G&E
Music Produces Rock Anthem For Versus Network Launch
New
York, NY (October 5, 2006) G&E Music recently produced
a slamming arena rock track to launch the sports channel
Versus, a new network created through the re-branding of
Outdoor Life
Network (OLN). Versus depicts "the spirit of competition," through
both traditional OLN-style television, like fishing and bull
riding, and newly acquired NHL programming. To pump up potential
viewers, Versus and ad agency Radical Media hired G&E
Music to score a promotional campaign which kicked off October
1st.
G&E music producers Glenn Schloss and Erik Blicker delivered
a two-minute song that's truly an anthem for Versus, pitting
hard guitar rock against symphony strings for a huge stadium
sound. Radical producer Andrew Fried describes, "We wanted
a hard rock stadium anthem--something to conjure up this exciting
stadium of people cheering along to a sporting event. It also
had to capture the 'Versus' identity, so we had hard rock juxtaposed
with classic instrumentation. The real challenge was to capture
that energy, the authentic hard rock anthem, but at the same
time have the strings and classical instrumentation to give
it some style and a unique feel."
Rock musicians both, Schloss and Blicker took on this challenge
with a gusto, inspired by both the concept and client direction. "Basically
they told us not to worry about the picture and just write
a kick-ass rock song," Blicker points out. Schloss laid
down the big percussion and drums while Blicker rocked
out the hard guitar riffs and orchestration.
Between
live instruments and software sampling, the pair produced the
entire song at their NYC studio, with G&E's new director
of business development, Eric de Picciotto, acting as project
coordinator and liason to Radical. "This was a really
great tag-team between the three of us," adds Schloss. "They
totally let us create our own arc within the song, so we worked
closely with the editor, Brett Mason, and as we all got inspired
by the music, we ping-ponged back and forth a few times, with
each draft building in intensity." G&E's head mixer
Brian Quill mastered the song.
According to Fried, G&E more than hit the mark on this
one. "They totally captured what we were going for without
going over the top," he said. "Listening to this
song, you can imagine it being played on a PA before the two-minute
warning at a football game. Everybody was really pleased with
the outcome--not only us as the production company, but the
client as well." Fried also mentions that this project
was of particular interest to Radical's chairman, John Kamen,
who's brother is the late composer/arranger Michael Kamen,
famous for fusing hard rock and classical music for Aerosmith,
Metallica and Pink Floyd. "He is, at the very least a
tough audience for this kind of musical composition," Fried
notes, adding, "we're all very happy with the work that
they did, and I absolutely plan on working with them again."
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