Jingles Rooted in Rock Star Dreams
Creative Mills Productions is a very successful music, voiceover, and audio production company which I own with my wife. And we have done a ton of Jingles. And by we, I mean me, because I am the Jingle writer and producer. But I’m wondering how I got here. I’m very successful largely because I can write punchy memorable jingles with big hooks. It didn’t start out like this though.
When I was 15, a gospel band from Minneapolis was doing a church tour in our town. When they came to our church, my mentor and high school music director, Mr. Bartosz somehow got word their sax player was sick and couldn’t perform that weekend so he called me and asked if I would be interested in filling in. Of course I said yes! When I got to the church before the first show, waiting there were about ten or eleven 40 year old musicians. We rehearsed a bit and I remember thinking, “These guys are ridiculous! There’s no way I can hang with them chops-wise. 4 shows, 16 sax solos later, followed by standing ovations. . . it was ballgame. THIS was what I was born to do. Music.
When I was 16 years old doing gigs all over Chicagoland with my nine piece band, playing Chicago and the Doobies, I was picturing myself writing huge hit songs, touring all over the country, and collecting big paychecks. Basically, you know, becoming a rockstar. After high school while I was in college, I hooked up with a few really talented musicians, including a killer singer, my current wife. I co-wrote a semi successful hit song during this time for Columbia records. We toured together for the better part of 10 years. Not one Jingle written yet. We had a baby, then another baby… still no jingles.
Jingle Production - The Evolution
But then something happened. I ended up working for a behemoth radio group and producing commercials for a variety of clients. And I mean, a lot of clients. Turns out… Many of these clients wanted to hear their name sung in their commercial. You know, like a song, so that’s what I did. I produced radio commercials by day and wrote and produced killer jingles at night in my home studio. Jingle after a jingle after jingle after jingle. That started about 25 years ago and I’m still at it. It started with a dream about being in the Doobie Brothers. All I know is… life is funny. Oh, and if you need a killer jingle, I can write and produce one for you that’ll stick with your clients. And I love doing it.