Music Matters

In Conversation with Tony Orchudesch Music Consultant, Owner of Torchlight Music and Visiting Lecturer at The Abbey Road Institute

Last year was tough for the ad industry and anyone providing related services. Here I talk with Tony Orchudesch who provides music consultancy for all types of licensing, music supervision and composer management, about how he managed to stay motivated and focussed on providing music services for his clients, while continuing to provide work for his roster of composers and musicians.

1. To kick things off could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

...in 1991 Polygram acquired Island and overnight I was no longer needed. This was the catalyst to starting up my own consultancy Torchlight Music...

Originally I wanted to be a lawyer, I even passed my bar exams and had no plans to work in the music industry. My first job was with EMI in the Business Affairs team from where I moved to Essex (now TRO Essex Music Group) and where I spent 3 years as Copyright and Business Affairs Manager. The lure of working for a publisher was strong and eventually, I left to work for Island Music where I developed relationships with many of the major London based ad agencies and worked hard to generate income for our composers. Then in 1991 Polygram acquired Island and overnight I was no longer needed. This was the catalyst to starting up my own consultancy Torchlight Music which was pretty scary in my twenties with 2 young children.

... there was no substitute for hard work, and I knocked on the door of every agency in London before landing a large, lucrative deal with TBWA for a European ad campaign for Nissan.

I still remember the first ever synch I did it was for Mates Condoms and the track was Mica Paris’s Words Into Action. I soon realised that if I was to grow the business I needed to expand my portfolio of services. Coincidentally I bumped into John Harle the saxophonist and composer on the train and a conversation among the early morning commuters led to Torchlight’s first bespoke offering. But there was no substitute for hard work, and I knocked on the door of every agency in London before landing a large, lucrative deal with TBWA for a European ad campaign for Nissan. We sourced the music for over 20 different ads over the course of the campaign. The film here for the Primera was a nod to a scene from ‘Cool Hand Luke’ with Paul Newman.

I have now been running Torchlight for over 30 years and I am always learning and on the lookout for new services, while my heart and my expertise is firmly rooted in advertising and online content. I consider myself extremely fortunate in that I love what I do and I have a loyal client base as well as a roster of very talented composers.

2. What does 'a day in the life' look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

I work from a large airy loft at the top of my house. The day starts with video meetings with clients or more recently walking meetings with a coffee in the local park. I deal with any urgent emails, clearance queries that have come in overnight around mid-morning, before I continue with projects I’m contracted on. I’ve recently been working on material for the new ad for Tesco Mobile. They wanted to use Frankie Valli’s I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You  but it’s proving tricky and costly, so I set about looking for easy to clear affordable alternatives.

As a business owner, I am Head of Torchlight’s PR, Comms, Marketing and Sales initiatives. I use LinkedIn to reach out to my client base as well as sending a fortnightly newsletter to all those in my database.

After lunch, I spend time responding to new enquiries. Sadly, I am some way off running a paperless office and my printer hums into overtime as I prepare to run an eye over the physical contracts between record companies and publishers.

Some of my time each month is given over to teaching. I am a visiting lecturer at Abbey Road Institute where I run lectures on copyright and licensing; intellectual property and music law and how music is used with media.

3. How do you manage your work-life balance between running your own business and lecturing in music and media?

During the week the line between work time and leisure time is blurred and I am rarely off duty taking calls at all times of the day and night. However, I try to close the door to my office on a Friday evening and not to open it again until Monday morning.

My wife is my bookkeeper, so understands the industry and what I do well; she has been a balancing influence on my life. I have been very lucky, working for myself and working from home meant I was always there for our children when they were growing up.

4. What are some of the most challenging/most prestigious projects you have worked on?

When the budgets for music are not huge, I enjoy trawling the production music libraries particularly Universal Music’s huge repertoire.

I had to opportunity to work with John Downer Productions the internationally renowned wildlife production company and pioneer of the Spy Camera.

His 6 part Serengeti series needed a huge amount of music and we were fortunate enough to have a budget to record at Abbey Road Studios with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The series was a huge success across the world and when it premiered on Discovery US, it was the highest-rated wildlife show in the last 7 years.

For a series of Earth Flight, this time for the BBC, he used his new techniques to fly with birds around the world with cameras fixed to their backs. Here I was lucky enough to work with Will Gregory, one half of the Goldfrapp the electronic music duo, for the music score.

