Halo Music & Sound: Your “Friendly Neighbourhood Music Supervisors” Are Here

“Right now is a good time to remind people that humans are behind this. We can do anything with technology, but the craft is hugely important.”

This is just one of the philosophies behind the relaunch - or ‘reintroduction’ - of Halo Music & Sound, a music company founded by Peter Gannon and now run alongside music supervisor and business partner Molly Salas. 

The new branding, website and social designs, as well as the overall art direction, was led by Easy Pete’s, a creative consultancy and design studio in LA, and it emphasises the power of friendly personnel and human craft in a digital age.

Peter spent 12 years honing his craft at creative agency music departments - EP of music at McCann, music supervisor at Wieden + Kennedy and a music producer at Ogilvy - before co-founding music company Able Baker in 2015. But following a series of mergers and disappointing changes, he eventually agreed to be bought out of his business partnerships in 2019 and after six months to reflect, he entered 2020, and a global pandemic, with a clean slate. 

Being a client of music companies for over a decade, Peter could evaluate what other music companies were doing - and therefore missing - at the time. Using this knowledge, he started Halo Music & Sound to work with old clients and contacts who were still reaching out for assistance. Not long after launch in 2020, Peter began working with Molly, who organically grew into a key collaborator and is now a partner in the company. 

Now looking to finally make their presence known, with the company’s renewed confidence and a reel of work under their belts, the relaunch is the culmination of six months of work with the Easy Pete’s team, and something of a celebration following a “phenomenal” summer.

“It’s more like a reintroduction,” says Molly. “In gen z parlance: a ‘hard launch’.” After using Peter’s carryover relationships and reel from his previous work to start with, she says it felt like the cloud of covid and the remnants of Halo’s DIY beginnings still lingered over the company visually. But as the world returned to normal, it brought with it an appetite and excitement for the team to plant its flag, cut the ribbon and, belatedly, announce the birth of the company with an eye towards its future. She adds, “There was a natural progression to that space. But we wanted to make sure that we looked the part as well!”

In their research for this new look, the pair stumbled across Easy Pete’s work for some “cool clients” within their shared mutual interests - bands, coffee companies, hotels, skateboarding brands - and were impressed by the “cool West Texas/Southern California desert vibe” they used.

“I didn't want to be retro for retro’s sake,” says Peter. “But I wanted that influence because it helps with a little bit of timelessness. I also wanted a partner, somebody like-minded. If possible, I'd put Easy Pete’s on retainer and hopefully they'd be part of our story moving forward, which will also include merchandising and really good holiday gift ideas that I’d love to create.”

He continues, “They really get our personality - our voice, our tenor, our tone. They do it in a way where I can literally just brief them on what the intent is, and what comes out of their fingertips sounds like our voice.”

Halo’s new look and feel exists at the intersection of both Peter and Molly’s past creative influences, shaped by everything from skateboard brands and bass guitars, to old record shops and record labels. Peter says the design represents the kind of boutique treatment customers can expect to receive from them - category-leading music, hidden gems and a lot of heart and thought behind every detail - while still maintaining an irreverence and humour that reflects how they don’t take themselves too seriously.

Molly adds, “A lot of people who do the craft of music supervision and work at music companies think that they’re special and have nice music tastes: ‘Please pick us!’. But I think another piece that we hope to embody on every project is to be ‘your friendly neighbourhood music supervisors’. Not only do we work well, but we're ‘a pleasure to have in class’ - a delight to work with! That irreverence and humour guiding our projects and how we handle our clients every day makes it more fun for us, and I hope it makes it more fun [for clients] to move through the creative.”

Above: Halo Music & Sound's recent project for Bud Light, 'Easy to Sunday'

The new branding demonstrates where the duo wants to be: not necessarily the biggest, but definitely considered among the best. “We don't want to grow beyond the point where the work would ever suffer,” says Peter. “It’s about doing great work with great people, and the money will follow.” 

Remaining the “friendly neighbourhood” music company as it evolves and grows is something that makes Halo stand out from the pack. Peter shares that the freelance composer community - be it signed artists or independent composers - often tells him that Halo is a unique force in the space - from its deal points to its briefs, and importantly, to its way of keeping things friendly.

Explaining that they foster a ‘no big deal’ ethos, he says that their creative partners respond well, especially freelance composers who often experience strong egos and a lack of information and transparency in the industry. “That's not how you [should] treat talent who are your partners in this. So we're very excited about continuing to represent ourselves in the creative world in that [friendly] manner.”

“I'm just excited about continuing how we're going, seeing this organic growth,” he adds. “One thing that's really dawned on me, and fills my heart, is that in 2020, it was: ‘Is this going to work?’. But now, in 2023, I know this is what I want to do for the next 15 years.”