March 2021

J Bonilla is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of award-winning music company The Elements Music. With offices in Los Angeles and London, the company specialises in creating record-quality original music for picture and also licenses a vast catalogue of songs and tracks.

J began his career engineering, programming, remixing, and producing records for some of the world’s biggest artists including Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Keith Urban, and Christina Aguilera. His co-founding partner, Ian Dalsemer, also began his music career in the studio, engineering for some of the industry’s top artists (Beyonce, Elton John, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre). Together, the duo pivoted to music for picture, and set out to create a music company that would be regarded as best-in-class at creating authentic “mini-records”.

Over a decade later, The Elements Music has a roster of over 150 of the best independent artists and composers from around the globe, a robust production team in their Los Angeles and London offices, and a body of work that includes brands such as Nike, Samsung, BMW, Google, NBA, Porsche, Dyson, and Uber to name a few - as well as working with leading TV Networks like NBC/Universal on award-winning promos for ‘The Super Bowl’ and hit shows like ‘The Voice USA’ and ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’.

Over to J…

MASA: It would be great to hear a bit about how your musical journey began? What path did your career then take to get you to the point of co-founding The Elements Music + Sound?

J: Drums were my way in. I banged away on drum kits from about age five on, playing to the hits on the radio. It really became my "thing" as a kid, and a big part of my identity. Alongside that, I'd eat up all the popular music of the day. I always paid particular attention to the liner notes. I was obsessed with who MADE these records I loved. In high school I started DJ'ing parties, weddings, school dances, a club once in a while, you name it. After college, I set up my first little home recording rig - a sampler, turntable, keyboard, mic, and a PC. I started making really bad beats, then some pretty good ones. About a year later I landed a job with a pop record producer as an assistant/programmer. We were working with big major label artists, and just being in the room during those sessions, and seeing all the incredible nuance that went into making records at that level was really the foundation for my career.

After a couple years with that producer, I was introduced to Ian Dalsemer. He'd recently moved back to LA after a two-year stint at the legendary The Hit Factory Studios in NYC, engineering for some of biggest recording artists in the world. We started hanging out and making tracks together, which was really the beginning of The Elements. Over that next couple years, our tracks started getting used in ads, which really intrigued us. This was around the time that the record industry had gone into a full-blown panic about file-sharing sites like Napster and Limewire, so a lot of producers and engineers we respected were telling us things like "you guys really need to dig into that sync stuff, it's a big deal!"

Still working as a producer duo, Ian and I really shifted focus at that point and started learning about creating music for picture. We started writing for lots of ads, composing for prime-time network TV series, and scoring a studio feature film. I should note that neither of us were/are trained musicians, so the way we found success in those worlds (which initially felt really foreign to us) was by staying true to our origins in making records, obsessing over our sonics, and delivering a sound that felt real and not like a watered down version of some temp track.

Over time, we started focusing mainly on music for ads/brands, and we went from the little secret of a few, to a much wider clientele. And as our client base grew, it was clear we needed to expand and start building a team. So, what started as just Ian and me in the studio day and night, has grown into a company I'm so incredibly proud of, with locations and staff across multiple cities around the world. The crazy thing is that, even after many years of growth and excitement within the company, there's still a feeling that we're still only at the beginning of this amazing ride.

MASA: Amazing story. The Elements has grown into one of the most successful multi-national music and sound houses. Can you tell us how you manage to stand out from the crowd and how you help your clients find the perfect music / sound for their project?

J: In our early years as a company, we just had our heads down doing the work and there was no real exploration around why we were experiencing success or what was differentiating us from the crowd. Then several years ago we finally started asking those questions (to ourselves and our clients), and we realized that what was driving our success as a company was rooted in the same approach Ian and I took in our initial pivot into music for picture: staying true to our origins in making records, obsessing over sonics and sound/part choices, and being fanatical about delivering music for our clients that sounded like records and not "ad music".

We call that approach making "Mini Records", and it's an ethos that really permeates our company culture. Everyone on our team learns really quickly that the bar is set incredibly high for our creative.

MASA: You recently produced a TikTok spot for Black History Month in the US. Can you tell us a bit about the job and your process on it?