The Aldi ad was fun, for this we re-recorded a version of the Addams family theme tune to align with their Halloween message. And getting to work with Darcy Bussell for the Quaker Oats ad ‘Do the Bussell’ where we reinvented Van McCoy’s ‘The Hustle’ was delightful. When the budgets for music are not huge, I enjoy trawling the production music libraries particularly Universal Music’s huge repertoire. For TM Lewin’s Christmas ad Gary Lineker ‘dances’ to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, a pre-cleared library track.

5. What are the challenges implicit in managing creative talent - composers and artists? 

...rights have to be renegotiated and sometimes the last minute nature of this makes the process very stressful.

The biggest challenges arise most often when clients don’t really know what they want. So many things can derail a project at the last moment. I work on a results basis which means that if I’m unsuccessful in clearing a song the fees are lower. Clients often change their minds with regard to the selected media and time period, which means rights have to be renegotiated and sometimes the last minute nature of this makes the process very stressful.

6. What has the pandemic meant for your business in the past 12 months? Have you had to change the way you do business? Have you started any new routines?

Well music supervision for films completely dried up although we did get to re-record various album tracks for the trailer for How to Build a Girl with Beanie Feldstein and Emma Thompson. As brands stopped spending so my work with ads dried up too, although there was some work on radio production. I was able to use the time to focus a little more on my teaching which I really enjoy and it kept me busy.

The rise of the popularity of the podcast during the past year though has provided new opportunities. I got to work on The Guardian’s new podcast Reverberate which takes the listener to a new city each week and explores how a single piece of music shook its history, from how unknown singer songwriter Kashy Keegan became the voice of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, to the history of Shostakovich’s seventh symphony or the ‘Leningrad Symphony’ commissioned by the Soviet leader to boost morale at the height of the second world war.

 7. What are your own musical influences?

I grew up in the 60s and 70s so was heavily influenced by Motown and Philly Soul - singers like Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. I listen to the rock bands The Moody Blues and The Who and have always been a fan of David Bowie. More recently though, I’m enjoying a new crop of female singer song writers including Griff and Mabel. I love a good melody with a strong vocal sound.

 8. What are you working on right now that we should look out for?

Fortunately, I’m very busy with lots of projects. As well as working on clearing songs for one of the nation’s biggest retailers, I’m working with Slimming World and Imagine Dragons and on a range of Christmas sweaters set to provide endless festive fun as they sing our favourite Christmas classics.

 9. What is your advice to anyone starting out today, what key qualities are required/ what advice would you give your 20 year old self ?

You need to be tenacious. There are times when there seems to be nothing coming in when you have a few bad weeks, you have to hold your nerve. It’s essential to take the long view. And of course, a passion for music is essential. I still enjoy playing the piano a skill which came in handy when, a few years ago, E4 one of my clients sponsored an event at The Edinburgh Festival and was unable to find anyone to play their idents. Fortunately, I was able to help out and found myself playing the keyboard live on stage in the E4 Purple Band!

 10. Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you'd like to recommend?

At the risk of sounding a bit nerdy, I am really enjoying the law firm Bristow’s new podcast series which follows the developments in copyright and design rights through a series of different cases, as well as The Guardian’s podcast Reverberate a musical journey through key cities which I referred to earlier

11. Are there any products gadgets or apps that you can't live without?

I spend a lot of time trawling YouTube for ideas and will follow an artist if he/she is interesting. I’ve recently discovered alternative country singer Katie Pruitt and composer and film producer Melissa Parmenter this way

12. Do you have any last thoughts about music consultancy as a sector that you'd like to share with us?

After 30 years, I still find this industry as exciting as I did when I started out. And while there is more competition than there has ever been, much more music is needed so I’m lucky to be always busy. Over the years I’ve learned patience and not to take anything for granted. I mentioned the Tesco Mobile ad earlier, I searched out over 50 tracks only to learn that my client managed to clear the Frankie Valli track and recorded it themselves – it happens!

 Author: Alison Farmery Head of Partnerships and Customer Engagement at Universal Production Music and Director at Lagoon Media producing content and building products that help people become more informed, inspired, and engaged tomorrow than they are today. @afarmeryrust

Interviewee: Tony Orchudesch, owner of Torchlight Music and visiting lecturer at Abbey Road Studios