March 2021

Eric began his career as an assistant engineer at Sony Music Studios in New York, moving on to join the creative department at J Walter Thompson as a Music Producer where he worked on 1000s of projects from inception to finish. It was here that he interfaced with top creatives, clients, and musicians all over the world and learned the entire process of advertising production while significantly expanding his skill set as a Creative Director.

Joining the The Music Playground early on, Eric has been able to combine all his passions into his role as Chief Creative Officer. From starting the bands and artist licensing division, composing / creative directing over 8000 projects (Carrot Vs Ninja may have been the craziest thing he wrote music for), to finding, recording, and collaborating with up and coming talent all over the world.

Read on to hear what he had to say during our little chat…

MASA: At what point was it clear that you were something of a musical extraordinaire?! What was your first break into the industry? Can you give us a quick overview of your career so far?

Eric: Well, taking nothing away from myself, extraordinaire is a strong word and I would humbly say more so that my passion for all things music is what has been extraordinary and evident from a young age and throughout my career. The first time I heard someone play Ozzy's "Crazy Train" on the guitar; figuring out at 12 how to multitrack by linking cassette players; and filling in on any instrument for any band member who "couldn't make it", were all clear signs I was enamoured with any, and all things, music.

Professionally, coming up as a studio "rat" and having the opportunity to work on live sound for The Roots and assisting on a Billy Joel remaster, are highlights for me early on that kept the creativity flowing and the love of music growing. It wasn't necessarily a "Big Break" that defined my place in this industry, but rather a series of small experiences and opportunities that helped grow my career.

A few things do stand out for me professionally and are a good lesson for approaching even the most mundane of work tasks. At Sony Music Studios I was asked to alphabetize the entire historical studio log by artist name. Fun right? I stayed the entire night in a room and handed it to my manager the next morning. He looked at me perplexed and said "I thought this would take you a week or 2".

That in turn led to him giving me a fantastic recommendation, which helped me get my first job as a music producer on the ad agency side, which helped me save a little money to get my first legit studio rig, which won me a music job for Coca Cola with the first music track I ever wrote on that rig.

I could have never connected those dots or that trajectory when painfully alphabetizing all night, but again, sometimes breaks don't appear as such and so it's important to never lose sight of your ambition, and passion behind it, when it comes to building a career. I am now fortunate enough to be surrounded by talented people and help create, find and provide music for some of the biggest brands, TV shows, and media players in the world and all because of what I consider a series of small breaks and dedication.

MASA: Working on both the production company and agency sides must have given you a comprehensive overview of the industry. Do you think this allows you to stand out amongst your competitors?

Eric: Great question. Yes absolutely. The expectations, deadlines, and process are very chaotic and different on the agency side. The music production is just a small sliver of what those folks are worrying about and within my company the music and service level attached to the creation of that music is basically ALL we are worried about. That background has definitely helped me to bridge the gap between what agencies are dealing with on a day-to-day basis and how we as a company can make their musical life easy. I like to position myself and our company as heading up their agency's music department and acting as an extension of their process as I have experience doing just that. Being able to understand the agency production process, the creative endeavors of an agency as it relates to their brands, and being used to speaking professionally about how all those goals fit together has been helpful for me, as well as that ability to communicate with clients I work with. I often hear the saying "to truly learn something you need to understand all aspects or the whole process even if you are just a part of one". I think this is really important as I find that if you relate to and understand other people's hurdles, as well as goals, you are unequivocally able to provide better service, comfort through the process, and ultimately the best creative results.

MASA: You’re a composer yourself. Do you manage to do as much writing as you’d like? What’s the usual balance of composing, music placement, A&R etc?

Eric: I'd write music everyday and typically do, but in terms of my daily contributions to The Music Playground, I have found my skills valuable in many other ways in terms of what it takes to grow and maintain a successful company. And while I still do write for the company, I am surrounded by an immensely talented network of people, where helping to oversee and guide the entire process from ideation to client is where I thrive. In terms of my work balance there really is none to be honest which is what keeps it interesting and exciting. I do a ton of A&R and speak with bands or new composers 4 or 5 times a week, but if a client project comes in I focus 100% on making that exceptional and giving the client the best experience possible. The usual daily balance is basically who is asking for what and how much time do I have.

I've never been much of a fan of "down time" as everyday is a chance to move the needle and make a difference both personally and professionally. That may explain why after the day is over I jump in my studio and work on personal projects with a variety of artists and producing records. The work and fun is never done.

MASA: You established the bands and artist licensing division there. How do you tend to go about finding new talent? And any recent exciting signings?

Eric: Finding new talent is something I really love doing. Growing up a musician, a fan, and someone who didn't have a clear path to building a career in music, it is really important to me to use this platform to help artists. Now, finding that talent is a bit trickier.

