Adam Malka, co-founder of Signature Tracks, says the company has been working with Discovery Music for years, and has been able to build a great relationship with SVP of business affairs, Marcia Myerberg, as well as director of post production, Lara Barros, at Sharp Entertainment, the production company behind the 90 Day Fiance franchise. In addition, co-founder David Lasman worked as a showrunner with Gabriela Tavakoli, who was one of the original executive producers at TLC on
90 Day Fiance. While showrunning, he also worked with 90 Day editor Adrian Davila.
As the 90 Day series gained success, the Signature Tracks team continued to create new music for the series, and when
90 Day Fiance: Last Resort was picked up, showrunners Karl Bauer and Juliette Marais reached out to the company to create a new, fresh sound for the spinoff.
“Once we had the kickoff call, myself and co-founder Russell Howard developed the sound of the theme and series, assigning some of Signature Tracks top composers to collaborate with,” explains Malka. “90 Day has been a really fun process to work on. At Signature Tracks, we love to have client listening sessions and really hone in on references that may work well. Our goal for this series was to complement the storyline without stepping on the dialogue. We chose sparse percussion that was unorthodox and unique syncopations of movement that evoke some very slightly tribal elements.”
Percussion helps in pacing the show.
“I gravitate towards mid-tempo BPMs to work well for dialogue and activities,” says Malka. “We want there to be room to breathe in the percussion, and we also use drop-outs frequently to accentuate and punctuate some comedic and dramatic moments, which we find works well. As a composer, one must really think creatively and out of the box. Song arrangements in television can be particularly freeing for a composer. We encourage our team to experiment often as well.”
Signature Tracks has a core team of between 10 and 30 composers, and all of the projects begin with one of its five producers.
“We use Logic and Ableton mainly, with massive sound banks and VSTs,” Malka explains. “In addition, we have special live teams for instrumentation, led by five-time Grammy-winning music producer Harold Brown and Isai Moran on live keys. Lastly, we have a mostly exclusive team of very talented vocalists.”
On 90 Day, the Signature Tracks team uses unique vocal sounds and chops as instrumentation and sonic layers.
“We love trying out vocals as sounds rather than lyrics, and consider this a new genre of experimentation in score and music production,” Malka explains.
For theme songs, the team is often inspired by a graphic or storyboard. They then have a creative kick-off meeting with production to match their vision with suggested concepts.
“Ultimately we seek to match the client’s vision. We begin by then presenting the production team with references, and listen back all together for feedback. Music is nuanced, and I am often listening to clients to get a feel for particular percussive sounds, effects and instrumentation that may resonate with them inside a particular genre or blended genre of music. Often, a theme may be influenced by an existing song or artist and a combination of sounds. Themes and scores often live in the blend of several genres and production styles married together.”
Signature Tracks has worked on more than 40 theme songs over the past 15 years, so there are many things that they’ve learned as part of the craft.
“Notably, it’s important to make the client the A&R to champion the project,” states Malka. “We do this by keeping them in the loop of every step of the way, making subtle suggestions, but letting the client steer the ship!”
Unscripted programming, says Malka, often relies on music to serve as a driving element in telling the story.
“The music functions as another cast member and is often the barometer telling one how to feel,” he explains. “Unscripted also merges more genres, as often the audience may feel different from the cast members. For example, something intense for a cast member may be comical for the viewer, and thus the music needs to support both the comedic and dramatic elements at the same time.”
In the case of 90 Day Fiance: Last Resort, Malka says the challenge was to elevate the production sound and sonic fidelity to be as cutting edge as possible.
“Mainly, the bar has been set so high on themes of iconic series in the last couple years that everything needs to be firing at all levels — a hummable, catchy lead line over incredible and expensive-sounding production. The pressure is on to elevate, and that’s where we thrive at Signature Tracks.”