The 88 keyboardist Adam Merrin talked to MusicSupervisionCentral.com about how being sharp about licensing has helped keep the band fully independent and very high profile.
Tell me about your band – When did you form? What kind of music do you create? Are you touring?
On the last day of high school, lead singer/guitarist Keith Slettedahl and I recorded a song together. And on that day I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing music. We clicked instantly and we’ve been playing together ever since. We like to write songs with good melodies. That’s the most important thing to us. Everything else is secondary. When we’re in the studio we enjoy experimenting with sounds and pushing ourselves to do things we normally don’t think about, but that’s after the general idea of the song is recorded. We’re home right now and just finished recording our third record which we are very excited about. We’ve been touring non-stop all year so it’s been really fun being in the studio again.
Are you on a label or are you self-released?
We’re on an independent label that our friend Erik Keegan created for us. We help him with all the day-to-day work. In addition to playing and recording, we’ve really enjoyed being a part of the whole process of creating and promoting our records. We are currently distributed by NAIL and our first two records (“Kind of Light” and “Over and Over”) are available on the web including iTunes, Amazon, etc…
Do you administer your own publishing or are you on a publisher?
We own all of our publishing and have been doing the administration ourselves. We have been approached by several publishing companies, but since our agent does such a good job placing our music in films and television, it’s turned out to be a good thing that we still own everything.
Why do you think it’s important for a band to understand music supervisors and licensing today? What steps have you taken for the 88 to get licensing opportunities?
Licensing music has helped us develop an audience outside of our hometown. When we play cities for the first time, it’s great to look out into the audience and see people singing along to our songs. Our band works very hard in everything we do and I think that has helped get us licensing placements. We try to take every opportunity that comes our way. When we’re on tour, there has been many nights of getting two to three hours of sleep, then waking up and five in the morning to go play on a morning television show. Those types of things have all really helped the band.
How did you choose Natural Energy Lab to represent you for licensing? How difficult was it to get represented by them?
I was passing out CD samplers of our band outside of a Supergrass show and I handed one to Danny Benair who runs Natural Energy Lab as he was leaving the club. He called us the next day and said he listened to the CD in his car on the way home and really liked what he heard and wanted to represent us. Their company has done an incredible job and they are a pleasure to work with.
Did you try and work with music supervisors yourself before signing up with NE Lab? What was that experience like?
We met Danny just as our debut album came out so this was the first time we’d ever done anything like this. In a way, I think we were a part of the first generation of licensing music. I had never really heard of it before or even thought it to be part of our plan when we were thinking about what steps to take in getting our new record out to the world.
Has your band raised any capital through licensing? Has it been worth the work to get there?
Licensing our music helped us fund our new record. We were able to rent a house up in the mountains and do some recording up there. We’ve always wanted to record in an environment like that. It’s also helped us pay for the tour van along with helping us with our monthly rents, etc…
What would be your dream pairing for an 88 song and a piece of media i.e. would you like to see it in a film, TV show or video game? What kind of use, and why do you think it would work? (Please include a link to the MP3 of this song if you have it up).
One of my dreams was to hear our music in a film - and this year, it happened three times. One was “You Me And Dupree,” which used “All ‘Cause of You,” during the opening credits so it was really quite a great experience hearing the song on such a powerful sound system. We also recorded a cover of a Queen song, which was used in the movie, “Failure To Launch.” And the third movie is from Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) and it was really good. It hasn’t come out yet, but I got to see a preview of it in the theater. I’m excited for that to come out.
What’s your advice to other up and coming artists in regards to understanding and working with the field of music supervision?
In the beginning, play as much as possible. Develop an audience and pass out free music. It’s so cheap to produce these days. With home studio equipment being so easily available and affordable, it’s very possible to make a good quality recording on your own. Also, MySpace has been a huge thing for the band. That website allows you to put your music online and there is no charge to do so.
Anything else?
It may take some time to land your first gig, but by staying positive, be persistent, and keep a good work ethic…anything is possible. Follow your dreams.
