With commercial work inspiring new sounds and textures, Jesse is pursuing success in his own music.
Jesse Marantz is, for lack of a better word, a music maker. Having found success doing ads for commercial clients like BMW, Visa, Victoria’s Secret, Reebok and more, Jesse has also just released a single of his own music: “Feel Good ’24”. Jesse’s music is upbeat, punchy, refine and frankly – sounds incredible. Producing, mixing and mastering all his own music, Jesse’s sound borrows from club hits, pop sensibility and funk and soul influences. What has led him to where he is today? We asked just that!
As both a musician and a successful sync artist – can you speak to where your music and audio journey began?
Me and my mates started out in the alt-rock/metal band scene in Melbourne 15 years ago. We took a very DIY approach to recording/producing music from the very beginning. My friend gave us all a copy of Cubase 15 years ago and we never turned back.
In the beginning, I focused everything into alt-rock/metal and poured my soul into the genre. However, I eventually became exhausted focusing everything into the one project. Especially something so emotionally draining and angry as metal.
I hit a turning point when I realised I’d rather just have fun in the studio, let my hair down and just create anything I wanted. I didn’t want to be limited to producing only one genre, eventually developing my sound over a broad range of genres. This has been fundamental to my success in sync.
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How did the opportunities for sync deals and commercials begin?
I was very fortunate that the opportunities found me at the beginning. While I was feeling burnt out from riding the highs and lows of the industry, one night, a very pivotal email came through.
It was maybe 2am I was playing Call of Duty and opened my laptop mid-game and saw a random email from a music supervisor in New York. Some bank in South Africa wanted to use a piano composition of mine (I still have no idea how they found it). In the email they requested permission to use the work and offered me an insane licensing fee. I thought it was spam so I closed my laptop and continued playing Call of Duty.
Again, having a collection of tracks over varying genres was key to this initial success. Considering that I was primarily focused on rock/metal only one-two years prior, and a solo piano instrumental was what kick started things off for me.
How do you think your more ‘commercial’ work has informed the creative work on “Feel Good ’24”?
Working in sync has opened up a world of sounds and genres I never would have even considered creating prior. Obviously, the music needs to be somewhat ‘safe’ in nature but the boundaries and mix of genres are endless.
I also get the opportunity to work with incredible vocalists and give them an outlet to flex a different side to their creativity. For example Renee A, the vocalist of “Feel Good ’24”, is primarily a folk/indie artist. She produces absolutely incredible folk/pop/indie music, and is a highly successful wedding singer. But on this occasion, she is just letting it all out and belting out how good it feels!
Also, combining an eclectic mix of genres in the one song can be a big seller in the world of sync and something I plan on exploring more soon. For example, orchestral elements over an electronic beat or world percussion over some funky groove. I think that was one of the selling points of my song “I’ve Gotta Have You” – here you have a fun party beat that you’d normally expect a pop/R’n’B style vocal. But we went for a completely different angle and the vocals were performed by Fluir, an indie pop, chill, smooth, almost whisper style indie vocalist.
What about the inverse? How has your music influenced your sync work?
I think just being open to all types of music and being somewhat experienced in working on a broad range of genres. I’d say it’s been helpful to my continued success in sync.
How does a song like “Feel Good ’24” start for you?
I play guitar and piano so a lot of my ideas are me just riffing over a beat with a guitar in my hand, or in front of a keyboard. “Feel Good ’24” probably did start from a brief or pitch that didn’t eventuate. Sometimes when I get a brief I will whip up a quick beat and send it to one of my go-to singers. On this occasion, it was Renee A, who is an absolute mega talent. She has no limits with her vocal range and performance style, and as always, she smashed it out of the park on this one!
I work in Cubase and record, produce, mix and master everything myself. Sometimes I wish I could send tracks off to get them mixed or mastered by someone else, as it would save me a world of time. I do beat myself up constantly trying to improve every element of my production, mixing and mastering process. Producing, mixing and mastering are all separate arts in their own right, so it’s a struggle trying to keep up sometimes.
As previously mentioned I’ve taken a very DIY approach from the very beginning, so I’ve just got into the habit of doing every step myself. It’s led to a very unorthodox way of producing music. I will produce, mix and master the track all in the one project. I will use top down mixing and mastering techniques and produce and mix my tracks into a mix/mastering chain. My projects are a mess but it’s the only way I know how to get the results I do. It’s also very CPU intensive working like this so I’m constantly upgrading my PC.
I’ve been using Cubase since the beginning and feel it’s the most versatile DAW for someone that works in a broad range of genres. I’m a big fan of plugins and virtual instruments, and tend to use way too many plugins in a project. I’m sure other mix engineers would criticise my techniques and my overuse of plugins.
When working with a singer I’m happy to work remotely and work with vocal recordings they record themselves in any way they are comfortable with. With modern plugins and production, I’m confident they can be turned into something workable no matter how they have been recorded. Just throw a little soothe and [FabFilter] Pro Q3 on there, layer them up, compress and it’s probably gonna start sounding nice.
How does having a succinct brief for sync vs. creating for yourself affect your output?
Having a brief is super inspiring and keeps me working on new sounds. Sounds I probably never would have thought to work on. It keeps things fun and fresh, and is perfect for me. I don’t think I have what it takes to focus on the one genre or sound.
Listen to more of Jesse’s work here, or listen to “Feel Good ’24” here.
