Unseen
By Keith Kenniff
Since last September I have released three albums under separate monikers. “Yume” (as Helios in September), “Sometimes” (as Goldmund in November) and “Broken Devotion” (as Mint Julep, with my wife Hollie in February). Between all of this material was about a five year gap. In that space of time I was writing material for those albums, but I was also quite busy writing around 300 + songs that did not end up on those, or any other releases, as part of my “day job”.
In 2007, fresh out of Berklee College of Music, I started writing music for films and ads after getting a song of mine placed in a high-profile ad campaign for Honda that I released on an obscure album (“Corduroy Road”, as Goldmund in 2005). Previous to that point I really never knew much of that world or that this sort of career path was even available to me (aside from being Hans Zimmer or even that person who wrote the Folgers Coffee theme song). I spent the next few years writing custom music for clients and building up a portfolio of ad/film work, meanwhile creating a music library of songs in a variety of styles that were created solely for the purposes of licensing for films, advertising and other projects which offered clients material that was easy to clear (no big record labels or third parties involved) and could be further tailored for clients to fit specific needs. Like many freelancers, I endured obscenely late nights, juggled overlapping projects, managed insane deadlines (many times turning around projects fully composed, recorded, mixed and mastered in a single day) and really tried to push myself into areas that were out of my comfort zone to grow as a composer. This area of my work essentially culminated in 2011 when my music scored Apple’s popular iPhone 4S campaign. I put any personal projects on the back burner and put all of my focus on scoring. Following were a series of successful ad campaigns and film projects for clients such as Google, Facebook, Prudential, Dove, Starbucks, a series for HBO, several feature-film trailers and many other smaller business clients, ballets, personal films, games, phone apps etc…
Although I’ve always had an intense passion for film music, I never really set out to do this really, it just sort of happened by and when it did I jumped on the train. Throughout my time at Berklee, I focused my studies on performance, majoring in drums/percussion. I envisioned myself being a musician-for-hire, which is what I largely did during my summers off. I would play in a wedding/party band, or a stand-in for a singer/songwriter’s recording session, or tour my own bands. I played drums in an old-timey country band for almost two years doing Patsy Cline and Hank Williams covers, and I found that to a valuable experience in that 1) It was outside of my comfort zone at the time (I’d never played a “train beat” so much in my life) and 2) I learned restraint and how to serve a song behind a singer rather than showing off my “chops”, which at a young age of 19–21 was sobering. I think at that point I learned to separate music as a job and music as passion-even though I love Patsy Cline and Hank Williams songs. I started to feel a strong compulsion to create my own material, and throughout college I grew less fascinated with my instrument and more fascinated with discovering a voice and crafting sounds. I started to release albums and tour with my own projects. These days I play much more piano (which I never formally studied) than drums, film scoring is my “day job” and largely via trial-by-fire I’ve learned more about mixing music and composing than I ever thought I would. Since 2004 I’ve put out about 20 albums under different names. It’s been an immense time of growth in terms of responsibility and personal/professional knowledge. Writing music for films and ads is a world full of overcoming impossibilities, surprises and ups and downs, but it’s the kind of challenge I think I hoped for and accepted when I set out to become a musician.
Unseen is the business that my wife and I run. It’s just the two of us. We release our music, ship out merchandise, handle all of the correspondence and social media, perform, mix, and produce all of the music we create…whilst raising 3 kids.
Unseen licensing library — www.unseen-music.com/licensing
- Purchase “Sometimes” by Goldmund
- Purchase “Yume” by Helios
- Purchase “Broken Devotion” by Mint Julep