J: This project was for a great campaign by TikTok entitled "Make Black History". They created this film using clips from some notable African-American TikTok'ers, and were wanting a piece of music that matched the vibrance and energy of the visuals. One of the clips they were using was an amazing cello performance of Bach's Toccata and Fugue by Kevin Olusola from the Grammy-winning group Pentatonix. So, the primary ask was for us to start from that performance, add some hip-hop flavor to it, and make it work beautifully to picture. That was challenging on a couple levels. Firstly, the timeline was super tight, and we were needing to get clearance from Kevin and his record label in order to use, incorporate and interpret his piece. Secondly, there were a couple technical issues to overcome in attempting to seamlessly build "programmed" track elements into a piece that was performed fully live without a "click track", and actually had an accelerating tempo throughout.

We were able to clear those technical hurdles quickly, so the project really hinged on being able to get the legal clearances needed, which proved challenging and time consuming enough that we actually started parallel-pathing some original tracks in the vein (while really hoping we could push the Kevin collab through). Kevin and label ultimately loved the piece we created, and the team got all clearances dialled in just under the wire. Super proud of how this one turned out.

MASA: Are there any other projects from the last few years that also stand out as being particularly rewarding / exciting? Or challenging??

J: We created an original orchestral piece for Toyota's Super Bowl 2021 spot "Upstream", which features the amazing story of champion Paralympian swimmer Jessica Long, who had to have both legs amputated below the knee as a young girl. We knew this was a special project when we started it, but none of us could have known the impact that it would have. The spot garnered an incredible reception, including #1 "Most Loved" AdWeek and Top 5 USA Today AdMeter. But what really drove it home and made it so rewarding was seeing a social media post by a mom who described how her young daughter Myah, who has a disability which affects her legs, watched the commercial, crawled over to grab her crutches, and said "that girl has crutches like me... I want to be like that girl". That just sliced right through me and made me so incredibly proud that we sometimes play a part in genuinely touching and inspiring people.

A recent project that ended up being a challenge was a remake of the Destiny's Child hit "Survivor" we did with the Chicago Mass Choir for University of Chicago Medicine. We recorded the choir at CRC studios in Chicago and had to produce the session remotely because of Covid protocols. We recorded 20+ choir members but could only have six people in the studio at a time. So instead of having the full choir on a riser doing full takes, we had to break up the session into smaller sections recorded over the course of a day. And the standards and practices that were required of the studio were incredibly intense (we had to inquire in great detail about their HVAC systems, air circulation schematics, etc.). We ultimately had an amazing session, but I'm still a little sad that our team wasn't able to go out and produce that amazing choir in person and be in the room to feel all that soul and those huge voices. Next time!

MASA: What’s an average day looking like at The Elements right now? How has Covid impacted things? Have you had to put certain practices in place to adapt?

J: All things considered I think we transitioned into the virtual world fairly smoothly. There's no question, though, that Covid really impacted how we interact as a team. We increased the frequency of our full staff meetings, which felt really important to make up for all the organic in-person interactions we had pre-Covid. We've also had to really consider how our newer hires are trained virtually, and how to make sure we fill in the knowledge gaps that would normally take care of themselves through office/studio osmosis.

In terms of creative, the circumstances of the past year have really only impacted our large-scale projects that require a lot of musicians or singers. We've had to rely on remote sessions for several of those, though we have been able to have some in-person sessions using strict Covid protocols.

MASA: How do you think a competition like The Music+Sound Awards impacts the industry?

J: I'm really grateful for the MAS Awards because they're for "us". There are obviously a huge array of awards shows out there that celebrate creative work across many mediums. But to have a show dedicated fully to the celebration of the best uses of music and sound across media is something special and something to be truly proud of.

MASA: And lastly, what will you be looking for when judging? What makes a piece of work worthy of a Music+Sound Award?

J: I'm a sucker for a piece of music that has unique sounds that make me wonder where they came from or how they were created. Another thing I love is being fooled into thinking that an original piece written for a spot is actually an existing record that was licensed. That's what we're constantly striving for in our company, and it's not always an easy thing to achieve, so I have a ton of respect for that level of execution when I come across it. I'll also be looking out for music that supports the visual storytelling in an unexpected way. When we're working with agencies/creatives/directors who are really trying to make impactful, creative work, they're relying on us to bring a fresh, original approach to the music. That's the work that really deserves awards.

MASA: Thanks so much for taking the time here J. Just fantastic, and inspiring, to hear more about your world.

Visit https://www.theelementsmusic.com/ for more information about The Elements Music, J and his team.