The evolution of music production, dissemination, and all the channels catering to it provides vast amounts of volume, but much of the quality control is gone. So, while going out and seeing live music has taken a back seat in my A&R toolbelt, it also takes a lot of digging down the proverbial rabbit hole of the internet and a ton of research.

I have also found that as we have grown that relationships are an integral part of the process of music discovery. Find one artist, do a great job / find success for them, they connect you to 3 other artists, a manager, and a producer. Those relationships can compound exponentially and ultimately make our job easier.

I can't tell you my go-to discovery places as it is always changing and evolving, but I will say it's not hard to find good music necessarily, but finding good music that ticks all of the boxes for how we like to operate, in terms of sync licensing, is another story. We tend to prefer to represent up-and-coming or "deserves to be heard" talent, or incredible artists that we can easily clear for our clients without a ton of back and forth or multiple party approvals. I think our ear for great music, coupled with our understanding of what makes a music licensor's life easy, is one of our biggest strengths in the industry.

In terms of exciting signings. Man, it would be unfair of me to mention any one artist over another, but I will say our exclusive agreements / partnerships with Proximity Records (8+ million followers on YouTube) and Alexrainbirdmusic (1+ million on YouTube), are very exciting to me. These music channels define a new way of disseminating music and garnering massive audiences. They aren't only great curators, but are changing the traditional methods of what a record label or music distributor is. For me, it is very exciting to be partnered with innovative people and on the forefront of the titanic shifts in the music industry and in line with the trends of the modern music consumer.

MASA: What’s been a favourite recent project, and why?

Eric: We do a lot of great work and I am always proud of and excited by every Film, TV or Ad project we work on (it truly never gets old hearing your music on the big screen), but two do come to mind...

One was a Pepsi holiday spot we did featuring Cardi B. Cause, well, it's Cardi B and we created a fun big band jazz arrangement of the classic "Here Comes Cardi B (Santa Clause)". It was a big spot for the brand and we delivered. Cardi B even had to approve the music!

The other was an in-show co-brand spot between Toyota and the MTV VMAs. It was a long form spot where we created a multi-genre cover of J Balvin's "Mi Gente". More on why it was my favorite below cause it was also really challenging. So on to the next question…

MASA: …Any really challenging jobs over the last few years you can mention?

Eric: Not sure if I mentioned the Toyota / MTV "Mi Gente" cover hahaha...

So, this was one of my favorite recent spots, but it was indeed super challenging. We not only created a full length multi genre cover of the song, but we cast, hired, tracked, and mixed 5+ singers in the various genres to not only sing on the track, but to appear in the spot all during Covid restrictions. The full process all happened in about 4 days which was frankly unbelievable.

It definitely stood out as a challenge, but also personified what we can do as a company. With composers / mixers on site, a vast artist roster / relationships to tap into and a very high standard / creative bar, we were able to execute and nail the job. The icing on the cake was the client email after the fact saying "I don't even know how you guys pulled that off". So, like with any challenge, the end result made it all worthwhile.

MASA: How has Covid affected work practices?

Eric: Honestly, our team has always been adept at working in person or virtually so we were well positioned to cope with the adversity Covid caused. We were really worried about the people within, and the industry as a whole, but found the best thing we could do was to be available, flexible, and figure out how to make the process as easy as possible for folks. We worked on one spot for Kraft where iPhone cameras were sent to a factory, the employees shot footage, and we created the music all in one day and it shipped the next. We even implemented virtual "in-person" music sessions and revisions which we may just adopt from here on out from a service standpoint. As terrible of an experience Covid has been, it was amazing to see how people in a creative field could step outside all of the customary boxes and rise to the occasion to find new ways and processes to get the job done.

MASA: And finally, what we ask all our jury, what will you be looking for when judging The Music+Sound Awards??

Eric: I am going to be looking for the next coming of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon"...

Joking aside. For me, a great track or song is just that. A great visual is just that. Sometimes in conjunction one can lean too heavily on the other which can skew the perception of what is indeed great. As part of my process, I will often mute any audio on a visual while watching, then unmute the audio and listen with my eyes closed. Sounds silly right? It kind of is, but I like to take in the individual elements before I judge the sum of all parts. Honestly, it is something I have done since I was just a kid when seeing how different pieces of music affected a visual and still do on projects to this day. I want each thing to stand alone as great and become even better together. So, I guess in light of the question, I will be looking for the best standalone elements that combine to elevate each other equally.

That’s great, Eric. Thank you so much for your time and giving us a BRILLIANT insight into your career and the way you work. You and The Music Playground certainly do stand out from the crowd!

Find out more about The Music Playground, Eric and his team at https://themusicplayground.com/