campaign, to working with the incredible Aska on two gorgeous compositions, and ultimately hearing them come to life with the help of a full live orchestra in LA, this project was equally extensive as it was rewarding. The tracks are out now on all DSPs, and were showcased during live tasting events in NYC, hosted by Elle Fanning. 

It was an honour to produce these ethereal pieces and witness how Aska’s personal connection to Japan informed each composition – one for spring, and one for all four seasons. 

My most ambitious project as a music supervisor is also the one I am the most proud of: the 2018 Academy Award winning ‘I, Tonya’. Before signing on to the Margot Robbie-starring Tonya Harding biopic, I had only worked on a handful of independent British films, but I knew as soon as I read the script that I had to get involved. 

Despite this being a Hollywood production far bigger than any I had worked on to date, the music budget was tiny. Drawing inspiration from films like ‘American Hustle’, director Craig Gillespie wanted all manner of ‘60s and ‘70s hits from artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp and Dire Straits. And the sheer volume of commercial music he wanted was eye-watering, with the film having very little score and upwards of 30 source cues. Suffice to say that even with all the begging involved (and there was a lot of begging!), the music budget ended up ballooning beyond its meagre and unrealistic initial allocation. 

Having Susan Jacobs join the project near the end of production was incredibly helpful in terms of having a US supervisor on the ground to assist with getting everything across the line. But all the sleepless nights were worth it in the end. From meeting Margot Robbie and Allison Janney to winning a Music Week Sync Award for my supervision work, I have many career highlights from this film. And yet, for pure WTF reasons, one of the most memorable was being inundated with thank yous from Cliff Richard fans for syncing ‘Devil Woman’ in the film. I suggested the track for Allison Janney’s hilariously villainous onscreen entrance and it might be one of my favourite personal syncs. Evidently audiences agreed, as the track’s Spotify streams increased 2000% after the film’s release.

For Amazon Ads’ ‘Don’t get media envy, get Amazon Ads’, the agency was looking for a music track that would immediately and simultaneously come across as timeless, vintage, and alive. With that in mind, we wanted to create something that instantly felt like a classic hit; pulled from the memory zeitgeist that made you feel like you’ve always known it, even if it is brand new.

There’s a fine line between campy and ‘found gem’. One of our finest composers, Scott Langley, wrote something that is akin to a ‘60s novelty song with nonsense lyrics, employing recording techniques that would faithfully and authentically deliver the audience to the era with hummable familiarity. In a nod to directors like Tarantino, the breezy and lighthearted track was juxtaposed against visuals that are akin to a psychological thriller for a wild and unexpected marriage that adds dimension to the commercial. Custom music by this process is a very collaborative process with the client and creative team, and the result should be something that people want to ‘shazam’.

One of the more challenging projects I’ve undertaken was producing live halftime show performances for Taco Bell. Taco Bell selected three of its ‘Feed the Beat’ artists (indie-pop powerhouse MUNA, viral TikTok singer-songwriter Claire Rosinkranz, and hardcore band Scowl) to be pre-recorded for a halftime show for the Women’s World Cup. Our team was brought on to the campaign a month out from the shoot to produce, record, and mix the live performances of the three artists playing three to four songs each… all in one day!

Our audio team travelled to the soundstage to tech scout and assess equipment requirements. We then assembled a five-person audio team comprised of a lead engineer, monitor engineer, tech supervisor, and two audio engineers to help source equipment and backline, create a fully remote recording studio, and capture on-set audio performances.

Our team worked closely with the brand, agency, and artist management teams to ensure proper equipment and protocol were utilised for the shoot. Many pre-pro calls were made with a variety of stakeholders, but after two long days of setup and shooting, our team delivered final mixes of the performances just in time for the first game of the Women’s World Cup.

When prepping the on-set music for the feature film ‘Poor Things’, the brief was 'find a French language love song from the 1800s that could be hummed by a prostitute in a brothel'. It was the same day that they were shooting the scene. So, I rushed to the British Library and found the sheet music of a stunning track, ‘Les Yeux Bleus’, in a newspaper from the period, and although I could see it would work well, I couldn't send sheet music over to a set as no one would know what to do with it. Luckily the multi-talented Kieran Brunt not only humoured my phone call, but also recorded a voice note of the piece within 30 minutes which we could then send over to the set for the cast to learn.