Anton Trailer On Making Lifelong Friends and When "Your Insides Would Wobble to the Bass"
Anton Trailer established Trailer Media in early 2001, initially overseeing music PR and press for independent music labels, artists, DJs, and producers whilst quickly growing the music supervision and music consultancy arm.
In 2012, he started 'movie trailer music library' 'Must Save Jane' with two writer friends, and went on to place cues on Hollywood blockbuster trailers through to European independent films. It was sold in 2017 alongside Altitude Music to become what's now BMG Production Music.
Now, he mainly oversees music supervision and consultancy for advertising and creative agencies on both worldwide and local campaigns out of Australia.
LBB> When you’re working on a new brief or project, what’s your typical starting point? How do you break it down and how do you like to generate your ideas or response?
Anton> Good question. I’ll always start with the creatives to get their thoughts. Or anyone involved in the creative, which can sometimes even include the needs of the client, dare I say. In fact, one client insisted on a Kanye track at any cost, for no other reason than to be able to tell his mates. I had a similar situation with Kasabian and 'Fire'. Who needs research anyway?
Seriously, for me it can be a theme, style or even a specific piece of music. More than often, it’s very open ("Find me something upbeat and contemporary, that's going to work to the picture").
I always try to dig down on what we want the music to do. Tell a story, or create a mood? Be subtle, or right there in the foreground? I love the point when the director gets awarded and I can see the treatment. Then you might open up another layer of thinking that can help refine the music thinking further.
The songs and music ideas themselves are back and forth amongst all of us involved. Of course, until we get in the edit, we often don’t know what’s going to work to picture. That’s when they ask me for the ‘stems' for a song originally recorded back in 1982.
LBB> Music and sound are in some ways the most collaborative and interactive forms of creativity - what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to work solo or with a gang - and what are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?
Anton> Music is subjective. And often down the pecking order over a good director and a decent location, understandably. But when it is put front and centre, like in many campaigns I've been involved with, it can be wonderfully collaborative.
One exceptionally big commercial shot for Johnnie Walker stands out. I music supervised a ‘mash-up’, a mix of classics by Run DMC feat. Aerosmith with ‘Walk This Way’, Lou Reed's ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ and Loretta Lynn’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. Quite a few people on the rights side thought we couldn’t pull it all off. Suffice to say, getting through that job, I now feel anything's possible when it comes to sync.
More recent collaborations include ‘Flight Of The Finch’ for Allianz and Howatson+Co, directed by Michael Gracey and featuring Avril Lavigne’s ‘I’m With You’. I have also worked with Bear Meets Eagle On Fire on its award winning work for Telstra, including 'Together is For Christmas', directed by Steve Rogers and set to Burl Ives' 'Have A Holly Jolly Christmas'.
For +61, BMEOF, and Sprout, we featured the music of, and starred, rapper Briggs with the bespoke song ‘Munarra’, with the action directed by Tom Noakes. Plus we got the talented Aussie Genesis Owusu on KFC’s new ‘FLG’ work with ‘Get Inspired’ with the Hogarth team.
Lastly, for talented director Ariel Martin, Thinkerbell, and Vodafone we recently landed the classic and original Patrick Hernandez version of ‘Born To Be Alive’. I’d say all jobs have levels of collaboration and I love to be part of a team to help get a song over the line, whether it’s procuring a license for Wu-Tang for Menulog or John Williams for Kia, it’s all memorable.
LBB> What’s the most satisfying part of your job and why?
Anton> Hanging out in the pub with all the good people you work so hard with. And obviously making lifelong friends along the way.
From agency creatives and producers, to record label owners and publishers, to music managers and composers and artists. And going to Cannes Lions every June via London to see my family and friends.
LBB> As the advertising industry changes, how do you think the role of music and sound is changing with it?
Anton> Existing music is what we all dance, sing along to, or share experiences with. It holds memories. The big, well-known rights are still getting heard. The up and comers at the lower end of the chain are trying to carve out their niche.
My concern is the smaller and medium sized right holders are missing out simply as there aren't the budgets at these levels there once was. As less is being made, I guess. The quality is there, but we’re not seeing the budgets.
My job's certainly become more like a lawyer in the last few years (well, more admin aligned, let’s say). How well this all gets policed and who will still earn from music in the fire is the question.
I’m sure a music library will suffer as much as a major record label when we consider what's on the horizon.
LBB> Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?
Anton> I was a Bowie freak as a kid. Then a drummer, so John Bonham and AC/DC were always a draw for me. I was lucky as a teen to see a host of heroes and idols like Santana, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cramps, and Public Enemy.
Musically, 1973 is a vintage year for me, with jazz funk maestros from the likes of Grant Green to Ruben Wilson, Curtis Mayfield to Donny Hathaway. I saw Gil Scott Heron a few times. That was always so poetic, real, and honest as a 20-something. He always made a real impression.
LBB> And when it comes to your particular field, whether sound design or composing, are there any particular ideas or pioneers that you go back to frequently or who really influence your thinking about the work you do?
Anton> I don’t compose personally. But I must admit, when I ran my company Must Save Jane, specialising in movie trailer cues, I’d love to go meet with the big LA trailer house guys and girls when the big back end, massive cues were a thing.
We’d play them the most ridiculous crescendo building back end cue ever created and they’d just want it even bigger and louder -- when it was already ridiculous.
Working on albums at this time with legends such as Jim Dooley and other Hans Zimmer protégés was so exciting. As well as the fact we were discovering and pushing to America our own sound from Europe with talents like Harry Lightfoot and Nigel Butler.
