The Running Man

Behind the Music of Hit Shows Like CSI and Entourage With Hit the Ground Running's Kier Lehman

Hit the Ground Running's Kier Lehman accidentally fell into the world of music supervision. After graduating from the University of Miami with a degree in music engineering, he wanted to become a composer for films and other media. But through people who lived in his building, he landed an internship at L.A.-based music supervision company, Hit the Ground Running, led by Jason Alexander. He soon got bumped up to music supervisor, and has been working there for three years now. Lehman recently talked to ASCAP about how he finds and chooses music for popular network and cable shows like CSI, Everybody Hates Chris sand Entourage and what mistakes to avoid when submitting your music to music supervisors.

How did your interest in music begin?
My parents were a big influence. There was always music in the house – different styles from jazz to electronic to classical. I was exposed at a really early age and just got interested in music and the music industry. My dad was a record collector and an audiophile. He was always buying new records of experimental groups and different things. He had this amazing stereo so he would always be playing the music really loud. Everything from jazz to early experimental electronic music to Pink Floyd to classical music and operas – that kind of thing. He was more into the fringe type stuff, not the popular type of music.

How do you find music for shows like CSI and Entourage?
I search for a lot of music. I listen to a lot of music personally, which is why I was a good fit for the job. I was already very interested in just listening to tons of new music and finding new and old music. It started with definitely just having a good knowledge base of music styles in general and artists. Then we get pitched everything from everybody. We try to go through as much as we can to find music we like. We search out music that we like through various channels of people we respect, magazines we read, blogs that we read and advice from friends. There’s just so much out there, and it’s really hard to get through even the music that you want to listen to. We kind of have to pick and choose where we go for it.

What’s the turn around time from the time you receive the footage to finally placing music in the scenes?
From when we see a cut of the project for a TV show, it’s probably about a week in a half, sometimes two weeks. It really depends on the project. I’m talking about network prime time TV shows where the deadlines are pretty set and strict. On other independent productions and HBO, the schedules can be a little bit different.

How many songs usually go into an episode?
CSI uses maybe three to five source music cues an episode. CSI: New York is a bit heavier with probably like five to seven source cues an episode.

What is the approval process like of getting the music finalized on the show?
At the beginning of the season or when they’re starting up, we give them a few discs of music – from working on the shows or from discussing it with producers – that fits the style of what they are going for. Then the editors try to use that music when they’re putting the shows together and temping it in. They temp score an episode basically. The producers are involved in that process of cutting the show together so the producers weigh in a little bit on that. Once they have a rough version of the show put together, we get together with the producers and the editors, and we watch the show and discuss the music. From there, we can either decide to replace the cues or keep certain ones that we like. Then we go back and we’ll try maybe three to five things for each scene that we need to replace music in. Then that goes back to the producers, and they choose from that what they want to keep.

I saw that you were involved in placing music in a couple of independent movies – Goal and Flicka. What are the differences or similarities in placing music in TV versus film?
The time for a film is much more drawn out. It’s a much longer process. There can be a lot more back and forth between producers, directors and supervisors. Things can be set for a little while, and then a month later they can change because somebody’s opinion changes or the cut changes or another song comes up. TV has a much more set-in-stone schedule and is fast-paced with a quick turn around. We’re clearing songs in two or three days versus having a month to clear a song on a film.

Which do you enjoy more?
That’s a tough one. I would go with TV because we get to use a lot more music. We go through so many episodes pretty quickly so we get to use a lot more, which means better relationships with everybody and more fun placing music that we enjoy rather being limited to a film’s worth of cues over a few months.

What do you think is your biggest challenge as a music supervisor today?
Licensing music. Indie music is easier to clear and cheaper and all that. But even indie music is not really indie music anymore, and it’s not easy to clear and it’s not that cheap. You’d be really surprised. I’ll find out about a band that not a lot of people in America know about. But when we try to clear the music, they’ll have a major publisher who have signed them somewhere in Europe or somewhere else, where they’re more aggressive maybe about signing bands. But that publisher is a worldwide publisher so they have a U.S. office that clears their licensing and knows the industry and will charge a high rate. That is frustrating.

