Many will be very happy to know that the letter Emilie wrote to Dave Tweedie on behalf of SYTYCD music fans WORKED!! In response to the letter and a little bit of outreach to Dave Tweedie and Oona we got the following letter from Dave Tweedie about his music on So You Think You Can Dance:
Hello all, thanks for the interest in my music.
I am a composer for Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance – providing background music, and writing songs for the audition process. Here’s how that works: dancers audition with a piece of music of their choosing. The producers decide which dances will be aired on television, and then it is up to the Music Supervisor to get what is called “clearance” for the songs used. There are a number of reasons a song may not clear a license. Perhaps the song uses a sample from another song, an artist may want huge amounts of money, or perhaps the artist doesn’t want their music edited out of sequence – a necessity for the audition process.
So they call me, and I write music to fit the dance. Sometimes these songs take on a life of their own, and I will go ahead and write a full-length version, but often times I will only write the 45 seconds to be used on the show. I am a music lover first and foremost, and I love my job: I get to write all different kinds of music, and although I typically work on these tracks alone, the collaboration lies with the dance itself. I always do my best to capture the sentiment of the dance, and of the song they originally danced to. It is always a challenge.
If you are interested in hearing my full-length, “real” songs, you’ll have to check out my bands! We all work really hard and we love what we do – I promise you will not be disappointed 🙂
OONA –
www.myspace.com/oonamusic
www.facebook.com/oonamusic
JET STREAM –
www.myspace.com/OfficialJetStream
Sincerely,
Dave Tweedie
Oakland, CA
PS – We’re working on posting the short songs used in the auditions… I’ll keep you posted!
Also, they were kind of enough to make available a free MP3 download of “The Weight of the World” (right click and choose “Save target as” to download the MP3) featuring Steve Bradley (Jet Stream) on vocals.
Mystery solved!! Thanks Dave Tweedie and Oona for sharing your story and the free download. We’ll be looking forward to hearing more of your music and getting access to your short songs as well. I think we might have to set up an interview with Dave Tweedie at some point as well.