Andy Oskwarek on the Power in Writing Music for Picture
Andy Oskwarek, director and head of production at KO Music (KOM) has over ten years experience working in original composition and synchronisation. During this time he has overseen multi-award winning campaigns for brands such as BMW, Nike, Samsung and Netflix, as well as collaborating with agencies including Droga5, BBH, Ogilvy and others.
Growing up, music was a regular part of Andy’s daily agenda - the earliest tracks he remembers are largely from either ‘Top of The Pops’ or ‘Chart Show’ (perhaps herein lies the reason for his love of pop culture until this day). Watching these shows with his parents every week became a ritual and so ‘80s hits - the good, the bad and the ugly - in turn became his go-to music choice. While he has dropped a large portion of them, he still admits to indulging in OMD, Pet Shop Boys and The Cure today. Going into his teenage years he naturally progressed to a brief phase of rock/metal bands such as Iron Maiden, then later moved on to a Nirvana and Pearl Jam phase. “I also misguidedly thought I’d make a good frontman, so I sang in a covers band,” he remembers.
His love for singing and music stretched beyond singing covers and eventually led him to pursue working in record shops for some time, where he continued to expand his knowledge of music, film and TV. For a while, Andy had no clue that picking tracks that would fit movies and TV shows was a job reliant on directors and producers. But once he looked into it, he realised that it’s a viable career choice. While at the time his opportunities in the North of England were sparse, a job opening came up in Salford just in time - that’s how he started his journey in Woodwork Music in 2012, on a wobbly base of loose understanding of music production. But, he was a fast learner.
At Woodwork he quickly started working with a hugely talented roster of artists, record labels and composers to create or licence music into global advertising campaigns, TV shows, films and trailers. There, Andy also met composer Philip Kay and the pair bonded over the aforementioned ‘80s films and electronic music. Quickly developing a unique creative relationship, the two decided to establish what we know today as KO Music in 2020.
Andy speaks to LBB’s Zoe Antonov about his journey from record shops to his own company, his undying love of music and what it means to have complete creative freedom at KO Music.
LBB> Tell me about your time working at record shops, why was it valuable and how did you make the jump after?
Andy> I loved working in record shops. I met so many great people on both sides of the counter. Some of the people I worked with had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of music and I learnt a lot from them. I was also exposed to so much great music, and I started to appreciate and take an interest in styles and genres that weren’t necessarily my tastes, which definitely put me in good stead for moving into synchronisation. The social aspect of it was amazing as well – so many gigs and club nights! Essentially it massively opened my mind, and broadened my musical horizons, and there’s no way I’d be able to do what I do now without that experience.
LBB> What were your first steps towards the industry and what were the learnings from those early days that you would like others to know now?
Andy> I guess my first steps were to try and familiarise myself with the industry I was interested in. I started to look at industry publications for advertising, film, TV and music, and studied the work other people were doing. I’d always paid keen attention to music in film and TV but I really started to focus on advertising as well. I learnt that it pays to be curious and to know what’s going on and to really try and understand the relationship between music and picture. I think one of the key elements of most of my roles has been understanding that the music is part of a bigger picture and always has to be in service of the story the film is trying to tell.
LBB> When did you join Woodwork Music and why were they your best fit? What did your initial roles there entail?
Andy> I joined Woodwork Music in 2012. I was really excited by the company and the roster of artists they represented. That was the side of the business that appealed the most to me before I started – repping cool labels and artists, and promoting and pitching them and trying to find the perfect match for their music in visual projects. The role involved listening to a lot of new music, and then cataloguing it, tagging it and identifying the most potentially useful tracks, before pitching them to music supervisors.
The other side of Woodwork was original composition. This was still relatively new to the company when I joined, and one of my key responsibilities was to help develop it. I loved it from the beginning. I found it really creatively rewarding working as a producer and collaborating with creatives, directors, editors and clients to help shape or interpret briefs, and then guiding composers through the writing and production process.
LBB> In 2018 you became creative director - tell me about your experience as CD and how your role changed. How did this jump in your career aid your creativity and creative path?
Andy> When I became a CD, I definitely found that I needed to change my process on some jobs. My role became as much about fostering other people's creativity and ideas, as coming up with my own, so I needed to change so that I could oversee other members of the company and encourage them over the course of a project. Ultimately, it was this that gave me the confidence that I needed when I co-founded KO Music
LBB> Tell me about your personal and professional partnership with Philip Kay - why and how did you guys decide to start KO Music?
Andy> I met Phil in the pub not long after I started at Woodwork, and we hit it off instantly. We had very similar interests, and it was fun just hanging out, and talking about films and music.
It was still pretty early in Phil’s composition career and he had recently landed a couple of big ads, and creatives and directors were starting to take an interest, so it was a great time for us to start working together. I found the way he worked fascinating – the range of live instrumentation he used, combined with his ability to authentically recreate sounds, genres and production techniques. I think ultimately we respected each other’s taste, and ways of working, and built up a strong sense of trust very quickly. I think I’ve produced pretty much every job he’s done since then, and after 12 years I still love working with him.
