Debbie Pearce is a Musical Encyclopaedia
“In my ideal world, both clients and agencies would recognise the importance of music to the success of a campaign and never leave discussions about it until the last minute,” says Debbie Pearce, MCA’s international music consultant. “It’s such an important decision, and it merits the time to do the job properly.” Debbie is speaking from a lot of experience; first in the world of music and then its intersection with advertising, though her obsession with the artform can be traced back to her early years and a very musical household.
It all began with dancing lessons (ballet, tap, and character dancing) and then, aged five or six, Debbie received two records from her aunt for her birthday: Delibes’ ‘Coppélia’ and a compilation Tchaikovsky’s greatest hits, with the 1812 Overture, Marche Slave, and the waltz from Sleeping Beauty. “I played them to death,” Debbie recalls. A true love affair with music followed, expanding across genres and eras, and including film and musical soundtracks (found in her parents’ record collection) and her brothers’ tape reels featuring The Move’s ‘Fire Brigade’, Manfred Mann’s ‘The Mighty Quinn’, Amen Corner’s ‘Bend Me, Shape Me’, and Status Quo’s ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’. Naturally, the whole family was obsessed with The Beatles (“I was in love with Ringo at the age of five.”) and The Rolling Stones. Her first gig was Status Quo at the Wembley Arena, accompanied by her older brother, soon followed by Lynyrd Skynyrd at The Rainbow. This is all to say that Debbie’s knowledge and appreciation of music is as encyclopaedic as it is deep-rooted.
At MCA, she applies this wealth of experience by helping clients to negotiate music rights, commissioning new pieces of music, advising on sonic branding, or finding the right track for a spot or a campaign. In short, “Anything at all related to music.” Her role is as much about getting clients what they want as about advising on what’s realistic or better suited, like an original piece of music versus an instantly recognisable song, for example. She cautions clients to think beyond their personal preferences and to really consider the target audience and how the music will make them feel.
Today, LBB caught up with Debbie to learn more about her time at Arista Records and Chappell International, the stories and memories from working with artists (that she’s allowed to share!), and the musical challenges she’s solving for clients.
LBB> How did you first get into the music industry? When did you realise it was the right industry for you?
Debbie> My entry into the music industry was a happy accident. I was temping between jobs, and actually intending to work abroad, waiting for a work permit to come through. I was sharing a flat in South Kensington, and one of the other girls there was moving into her own rental in Westbourne Grove and wanted some help painting it. Whilst helping to cover the violently purple walls, I met another girl called Gilly. She asked me what I did. I explained that I was between jobs. She said, “We need someone to answer the phones. Would you like to come and do that?” It turned out to be at the A&R department of Arista Records, then located in Cavendish Square.
I loved it at once. There was music all day long. I didn’t have to wear a smart outfit. Everyone was on first name terms. I was immediately offered a permanent job as A&R coordinator, which involved liaising with studios, looking after the tape library, dealing with artist requests, making sure the drinks cabinet was stocked for when artists turned up, helping them find outfits to wear on Top of the Pops, and so on. Signings when I was there included The Beat, Haircut 100 and The Thompson Twins. The Stray Cats’ first album was released on Arista UK and produced by the fabulous Dave Edmunds, who was also on Arista (when I was there he released “D.E. 7th”, still one of my all-time favourite albums). So, our office was filled with members of these bands, hanging out, laughing and chatting, playing their latest demos or mixes. Dave Edmunds used to bring his dog. Brian Setzer used to turn up on a Harley. Nick Heyward borrowed my Sony Walkman (my pride and joy at the time) to listen to while en route to a gig and of course a fan stole it. I doodled a bird on the 'Pelican West' artwork because drummer Blair Cunningham didn’t know what to draw. The Beat’s tour manager found me a flat to rent in Brixton. I loved receiving the sampler discs from the American office featuring the artists they were releasing at the time – Aretha Franklin, Angela Bofill, Tom Browne, Gil Scott Heron. We also picked up The Monkees’ catalogue, issuing a double album in 1981. Tommy Boyce (who co-wrote the Monkees theme, 'Last Train to Clarksville' and more) was in and out of the office at that time, he brought Davy Jones in to meet us, and one day out of the blue gave me a cheque and said ‘buy yourself something nice’. I still have that cheque somewhere!
Once you’re in the industry, it’s pretty hard to do anything else because nothing else is as much fun. My next move, courtesy of a colleague at Arista who had a friend at Chappell International who needed an assistant, was a move into music publishing, where I remained for the next 17 years. I loved being a music publisher, probably because my formative years taught me the paramount importance of the song and songwriters. Being a dedicated fan of the standard song repertoire, I was thrilled to find myself working for the publisher of my heroes, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and so many more. After Chappell and Warner Chappell, I moved on to PolyGram which later became Universal.
