Michael Skloff

With a Little Help From Friends

Film/TV composer Michael Skloff, creator of music for one of the most popular sit-coms ever, looks to the future with his new record label

Film/TV composer Michael Skloff has worked on some great projects over the years but perhaps his greatest gig so far has been creating music for NBC’s long-running hit show Friends, which just finished its final season this year. ASCAP’s Mike Todd discovers Skloff’s plans after his Friends have gone.

How did you first get your start in composing for film and television?

I went to Carnegie Mellon University with an interest in becoming a film composer. As a music composition major, I followed the careers of film composers through film magazines and by seeing current and classic movies. And while I kept up with my composition curriculum, I also wrote music for theatre productions and scored a student film.

By the time I graduated I decided to pursue a career writing for musical theatre. So I moved to New York and spent eight years working as a pianist/accompanist, vocal coach, music director/conductor, arranger, and songwriter for the theatre. While I was there, I got my first taste of TV music production by scoring some commercials.

My first real work in TV came when my wife, Marta Kauffman, my baby Hannah, and I moved to Los Angeles. The first thing Marta and her partner, David Crane, produced was HBO’s Dream On. I wrote the main title theme and even got an Emmy nomination for it.

As musical director you performed in a concert with Jason Alexander (Seinfeld's "George") and the Boston Pops. How have you balanced music directing/performing along with your work in television?

Music directing and performing as a pianist/singer are things that I love to do. As far as balancing the two fields, one has never been cause to miss out on the other. In fact, my musical theatre background helped me get work on Disney's James and The Giant Peach, and 20th Century Fox's Anastasia and Bartok because I was brought in to help produce the singing performances for these films. In TV, I've done mainly half-hour comedy. And I've been lucky to have Merelyn Davis and her crew do the music editing. Instead of scoring individual half hour episodes, I record "libraries" of music in a variety of emotions, feels and usages, or sometimes specific moments. Then Merelyn or Gerri, or Sue tailor them to fit the shows' needs. They make it sound scored. Scoring TV and films is challenging, but it doesn't make me as happy as does songwriting and performing.

Tell me about Giorgio Bertuccelli, one of the players with whom you collaborate on all of your projects.

Giorgio has produced all of my TV and film scoring with me. We have produced the music for most of the Friends episodes, Veronica's Closet, Jesse and Bob Patterson among others. We push each other creatively and get stupidly funny together.

Has the commercial success of the 10-year comedy hit series "Friends" enabled you to pursue the kinds of projects that are not as financially rewarding?

Yes. Giorgio and I dreamed of doing music that made us happy instead of writing and producing stuff that served another medium. So we started producing singers with the ultimate goal of recording entire albums. After finishing our first full length, my former assistant Elissa and I came up with the name Electric Monkey Records.

What are your goals or plans with the Electric Monkey label?

It's been a roller coaster ride to say the least. But we have three new artists we're promoting. The Latin Project is a wonderful dance album by the talented team of Jez Collin and Matt Cooper featuring amazing Latin performers. Amour Amer is Joel Virgel's sexy debut album with an Afro-Cuban/Brazilian/Urban flavor that Giorgio and I largely co-wrote with him. And Love Shines, is the hot debut album of Big Advice, a trio of funk/soul veterans Ahaguna G. Sun, Werner Schuchner, and Juan Nelson with great horn arrangements by Jerry Hey.

It's a tough business though with hard expensive lessons, especially in today's record industry. But I really believe in our artists' talent and their work. We've just secured new distribution in the U.S. and Europe and we'll hang in there as long as we can. The goal is for Electric Monkey to make enough money so we can keep doing what we love to do: make and share good music.

How did you deal with the fact that your wife Marta Kauffman was the co-creator and executive producer of "Friends"? Was she the boss? Was there a downside?

It was a great working relationship. Marta and I have been married for almost 20 years and we've always had a good professional relationship along with our personal relationship. In New York, she and David Crane and I would be writing musicals in the living room of our one bedroom apartment. At the end of the workday, David would go home and we'd have the place to ourselves. Sometimes it took a little time to adjust to simply being husband and wife after working hard for hours as songwriters.

Marta is one of the most talented, perceptive, clever, sensitive, driven creative people I've ever known. I have a huge amount of respect for her and I'm tremendously proud of her and what she's accomplished. So when it comes to writing the theme song and score for her show, I'm honored to have been a part of it. In answer to your question: she's never really felt like the boss to me. That's Marta, my partner. Oh, and she happens to be the love of my life.

- MIKE TODD