We’d often discussed setting up our own shop, and in 2020 the opportunity to do our own thing presented itself. Starting KO Music gave us complete creative freedom, and it has allowed us to start working with, and developing, an exciting roster of composers. The work we’d put in over the previous years meant that we were in a great position when we started the company, as we already had some great regular clients, and it made the first few months much easier – particularly considering that the pandemic had just hit.
LBB> What does your role look like now and what are its intricacies? What is your composition process like?
Andy> We’re only three years into KO Music and we’re still a pretty lean operation, so I have a hand in overseeing most things, but the key parts of my role are managing composition projects, and maintaining and developing relationships with clients.
No two composition projects are ever the same, which is what keeps the job interesting and challenging. Sometimes we’re involved from very early on, and in those cases, we’re really helping with the early musical explorations, and trying to shape the brief into something everyone understands, and is happy with. By complete contrast, we’re sometimes brought onboard a week before a spot ships, at a stage when everyone involved in the project is in panic mode and we have to try and fix everything.
The parts of the process that are constant, are the initial discussions and negotiations with the agency or production company, the receiving and deciphering of the briefs - which often leads to some research into different approaches - and then working with the composer to ensure they understand what’s required, and giving them advice and feedback on their work before we submit it.
LBB> What is the importance of composing original music in the industry?
Andy> I think composed music is a really powerful tool to help tell the story of a spot and deliver its message. Writing music for picture is such a collaborative process – you are working closely with creatives or directors to try and understand their vision and help bring it to life. You can hit all of the beats of the film in a way that using an existing piece of music can’t. You also end up with a piece of music that is unique to that particular film.
LBB> What has been a recent challenging project for you and what were its most valuable lessons? What about the most fun one?
Andy> One of the most basic challenges we face on every single job is producing a piece of music that everyone who is invested in a project likes. Everybody has an emotional response, and an opinion on music, and there are so many layers of sign off to get through - the agency, then the director, then the client. Hitting all of those targets is tough and I think a key lesson is knowing that the job isn’t won until the spot launches. You often have to go the extra mile to get things over the line.
There are also constant challenges in terms of the quality of work that needs to be produced, and the time we have to produce it. We recently worked on a brilliant Andreas Nilsson directed Les Mills campaign for nice&frank. It was our first time working with the director and agency, and the initial edit ended up with some pretty epic classical pieces on there. This was the general direction everyone wanted to move in but they had some concerns as to whether we would be able to achieve the scale and authenticity of that style of music without recording an orchestra. We managed to combine a few live solo vocal and string recordings, with samples and clever production to create something truly epic.
In terms of fun projects, it’s always creatively rewarding to collaborate with other musicians and artists, whether that’s orchestras, session players, vocalists or pop stars. We worked on a spot for Nike and FC Barcelona which involved recording Catalan pop star Rosalia and a Catalan drumming band over in Barcelona. From a production point of view this was a fun job to put together. I had to book studios and musicians in advance but also had to account for Rosalia’s schedule and the fact that the agency wanted to fly out to film footage of some of the Barcelona players and be there to watch the recording sessions. On top of that I was trying to arrange for the guys who were recording our sessions to get into a game at the Camp Nou to record crowd sounds to be built into the track. It took a lot of stress and effort to make everything work but when you’re sitting in the studio afterwards and you hear everything come together for the first time it’s an amazing feeling.
I also always find cover version projects really fun and interesting too. They sometimes get a bad name in advertising, but when done well they can be really effective in combining with something tailor made. Last year we got to reinterpret Lizzo for an Instacart spot, and earlier this year we did an orchestral arrangement of Nas for Hennessy. It’s always cool to take a piece of music apart and put it back together in a new way to help score a spot.
LBB> How has the industry and specifically your niche changed for the better in the past 10 years?
Andy> It’s definitely more competitive now which is challenging in some regards but also pushes us to do better and more creative work to try and stand out from the crowd.
Music software has become more and more accessible which is obviously brilliant for creativity. There is also this misconception that this means it’s a level playing field and everyone can create the same sounds and quality of music which is a nonsense. All that software and samples are, are tools and getting the most out of them is a skill that takes an awful lot of time and practice to master.
LBB> How do you expect upcoming tech to change music composition and production and do you already see it changing it? Or do you expect it to fizzle out?
Andy> I guess we’re talking about AI? While we’re only seeing the very early stages of what it’s capable of, I also, perhaps naively, believe that it will be incredibly difficult to completely replicate the things that make art human.
There is also of course the issue of copyright with music and art. For an AI to create something that sounds like The Beatles it will have to have been fed The Beatles, or at least enough music that influenced or sounds like The Beatles. It opens up a whole host of questions about the distinction between being influenced by something, and copying it, and it will be interesting to see how this is policed and managed as the technology continues to develop.
LBB> What are your hobbies and passions outside of work?
Andy> I love all things pop culture and spend a lot of time at the cinema, playing video games, watching TV or reading.
Music is also really important to me outside of work and there are some brilliant independent promoters and venues in Manchester putting on some amazing shows.
I also really enjoy a good pub and have recently moved to the Peak District which means that I now often at least get a walk in before having a few pints!