LBB> You’ve worked with some incredible artists in your career – did you have any favourites? We’d love to hear any great stories (of which there must be many) that you can share with us!
Debbie> I’d love to share some of my favourite stories, but I really, really can’t! At least, not whilst those involved are still alive . . . but I have so many fond memories: the Gibb brothers breaking into faultless acappella harmony at the dinner table after the Brit Awards. They presented me with my first portable CD player as a thank you for looking after their catalogue; Eric Clapton’s fan club gig at Guildford Civic Hall, where his backing band included Phil Collins and Elton John; travelling to snowy Stockholm to present a platinum disc (one of many) to Benny and Björn for sales of 'ABBA Gold'. Visiting Stig Anderson in his house on the King’s Island where he made me coffee and we sat chatting in his kitchen; meeting Rita Marley at her daughter’s house in Miami, where she was cooking a fish-head stew in the back garden; running a series of songwriter retreats for PolyGram writers from all over the world and seeing the creative process in real time; calling the show on various PolyGram global conferences, sitting next to the mix engineer whilst bands like Rammstein caused mass panic amongst hotel staff in Hong Kong with their pyrotechnics, or watching Jon Bon Jovi playing a gig just for us at House of Blues in New Orleans; laughing until I cried when Irving Berlin’s office phoned me to tell me the BBC couldn’t have any of his unpublished songs to create a special programme to celebrate his 100th birthday because “Mr. Berlin is saving them for a future project’!; being thrilled beyond measure by Simon Rattle conducting an iconic performance of 'Porgy & Bess' at Glyndebourne; having the privilege to go to meetings with the Bernstein family at Leonard Bernstein’s gorgeous apartment in the Dakota Building; having the tremendous honour of working for The Beatles at Apple Corps Ltd. I met Paul, and Ringo – although I didn’t confess my crush on him at the age of five; Staying with the incredibly talented Ben Taylor, son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, at Carly’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard, where my husband recorded Carly’s vocals for a track for Gorillaz, as well as a new arrangement of 'You’re so Vain', I couldn’t get my head around the fact that we were lounging about in the room where James Taylor recorded 'Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon' when I was still at school; Sitting in our back garden in London discussing growing runner beans with Glen Matlock, whilst my husband finished mastering his album; evenings of unbridled laughter in the company of Deborah Bonham (sister of the late great John Bonham and a fantastic singer) and her husband Peter Bullick and their band; driving a NWOBHM lead guitarist home after a gig, and his subsequent consumption of a lot of alcohol, with him giggling on the back seat and occasionally shouting, “668, the neighbour of the beast," or "Twix Twix Twix, the snack bar of the Beast," or “Wicks Wicks Wicks, the DIY shop of the Beast," and “this had better not end up on YouTube."
It's always felt like such an extraordinary privilege to be involved with music and with the remarkable, funny, kind and talented people who create it. It will never get boring.
LBB> You’ve been with MCA since 2015, working as an international music consultant. Can you break down a little bit what the role entails?
Debbie> At MCA, Pat (Murphy, founder and CEO) who is a music freak, collects old time advertising jingles and believes that the right music can impact the effectiveness of any ad. Pat and I met through a mutual acquaintance, music composer Simon Bass. My role is as varied and interesting as music itself. It could be a fairly straightforward response to a request to negotiate the rights for a song that a client already has in mind for a campaign. It could be commissioning a piece of original music for a campaign, finding the right composer for the job and seeing it through to completion. It could be helping a client acquire the rights to a historically important jingle. It could be guiding a client through the process of commissioning and owning a sonic brand. It could be undertaking a search to find the right piece of music for a campaign. It could be project-managing a suite of local language lyric recordings for a brand song. It could be re-recording a jingle so the client can own the master rights. Anything at all related to music.
LBB> What are some of the main challenges that you’re helping clients to solve?
Debbie> Often it’s pulling a client out of the fire when there’s under a week to go until they’re on air with something and they haven’t got a cleared track or a plan B. This happens much more often than it should. It might mean locating all the right people to expedite the clearance of the original track by the deadline. Or it might mean finding and clearing an alternative that everyone loves by the deadline. Or it might mean obtaining a better fee for a campaign when the client feels they’re not really getting the best value.
Sometimes I’m having to explain to a client why their agency’s fabulous music idea isn’t going to work when it collides with reality. It might look wonderful in the PowerPoint deck, but no due diligence has been done on how it could possibly work in the real world of complex music rights. Or it might simply be that I know perfectly well that the artist is going to say no. Or that the price is going to be way over the client’s budget.