Can you give me an example of an artist you were excited about placing in one of your projects?
I get excited about helping out independent artists that we are fans of personally. A band that we’ve worked with a few times is the band Ratatat. I’ve placed them a few times, and we’ve built a relationship with the band.

Someone recently said to me that TV is the new radio. Do you agree with this?
I would agree as far as exposure goes. I was reading somewhere else that people are never really tuning into radio to find new music. It’s like the radio just plays music that everyone already knows. I think music supervisors have to get creative as far as what music they can play in the shows, whether it’s for budget reasons or because a lot of songs have been used already and have a certain place in people’s minds. Then you can get into some stuff that might not be as well known but is good quality.

I think it also has to do with the connection of picture with sound, bringing home another emotional element to the experience. So you maybe get a different or deeper connection when you hear a song played up against a picture or in a show where you already have this kind of emotional setting going on and the song kind of adds to that. I realized that a lot when placing music in Entourage for end titles. I’ll try songs that I already love, and I play it as an end title to the show. It makes me like it even more because of the connection that it gets with being associated with the show and the storyline. It excites me to use songs that I love as an end title to an episode to kind of give it closure and leave people with this awesome moment where they can kind of be uplifted or impacted emotionally.

What song or artist that you’ve placed recently has gotten the most feedback?
Recently, as far as attention outside of my immediate area of people I know would probably have to be when we placed the song, “Luchini,” by Camp Lo in an episode of Entourage in Season 3. I got a lot of response on the message boards and blogs. There were some articles like on Entertainment Weekly online. I got tons of emails from friends and people who watched it.

Do you often replace music from the season when it’s time to release the shows on DVD?
A big show like CSI or Entourage usually clears the music upfront for those rights so they don’t have to change anything on the DVD. Especially with Entourage, where music plays such a big part that people would notice if it’s missing and probably be disappointed. On Everybody Hates Chris, the first season’s budget couldn’t afford to pay for the DVD rights for all the music so a lot of it was replaced. The producers can get very upset about that because the music is really important to them. Especially with Everybody Hates Chris – the music was part of a lot of the gags and the jokes in the story, so losing the music meant you lost a lot of the story as well. Usually we are not that involved in the process [of replacing music for DVD]. I think a lot of times with the networks and the studios it’s something they do in-house.

What does the future hold for music supervision?
It’s a hot industry right now. I’ve been getting more and more emails from people asking how to get into the industry and how they can get started. Music supervision has gotten more and more popular just because of the success of some shows in particular that had brought a lot of attention to music and music supervisors. There’s going to be a lot more competition as far as music supervision and music supervisors. So the people who have experience are definitely going to be able to build a name and a brand out of what they do.

The TV industry is definitely the biggest place as far as the most money to spend and the most uses of music. The film industry’s budgets are a lot smaller than they used to be, and there’s really not as many soundtracks put out as there used to be for films. The uses on films are beginning to be a smaller payout than the use in a TV show. It’s an interesting place to be. You’re spending a lot of people’s money so you can really make a big difference to people if they are the ones who get paid.

What is the best advice you could give to songwriters and composers to get noticed by music supervisors?
Don’t get frustrated. It’s a hard process. It’s not easy. I would have to stress that to everybody. It’s definitely not easy to get your stuff noticed if you’re independent and doing it on your own. Aligning yourself with a manager or even an agent who has relationships with music supervisors, studios, directors and producers to pitch your music is really the best thing to do. Also work with record labels and publishers. And even ASCAP and BMI have events that they throw and pitch music to music supervisors. It’s a good way to get your name out there attached to something that people might recognize.

What are some mistakes in submitting or pushing their music that songwriters and composers should avoid?
People calling repeatedly over and over again and being a bit too persistent. It’s tough. I get five phone calls and 10 emails a day of pitching me music. That’s new music people are pitching me, music that I haven’t already spoken to or already gotten an email from. It’s a pretty crowded market.

People not understanding our situation, which is probably hard for them to understand. Realize that this is a job we do every day and we get pitched music by people constantly so it’s kind of a whole process of reviewing and wading through all of that stuff.

Also people pitching music that is generic. We want to hear something special and something interesting when we get pitched something. We want to hear something that’s really authentic and creative.