Page 35 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2019

DM: Being that the Producer is widely regarded as the ‘glue’ that holds all of the pieces
together during a project, I would always inform any band or artist to first examine
the past projects that the Producer in mind has been involved in and to what extent
his or her involvement was. They will also want to make sure that the Producer in
mind is fully capable of handling their type of project from start to finish and
everything in-between. Just as importantly, get to know and understand the
personality of the Producer they’re considering. It’s important that the band and/or
artist completely trust and fully ALL get along with the Producer they’ve chosen. I can’t
stress that enough! The Producer was chosen because of his or her ability to oversee
and successfully complete every aspect of the project they’ve been chosen to oversee.
As the band and/or artist…never try to pull rank or tell your Producer how to do their
job. If a talk or discussion must be done, do so with the utmost respect and tact. If
they’re a good solid and seasoned Producer, there should be very little in the way of
bumps or obstacles along the way. Trust them and allow them to do their job and to
make your project successful. After all, the band and/or artist is the one who
ultimately chose the Producer to guide the way and oversee their project.

KP: An untapped resource that many artists overlook is placements in film, tv, and
commercials. You’ve had success with your song ‘What About Tomorrow’ for the
television series ‘True Ghost Stories’ and you also had one of your songs, ‘Cabin
Fever,’ included in the movie soundtrack for ‘Deliberate Conduct.’ Can you talk
about the process and how artists can position their music for these opportunities?

DM: Sure, Kiki. There are many avenues one could travel down to hopefully get their
songs or soundtracks into film, tv, commercials, etc. The most common being to shop
and ask around just who is looking for a particular genre of music for a project they
have in mind or may have already started. Next would be to use your artistic skills to
compose or write what you feel they’re looking for. And lastly, submit it to them. Now
this may sound easy enough, but trust me, most of the time it’s not. A great deal of
other songwriters and composers from all over are all doing the exact same thing you
are – and they are all attempting to get their composition into the same opportunity
that you are. You know the old saying ‘right place at the right time.’ Now throw in the
fact that your composition must be exactly what they’re looking for; that it’s better
than everyone else’s composition and that you hope it lands into the hands of the
right person who will either love it or trash it. Again, what I just described is the most
common way to go about getting your music or soundtrack in to these areas. Oddly
enough, it happened with me two entirely different ways. The first time it happened,
I had already written an entire 11-song album. The TV show(s) heard two of the tracks
from that particular album and contacted me about using them as openers and closers
for the show. This seldom happens but sometimes does. The second time it happened
to me was when the Director and Producer of a motion picture contacted me directly
and wanted me to write a soundtrack from scratch that would fit the opening scenes
of the movie along with some small ‘soundtrack shorts’ to fit and compliment various
small scenes within the movie. When they started looking for a soundtrack to play at
the end of the movie while rolling the credits, they just happened to hear a song from
another one of my albums and they loved it. They ended up using it as the movie
closer. I suppose this simply fell into the category I spoke of earlier as being in the right
place at the right time.