SOUNDING OFF: CIRCA MUSIC
BY JOHN GALVIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
The next time you’re watching a Disney movie, the Discovery Channel or an ad for Crest toothpaste, listen a little closer. The jingle, background music or sound effect you hear may very well have a “Made in Columbus” label attached to it.
If you’ve been part of the Columbus creative community over the last 20 years, you’ve heard the names Circa Music and, more importantly, Allen DiCenzo. He’s the guy you always see walking up to the stage during the Creative Best Show and the ADDY Awards, collecting hardware for music and jingles at a Tiger Woods-like pace. Since 1987, Allen and Circa have been producing award-winning music, jingles, original scores and effects for some of today’s leading national brands and companies. I’ve had the opportunity to partner with Allen on several occasions, the latest being a branding initiative to help WOSU launch a new program entitled “All Sides with Ann Fisher.” Incorporating Allen and Circa into your project is like adding Albert Pujols to your Little League team. Every time they step up to the plate they seem to hit it out of the park.
SONG + JINGLE = “SONGLE”
Circa focuses on development of several musical assets: “Songles” (the company’s proprietary custom song/jingles), new music, original music, scores, sound design, sound effects and, my personal favorite, mnemonics. Mnemonics act as sound branding and are used to “queue up” or “sign off” a spot or show creating distinction and competitive separation within a competitive category. Think of the Nextel or Sprint chime or the “dah di dee dahhhh” when a new puzzle is introduced on the Wheel of Fortune.
Consistently turning out world-class creative material takes passion, persistence and the conviction to step out of your comfort zone to chart new terrain. This quality is the hallmark of Circa and of all great creative entities. As many of us in the creative and marketing business know, it doesn’t take much more effort to create great ideas than it does to create good ones. Oftentimes it involves a bit of persistence and “selling” to help the client share your vision of where you want and need to go with a campaign.
I REALLY WANNA
When Cooper Tires wanted to attract a younger “performance-minded” enthusiast to the brand, John Stertz, Executive Creative Director at Falgren, turned to Circa to develop an original song and music for the campaign. “Allen’s not only a brilliant composer and producer, he gets branding and the power of creating an authentic and emotional relationship with the target consumer,” notes Stertz. The award winning spot entitled “Do You Wanna?” blasts off from the get go, causing you to grab your seat belt (and any loose food or drink articles) and hold on for dear life. “I remember seeing the spot for the first time at the Addy Awards and saying ‘WOW—there’s no way that spot was done here!’ It was one of those rare occasions where everything fit perfectly together including sound, music, lyrics, branding, graphics, editing and video.”
BUILDING SONGS FROM THE “GRUNT” UP
I’ve always been fascinated to learn how artists in other fields find inspiration and “push off shore” to start new projects. DiCenzo starts, as many of us do, by asking questions to help build a creative strategy and an understanding of the client-artist relationship. “Do you want this project taxi-cabbed or chauffer-driven? What category would we find this song in, in the record store? Who are we trying to reach and inspire? What role will this music play in the overall campaign? Is there an existing tone or style we want to reference? What would it mean if we were able to create the perfect original song for your brand?” muses DiCenzo. Hearing Allen describe Circa’s creative process can be compared to designing and building a great house. In this case, DiCenzo acts as architect, designer and general contractor all in one. The foundation consists of the creative strategy, supporting several floors to follow. “I like to start on the guitar to explore and create the ‘hook,’” says DiCenzo. “The guitar is less rigid and provides the freedom to move in many directions.” From there, he adds a second level that he likes to call the “grunt” – meaning a rhythm or run on the guitar coupled with a short lyrical or wordless hum. After the grunt, DiCenzo and the team add a third level – with lyrics to build out the song, supporting a fourth level consisting of singers and background vocals. Finally, the structure is capped with the addition of live musicians and final production, mixing and mastering.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
To this day, Allen remembers his dad telling him: “If you’re gonna try to make it in applied arts in Columbus, Ohio, you have to be able to say yes to everything starting out.” That’s exactly what Allen did. He took any and every job to gain experience and flex his creative muscle. It’s clear that his willingness to partner with clients, encourage them to be collaborative and play the “middleman” has paid off. “It’s a very subjective business and you need to agree up front to be flexible,” adds DiCenzo. “It’s much more important for team members on all sides to be creative contributors and not focus group testers.”
DiCenzo, a self-described musical savant, grew up in a large musical family here in Columbus. His father, a professional musician, always had a band set up, ready to play in the basement. As you could imagine, the DiCenzo children blossomed within this musical refuge – all learning to play a variety of instruments, many of them following their father into the music business. Allen got his start by playing original music in a number of bands. Then, by accident, he stumbled into the media business where he discovered he could do what he loved – experiment, push creative boundaries and take on challenges. “I originally wanted to score films,” says Allen. “It’s hard work being stuck in one world for months at a time. Advertising allows me and Circa to jump around and stay fresh.” Not surprisingly, Allen’s son Marc decided to follow him into the fray. The 26-year-old NYU grad is, like all Circa employees, a composer—but he is also the company’s Director of Operations. “Marc brings a fresh view on music that is essential to our work here at Circa,” notes Allen. “He prevents someone like me from saying, ‘Hey, that sounds like The Kinks.’”
As if the DiCenzo family tree weren’t creative enough, Allen grew up across the street from Jim Kammerud, one of the founders of Character Builders, a Columbus-based animation and character development house. As children, DiCenzo and Kammerud frequently escaped to what Allen referred to as the “clubhouse.” Here Allen and Jim spent endless hours creating characters, jingles and the worlds their make believe friends lived in. This creative partnership continues to this day with numerous collaborative projects for Disney, including Little Mermaid II, Tarzan II, 101 Dalmatians Patch’s London Adventure and others.
IF THE HAT FITS
Wearing many hats is one of the great benefits and stressful realities of running your own creative shop. In the course of any given day or week, Allen acts as writer, composer, musician, producer, salesman and CEO. Allen’s genius is his creative vision, versatility and flexibility to move quickly from one genre to the next. He is fearless and cares little about making mistakes. “You can’t be afraid to embarrass yourself,” notes Allen. “Continuously writing is the key to success.”
Kudos to Allen and the Circa team! Nice article, and great to see them garner more well-deserved recognition. I’ve worked with Allen at the ad agency level many times over the past 10 years, and have never regretted it. A key distinction he can claim is that he understands the business side of the creative business — meaning, he understands last-minute client changes, budgetary issues that are out of everyone’s hands, well-meaning but naive creative direction from non-creative directors, and adapts to them as easily as he changes chords on the guitar. This allows him to compromise with the situation without ever compromising the quality of the work. It keeps the process as stress-free as it can be, and the final product never short of, or at least far from, excellent. Don’t mean this to come off as a cheezy testimonial. Just a pat on the back to a very well-deserving company.