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A Sync Journey: Spencer Bastian

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Spencer Bastian of Cymek & Zoi. Spencer has immense experience in the sync space and we dove deep into his blueprint for writing for sync and the amazing story of how his artist project went from sync success to joining a major label roster.

Quick Stats about Spencer

• Grammy nominated in 2022
• Written/Produced songs for Jason Derulo, Chromeo, Imanbek, The Chainsmokers, Rachel Platten, Rita Ora and David Guetta to name a few.
• Plethora of syncs across TV, Film, Trailers and Ads for Spotify, Sony Pictures, Walmart, Ford, Disney+, Universal Pictures & Apple.

Needless to say, he’s at the top of his sync game.

In my conversation with Spencer, he covers:

• How he got started and early wins
• Overcoming hurdles
• Sync songwriting & production tips
• Building off of a successful sync career

How did you first start making sync music?

Well, I think the first sync that I was ever loosely a part of was with After Midnight Project, the band I was in from 2005 to 2011. The first single we ever released called “Take Me Home” was placed in a video game. I don’t know if I even saw any money from that, but that was the first experience I had that opened up the world of sync to me personally. A few years later, I had my first personal sync. That was through Black Unicorn, which became Think Music with Julie Shama. She represented an artist that I wrote and produced with named Bobby Alt.  She repped our catalog of music and placed one of our songs in a network series. So I guess my segue into sync was through having artist projects and having a sync company represent those projects exclusively. That kind of model is one way to get introduced to the world of sync music. When you’re part of an artist project either as a producer or writer, or you are the artist, and “getting a song sync’d” becomes one box to check alongside selling merch, booking a tour, finishing your album, and everything else. You try to find a sync company to represent your catalog. Think Music ended up representing my first band outside of After Midnight Project called Citizun as well, and that’s where I had my second, and maybe third and fourth syncs. So that’s kind of how I got into thinking about sync music.

I think this is an important takeaway, because it’s not always like a lot of people who find great success in sync are necessarily seeking that out from the beginning; they kind of fall into it as a byproduct of creating a high-quality artist project they’re passionate about.

What roadblocks did you hit along the way?

I never really experienced roadblocks as far as securing representation from a sync company. But as time went on and sync placements became few and far between, like one a year or less, I started to really think about what type of music gets synced rather than just making songs aimlessly and hoping they get sync’d. This led to an “aha” moment as I started studying sync music. There’s a certain type of structure and energy that works for sync, as well as specific tones and lyrics, and most music that falls outside of that just doesn’t really work for sync. Maybe I got lucky, but I think I pretty quickly started to intuitively understand what type of sound will work for sync. And much of that understanding comes from paying close attention to the music in ads, promos, shows and films. 

What are some of those tips that you started figuring out in a songwriting context?

I think that writing for sync is similar to writing for any other purpose. So an example would be, if you perform live as an artist, and that’s kind of a big focus of your artist project, then you should know what works in a live context. For example, if you’re a rock band, you probably don’t focus only on slow ballads for your live show. Instead, you work within the context of the way in which an audience hears your music. The way I approach songwriting has never been to wake up, brew a cup of coffee, and sit down at a piano and just see what happens. Instead, I go into the studio with a direct goal in mind. So when I started thinking about sync, specifically, I started by just studying music that has been synced. And that’s it. So it’s the same thing as if you’re a live rock band, you should probably go check out live rock concerts. And it’s not to copy other artists, or to chase other artists’ vision or anything, it’s just understanding the context in which specific types of music is listened to and enjoyed. Most of the rules I apply to writing for sync are similar to pop writing.  The chord progression, for example, is not going to be overly complex. And the melody is pretty easy to follow and easy to sing along to. Obviously, there are going to be outliers and exceptions here and there. But for the most part, you can start to get a good perspective on what works in sync just by paying attention. Then, you can apply what you observe in the songwriting process.

What is a good sync tempo?

I’ve actually never thought about this until now. The songs that I’ve seen in my catalog getting synced the most seem to fall somewhere between 101-110 BPM,  four on the floor. So it’s kind of slower, but still upbeat because it’s four on the floor with the snares on the two and four. So, upbeat but not overly driving or frenetic. It’s just kind of cruising at a nice pace that seems to lend itself well to promos and even trailers. (Trygge: I call this the goldilocks tempo!)

Anything you think about lyrics-wise when you’re writing for sync specifically?

First of all, it depends because within sync, as we know, there are multiple outlets which includes the ad / promo / trailer space, and separately the film & TV space, and they can be kind of different lyrically. The promo space is pretty much always some sort of positive, uplifting, encouraging, high-energy type lyric. Promos are made to quickly get your attention and get you amped up excited and empowered. And the lyric will typically be only a line or two that’s clearly related to whatever the point of the promo is, or to whatever it’s selling.  In the film / TV context, the lyric can be all across the board, depending on the scene the song is used in.

And from there, I think you just need to understand storytelling. Most movies follow a certain formula and have a certain arc. So a song conveying a feeling of love and community and friendship or just love in general is obviously a big one. But it could also be the sadness of a breakup, losing somebody, or missing somebody.  Really anything that fits into the story. So I know it’s super broad, but I think it’s actually helped optimize the approach to writing the lyric; if you are sitting down and writing a song and you don’t know where to start, just pull up a movie or show and find one of your favorite scenes and get in that headspace of what’s going on in that scene. That’s a good songwriting exercise, regardless of whether or not you’re shooting for sync.

Any specific production tips to consider for sync?

I would base this on feedback that I’ve gotten from licensing agents and music supervisors. One big takeaway is offering a wide palette for the editor to cut to, and to cut around in your song. So what I mean by that is having a firm intro, so you’re introducing the chords and the melody, and then establishing the beat, and then the lyric. And then the hook where the energy rises. Yeah, this is basic songwriting stuff, but I guess the takeaway that I would say distinguishes sync is with verse two, you don’t really need to repeat anything from verse one from the editor’s perspective.  The editor already has verse one to play with, so now you want to switch it up a little bit to give them more musical options to use. Also so they can make different cuts to it. The same thing goes with the final chorus. For example, it shouldn’t sound the same as the first chorus. I know producers are oftentimes already following these rules. But I think for sync, you can be even more liberal in changing things in the arrangement throughout the song. And I think one common thing that I would hear a lot is like a stop down or just hits in general. So you can have these moments with a syncopated rhythm of hits. This offers the editor a chance to do quick cuts to your track, and I’m specifically talking more in the promo space and definitely in the trailer space. Also, having a defined ending of the song, like a ringout or hard stop.

Sync has really taught me a lot about just working with space in the song in general. Really going from extreme bombastic energy, all the way down to just dead silence within the song.  Another big takeaway from supervisors and sync companies that I’ve worked with is to keep the energy building throughout.  Even if it’s a softer song, it should build in energy and momentum from the start to the finish. So you could almost look at the song’s energy like the graph, a steady upward slope. So again, the editors can use the really soft part of the song, and as the scene continues, they can end with the really intense part of the song. Rarely are these editors using the full song so that’s why you give them lots of parts and options.

So how are things looking today and for the near future in the sync arena?

Zoi is a project that I started in 2019 with Sam Martin, which began getting synced consistently in 2020 and continues to today. We wanted to take things to another level and start to really brand the band and develop the project into something that could build upon the success we’ve had in sync. So we started adjusting the sound even further into more of a dance project. And now we are signing to Warner Brothers Europe and we’re starting to collaborate with size-able dance acts internationally as well as tour and perform live, while continuing to focus on sync. We’re very excited about the possibilities that these new partnerships could bring.