I don’t expect clients to know what questions to ask. That’s my job. For example, if an original work is being created, or a re-record is being made, I want to see those budgets. My husband being a sound engineer/producer, between us we have an extensive network of musician and recording studio contacts in the UK, the US and Europe, and knowing the rates for music recording studios vs audio post studios can be very illuminating for clients who are being charged rates for the latter rather than the former for music recording work.
Most of the challenges I help clients to solve are fundamentally time-related. In my ideal world, both clients and agencies would recognise the importance of music to the success of a campaign and never leave discussions about it until the last minute. The most important thing you can have on your side when dealing with music is time. Time to find the right solution for the right price. It’s such an important decision, and it merits the time to do the job properly.
LBB> How has the role of music in advertising changed and evolved in your opinion?
Debbie> Apart from having to be adapted for many more lengths and formats and platforms, I’m not sure music’s role in advertising has changed all that much to be honest. It’s still critically important to the success of a campaign. And musical notation remains key to establishing and building subconscious memory and emotional links to a brand and cutting through the general noise out there. Hence the upsurge in brands embarking on sonic branding journeys in the expectation of imprinting themselves on our collective unconscious. A wonderful well-known track doesn’t necessarily translate into more sales though. Often a bespoke track will perform better.
LBB> What makes for a good match between a brand/advert and a particular song/artist? Are there any considerations that both brands and artists should keep in mind before agreeing to a partnership?
Debbie> I think the most important factors to consider when sourcing a piece of music are:
Who are you actually talking to? So often music choices are being made based on the personal preferences of people on the brand team or at the agency who don’t represent the target audience at all.
How do you want your audience to feel when they hear this music? Writing a clearly defined music brief, whether it’s for a search for an existing track or the composition of an original track, is critically important. It saves time. It makes it much more likely that you will arrive at exactly the right musical solution in the end.
As for brand/artist partnerships, again, finding the right artist match for your target audience is critical. And if you’re looking for a partnership that’s going to be used in multiple markets, it becomes very difficult to find a ‘one size fits all’ solution to that. The music streaming revolution has brought about seismic changes in music consumption around the world, with massive increases in the preference for local music over Anglo-American repertoire. You need to understand what music resonates with your target audience in each market. Paying top dollar for a big name and assuming it will work everywhere may be an expensive mistake. And then of course you never really know what that artist might do to embarrass you at some point during your partnership!
LBB> Recently, nostalgia has been big business and hits from years ago are being reused by brands (as well as films/TV shows) to reach audiences or to go viral on social media, like Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’. Do you think brands should be capitalising on nostalgia or searching for new, fresh sounds?
Debbie> I always think it’s more exciting to be setting trends than following them. However, music decisions should still come down to defining your target audience and how you want them to feel. If nostalgia fits that bill, then great. I think it’s fantastic that the music of past decades is being rediscovered and enjoyed by new generations. I also think there’s so much truly wonderful new music out there to discover and use. But - whatever era it’s come from, if it’s the right match for your audience and how you want them to feel about your campaign and your brand - it’s a big win.
LBB> What’s your favourite use of a song in an advert? Why do you think it works so well?
Debbie> Ooh. Difficult one. I still love “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins in the Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ TVC. Pat Murphy worked on that one, and it’s such a great example of brilliant use of music designed to make the audience feel something specific – the joy of a moment.
Volkswagen’s use of Lenny Kravitz’ ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ for the T-Roc cleverly conveys how they want the audience to feel about the nature of the car – cocky, confident, ‘nothing gets in my way’ vibe.
I thought Samsung’s use of BTS’s 'Dynamite' for the Galaxy S20 FE was an excellent choice for their target audience. It positions the handset as being fun, dynamic, youthful, colourful and the song has just a joyful feel.
Personal favourites include BA’s dive into ‘60s nostalgia with the use of Petula Clarke’s wonderful recording of Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent’s 'I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love' for their adorable Heathrow Bears commercial for Christmas. Huggable. And one of the top ads of all time in my book, Hamlet – Photo Booth, which ironically hardly has any music at all. Gregor Fisher’s marvellous performance is a joy, and the use of Bach’s minimal but familiar 'Air on a G String' to convey the consolation of the Hamlet cigar right at the end is masterful. An excellent example of less is more.
LBB> Finally, how do you switch off and relax outside of work?
Debbie> I love to paint, both oils and watercolour, especially fruit, vegetables and flowers, as well as portraits of people’s pets. I’m learning Flemish because my husband is from Antwerp originally and we divide our time between London and Belgium, so I really enjoy watching Flemish language TV, although I still have to have Flemish subtitles on because sometimes the dialect being spoken is impenetrable! And I’m a voracious reader. We both love cooking and entertaining. So many of our friends are musicians, engineers, producers and DJs, so even in our time off, music is all around us. And music is all about switching off and relaxing too. So how lucky am I?
