Laura Katz picks the perfect song
Every time you hear a high-energy song playing in the background of an action movie, a swelling ballad in a dramatic film, or a fun, pop track in a romantic comedy, you can thank the movie’s music supervisor for setting the tone. But it takes more than having great music taste to match the perfect song to a scene — just ask Laura Katz.
On getting her start
Growing up in Los Angeles, Katz was exposed to the music industry early on. She interned at a variety of music-related companies — including indie record labels, major record labels, presenting institutions, and studio music supervision departments — throughout high school and college. After working in different facets of the industry, Katz realized that she wanted to pursue music supervision because it combines her love of movies and music.
“It’s like A&R for a very particular sound each time, rather than continually chasing what’s next,” she said. “I love deep-diving into a different genre all of the time.”
Katz ended up interning at Cutting Edge Group around ten years ago. She was able to land a full-time position, eventually becoming the company’s Head of the Music Services Department in L.A. for three years. Afterward, she decided to venture out on her own and created Supe Troop, a music supervision company.
On the intricacies of the music licensing process
Each project is unique in its music licensing process, according to Katz. Sometimes the Supe Troop team is given a specific scene to watch. Sometimes they’ll have to work off of just the script. And sometimes, they won’t have either the scene or the script — the team would base their decisions on a conversation with the director or producer. From there, Supe Troop will try to clear songs that the director has in mind or suggest songs they think might fit.
“Getting on the same page is definitely a challenge, but once we do, it’s fun looking for that right song!” said Katz.
When it comes to picking a track for a project, her team considers a few factors: Does the song sound good? Can they afford it? Does it make sense with the other music in the project? If it’s diegetic, would it have been released at a time when the character could listen to it? It’s important for the song to be able to meet all of these criteria before it gets the approval of the director or producers.
On her favorite projects
One of Katz’s favorite projects she music-supervised is “Sunset Overdrive,” an open world, post-apocalyptic video game that features garage rock songs from bands like Meat Market and Bass Drum of Death. Her work for “Sunset Overdrive” earned her a nomination for a Guild of Music Supervisors Award for Best Music Supervision in a Video Game.
“It was such a fun project — the people at Insomniac Games were phenomenal to work with and I got to use a lot of music I love that doesn’t really fit into the films I work on,” she said.
Another project Katz loved working on is “Their Finest,” a movie directed by Lone Scherfig about British scriptwriters developing an inspirational film about the Dunkirk evacuation. Because the movie is set during WWII, Katz set out to discover music from that period.
“I always enjoy digging through tracks to evoke a specific time,” she said.
Katz is currently working on a range of projects, including an FXX TV show called Cake. It’s different than anything she’s worked on before because each episode is an anthology of shorts with interstitial animations, she said, and one musical artist is used for all spots in each episode. She’ll also be music supervising “Silk Road,” a film based on the true story of Ross Ulbricht, who created the Dark Net marketplace of the same name.
“Music supervisors don’t have the final decision-making power on most anything, so it is always a thrill when a song I love makes it all the way into theaters,” Katz said. “It really is joyous when a song I found that fits perfectly is in the end product."
When I was a kid, fate would have it that Ella Fitzgerald and I ended up in the same hospital elevator. Her aide, my mom, and some other guy were also there, but when she sang this song, it was clearly for me. It was magical and I like to think of it as my music industry "origin story.”
This was one of my favorite CDs when I was really young — The Beach Boys's Still Cruisin'. My brother and I listened to it constantly, running around the house and singing along. The Beach Boys are one of my dad's favorite bands, and we listened to them all the time in the house and in the car. They are probably still my favorite band, although this particular song is really more hilarious than anything. I later loved the Fat Boys in Krush Groove.
This was my first ever favorite score and my favorite movie for a long time (it’s also why I eventually took a hot air balloon ride even though I'm not so fond of unsupported heights). It's such a sweeping epic so indicative of its time (and thus also has some problems, unfortunately). It was made into a fairly successful song after the film, which was recorded by lots of notable artists like Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke, but I think the score cue is better.
Velvet Rope was the first CD I chose for myself and it has become a strong pillar in my music tastes. Pretty much all of the pop music I like today has been influenced by Janet, for sure. I always liked Janet more than Michael. *gasp*
Now, we've made it to middle school. I don't really know what you would call this — pop-punk ska? Anyway, I still know all of the words to this song and it's indicative of my tastes at 12 years old. It's so fun!
I used to go Israeli folk dancing a lot (like for over a decade). I even taught it for two summers at my sleepaway camp. I love this song and its Madonna-ness. The dance choreographed to it (by Shmulik Gov Ari) is one of my favorites.
Elvis Costello was my favorite artist in high school, my paragon of cool. I love pretty much every one of his songs, so I had a hard time picking for this. I really love detective stories and this is a great song.
This is my favorite music placement I've ever overseen (in a film called “Life of Crime”). I love their voices and the tone felt so magical in that particular scene. The lyrics are also relevant, both directly and ironically.
At SXSW one year, a couple friends and I went up toward the university to see Thee Oh Sees or The Strange Boys or maybe both? I don't remember. Either way, we got there a bit early and The Blind Shake were playing and blew me away. I had never heard of them and loved it so much immediately, which honestly doesn't happen for me that often. I usually prefer to know the music a little before seeing a band live, but their music has such an immediacy to it that I think seeing them live first is actually the best way to be introduced to them. I don't often get to use this type of music in my work, but I licensed their track "I'm Not an Animal" into the Xbox One game Sunset Overdrive a couple years after first seeing them in Austin!
When this album came out a few years back, I didn't expect it to become my favorite Basement Jaxx record. I listen to this song on repeat time and time again, and I'm still not tired of it.
This is my favorite sync story. I went to Tampere, Finland for their Music & Media Conference in 2015. One night, I went to the Belarusian showcase at Doris, a literal underground club, and saw a couple bands I thoroughly enjoyed but assumed I’d never be able to use in my work. The one I most gravitated towards was Super Besse, coldwave/post-punk in a language I couldn’t understand. There’s a scene in “Hotel Mumbai” that was temp-ed with a very famous one-hit wonder from the 1980s and we were having trouble finding something that worked there. I had a meeting with Anthony Maras, the director, and it just occurred to me that Super Besse had a sound that could be perfect. I asked Anthony, “Does the song have to be in English?” He said no, and I went back to the office and emailed him the song. He approved it. It might be the quickest a director has ever approved a song in my career thus far! Four years after I saw them at that conference, the song appeared in a movie that was released worldwide and I couldn’t be happier!
This is a different version with the wonderful addition of Julien Baker, but the song was first created for a documentary I music supervised called “American Chaos.” I love working on projects with original songs and I don't get to very often. Last year was a great year for me and original songs. The other one we were involved with — Annie Lennox's "Requiem for A Private War" for the film “A Private War,” a gripping movie about war reporter Marie Colvin — was nominated for a Golden Globe!
Listen to Laura Katz’s curated 12 Songs playlist below.