Mixing and mastering a cue was as important as the composition, and that’s always kind of stuck with me.
LBB> When you’re working on something that isn’t directly sound design or music (lets say going through client briefs or answering emails) - are you the sort of person who needs music and noise in the background or is that completely distracting to you? What are your thoughts on ‘background’ sound and music as you work?
Anton> When I’m on a music search, I'm focused on the brief, so I listen to what's related to that. If I’m smashing out emails, I’ll often pull out something to listen to rather than let some algorithms dictate.
Today, I dug out an old lovers rock album (don’t judge me) from some boxes of records I brought back from London. I’ve not had a request for lovers rock, yet, so that was pure pleasure.
LBB> I guess the quality of the listening experience and the context that audiences listen to music/sound in has changed over the years. There’s the switch from analogue to digital and now we seem to be divided between bad-ass surround-sound immersive experiences and on-the-go, low quality sound (often the audio is competing with a million other distractions) - how does that factor into how you approach your work?
Anton> I used to be mad on big bass sound. I spent my teens in bass bins. Trailer Media was also a music PR for 15 years before becoming just music supervision; a lot of which was drum and bass, hip hop and break beat. We’d go clubs like The End, where your whole insides would wobble to the bass. I’m more lo-fi now.
I have a Bluetooth vinyl player and a pretty modest set up. CDs in the old car for a bit of 80s digital. The rest is purely online digital I guess.
In my work, the music has to work to the screen and I have to supply the highest bit rate, so however I listen to music, it has to work on a phone to a mega screen.
I remember reading how South American and African music was produced far brighter, and more percussive sounds were often used, so this can be picked up even on a tinny AM radio. Some of my most loved music is from these places.
LBB> On a typical day, what does your ‘listening diet’ look like?
Anton> It depends. If I’m on searches, it’s driven by that. That can mean delving into various vaults, heading down some music hole, or checking through the new music I am flattered to get sent daily from all over the world.
I tend to know what certain labels or various connections will send, but there's always surprises. And there are always new people finding me out, normally through my membership of the Guild Of Music Supervisors, or work that gets posted.
If I hit a wall or need to reset, I'll just put on King Tubby and crack a beer or bottle of red.
LBB> Do you have a collection of music/sounds and what shape does it take (are you a vinyl nerd, do you have hard drives full of random bird sounds, are you a hyper-organised Spotify-er…)?
Anton> Vinyl 12s, albums and 7”s. As well as my personal collection, I used to do music PR and DJ more, so there’s boxes of all sorts all over the place from the 90s through to the noughties in particular. Lots in a lock up in London, but plenty now in Australia, thanks to my friend Matt the Vinyl Junkie.
I’d rather not use Spotify and I have vinyl mates who don’t, but I have to for my work. It’s also a platform agencies use to send guide tracks or their ideas. I discovered an app last month that can tell from a bird's song what bird it is. That’s genius and maybe a bit nerdy.
LBB> Outside of the music and sound world, what sort of art or topics really excite you and do you ever relate that back to music?
Anton> My wife is an artist and has better knowledge on some music than me. For neo-classical and world music, she's a gun. In her work, she uses language and poetry as well as design. I also love architecture and fashion. Both link to music for me. So much lending, borrowing, and reinventing.
LBB> Let’s talk travel! It’s often cited as one of the most creatively inspiring things you can do - I’d love to know what are the most exciting or inspiring experiences you’ve had when it comes to sound and music on your travels?
Anton> I lived and worked between London and Sydney, via LA, for nearly 14 years. So I feel I’ve had my fill of long haul flights.
Between music sync licensing, music PR, and running the aforementioned movie trailer music library, there was always a constant parade of inspiration.
Settled now in Australia, although not moving, I’m probably as much in touch with those people I met then than ever. This year, I’ve already been to New Zealand, South Korea, Portugal, France, and the UK.
Giles Peterson's Worldwide Festival in France last month is always an inspiration. Giles is an amazing music curator. It was great to be inspired by the likes of watching live W.I.T.C.H. to Seu Jorge Rogé. And see the likes of Sampa The Great and Galliano. Sad that I can’t see the nine piece Zambian band getting on a car spot in Australia, but you never know.
LBB> As we age, our ears change physically and our tastes evolve too, and life changes mean we don’t get to engage in our passions in the same intensity as in our youth - how has your relationship with sound and music changed over the years?
Anton> I love discovering a new band or act that really excites me like Emma-Jean Thackray or Alabaster DePlume (again, at the recent Worldwide Festival in Seté).
Equally, I also enjoy going back and getting my Ziggy Stardust album out and cranking ‘Moonage Daydream’.
Some days, I feel there’s just too much music to wade through. And a lot of it can be distinctly average. But it is amazing the access to music and the quantity we have now. I think Bob Dylan was discovered on his second or third album. If that was today, he would never have got discovered, simply based on the maths.
Music has the power to excite, and in my commercial world, really make something stand out. And not just how an earworm stands out. Watching the likes of Briggs help push the ‘homegrown’ thinking and wanting to push live music, through to people like Luke Bevan at Impressed Records in Sydney physically cutting vinyl and running an independent label that brings through new local talent.
That’s inspiring, as is the increased visibility of First Nations artists across the music industry and, importantly, when that translates into my world and representing brands. I’m no spring chicken but from what I can see it’s all headed in the right direction.
