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2024

The Sound Room: 20 Years in Post-Production

The Sound Room: 20 Years in Post-Production

They’re definitely not two peas in a pod, but entrepreneurial musicians Marshall Smith and Tom Fox have nonetheless maintained a close business partnership in the challenging environment of music / sound design and audio post-production for a period of growth that’s covered two decades. The end of 2024 brought their shared operation of The Sound Room to a close and NZM felt it was an occasion worth highlighting.

Based in Takapuna on Auckland’s North shore for most of that time, The Sound Room has been arranging and producing music for artists and bands throughout Aotearoa and around the world for 20 years. True, sound design and audio post-production has been more at the heart of their business, plus the partnership has fostered strong working relationships with international agencies that have given them a steady stream of intriguing, sometimes fascinating work.

The TSR Spring 2024 newsletter announcing the business ‘ch, ch, ch, changes…’ included two animated TVC’s for a Vietnamese tea brand, along with links to numerous other current works they’re involved with. Local theatre productions, a Marshmellow meditation album release and a fabulously styled Japanese film noir video for an old song of Marshall’s titled Old Mustang. Also a call out for anyone wanting help with music videos offering use of their filming space, green screen and lights along with filming, editing, animation and post-production services.

Marshall Smith was a co-founder of the Screen Composers Guild and chair for 10 years before it morphed into the expanded Screen Music & Sound Guild. The goal for SMSG is to grow and help build a more sustainable career base for all Kiwi individuals and businesses working in that creative space.
As the artist Marshmellow he releases original music for both grown-ups and young ones, currently with a new kids’ album in production collaborating with some of our best including Levity Beet, Claudia Robin Gunn, Kath Bee and the Jubilation Gospel Choir among others. No relation (we think), he was working in the Marshall Islands “…on a random, island recording gig” when NZM reached out.

A few years his senior, Tom Fox has been pre-empting the approach of gold card years writing with an old band from his youth, the members now based in New York, Cape Town and Tāmaki Makaurau. Tom says they will be releasing some music soon. 
“I was raised in South Africa where we grew up listening to a fusion of western and African sounds, so our music reflects that. A mix of Talking Heads, Fela Kuti, Rolling Stones, Kanda Bongo Man, Crowded House and Tinariwen… to name a few influences. It’s an ongoing writing project which gives me great pleasure.”

Congratulations to you both on 20 years of great work together – why is that changing?

Tom: I’m in my mid-sixties now and felt after 20 years it was a good time to pull back from commercial work and make some space for more creative projects such as song production and writing collaborations. Marshall is a different generation and has the energy to take the company in new and exciting directions. We will still collaborate on certain projects.

Business partnerships can work when the two people share the same skills – or have different but complementary skills. Which is it for you?

Tom: The latter, I think. I’m very much into the detail of the production and the music itself whereas Marshall has more of a ‘big picture’ view of running the business. I also have a different musical upbringing, having been raised in a culture of world music and specifically African music… which I try to work into everything I do!

Marshall:  I think our skills and temperaments have really complemented each other over the 20 years we’ve worked together. I like to think we’ve both learnt loads from each other too.

Going back past 20 years, how did you come to the idea of working together?

Tom: I think I saw Marshall’s ad in the classifieds (remember those?!) for someone to co-write songs. We got on well and the song writing gradually developed into bands/gigs and then documentaries, short films and then more commercial projects over the years.

Do you have individual instrumental and/or technical specialities?

Tom: I’m principally a guitarist, so I cover all the acoustic and electric stringed instruments, but I also love drum programming, sample manipulation, sound design, etc. I was around when computers first made their presence felt in music, so I have a broad knowledge of DAWs. I work on Logic now, but also use Cubase and FL Studio amongst others. I have mixed a lot of The Sound Room’s music over the years.

Marshall: I’m a keys player and a singer primarily – skills that come in useful especially when recording vocals and singers and working on arrangements from pop to full orchestra. I’m very interested in exploring almost any style of music – to keep things interesting.  No day is ever the same.

What’s the basic balance of activities that TSR has been doing over the past year? 

30% Games
20% Artist music production
30% Theatre
20% Commercials & animation

Marshall:  The music world and the commercial music world is changing constantly, so we have been constantly looking for a niche to survive!  We continue to work on games and kids TV in Japan. Commercial and animation work has slowed up in the current climate, but hopefully will rebound in 2025. I’ve been working on a lot more theatre work – my own original music theatre production (starring Jackie Clarke) had its first development season in Wellington in 2023 (www.houseonfire.co.nz), and I am scoring four shows a year for Tim Bray Theatre too, along with loads of kids music production for local stars like Claudia Robin Gunn, Kath Bee and my own releases for pop and meditation music at www.marshmellow.co.nz.  I’m always actively working with other collaborators to look at developing our own original IP – to keep things rolling, and also to create the sort of work we’d like to work on!

What might a productive day at The Sound Room entail?

Tom: A good cup of coffee to begin with! Then just getting into the flow and trying to create some magic, I guess… depending on the nature of the job. I’m not a time-oriented person, so I’ll just work on a piece until I’m happy, without keeping too much of an eye on the clock. If I’m feeling creative then it feels productive.

Marshall:  I work business hours, Mon – Friday, like Nick Cave! I like to get up and do something creative, something productive and something that moves the company forward each day. I also like afternoon naps, and two swims a day down at Takapuna beach if I can swing it. I mean you don’t want to overdo it!

What was the business model that The Sound Room started with? 

Tom: I think it grew pretty organically for the first few years until we realised we had to make it a more formal business entity.

Marshall:  I think we just wanted to make music – that’s always been the aim. I think both of us just like creating music and are not that fussed on the style / genre / outlet – it’s just what we like doing. We really are a creative partnership and work with a wonderful team of long term collaborators all over the world.

Was your offering markedly different to similar businesses back then? 

Tom: The music business is always challenging and success is really just about staying in the game. I don’t think we offered anything radically new except for our combined talents as individuals. Being able to quickly understand a brief and produce music that fits is one of our strengths, along with a broad knowledge of different musical styles which we can draw on.

Did the model change significantly through the 20 years?

Tom: It’s always been just the two of us. We contract other people in as needed, such as session musicians or other technical expertise. Neither of us are tech-heads! Keeping overheads low by having our own studios and no staff has been instrumental in our longevity, I think.

Marshall: Totally. We also spend a lot of time looking for new areas to explore with creating music – and to try and follow the endless changes of the industry…

Has there been any one account or project that has been important in The Sound Room’s longevity?

Tom: Our association with Attic Productions in Japan has led to some amazing work, such as scoring music for Streetfighter and Tekken. Composing at that level really keeps you on your toes and we really had to pull out all the stops!

And is there some work you’re particularly proud of?

Tom: As well as the above mentioned game music, I’m particularly proud of the music composed for Brother Number One, a documentary by Annie Goldson where we used Cambodian music influences and samples to create an interesting blend of sound. But there are many others I’m proud of.

Marshall:  Totally, I also am very proud of our score for Big Pacific (NHNZ/PBS/Discovery) which was just a glorious production to be involved with. I do like the sea, you see.

Presumably Covid impacted your work throughput? 

Tom: Covid actually didn’t change that much for me, as this sort of work is mainly in isolation anyway. I think we felt a knock-on effect after Covid when the volume of work slowed.

Marshall: In some ways it was a boom time for us as suddenly all work could be done remotely. Some nice international projects showed up, but yes it has been slower post pandemic and in the current economic climate. But you can’t dwell too much on that, you just keep creating, and creation and collaboration always opens new possibilities.

How much of your work is with overseas clients? 

Marshall: I would say 50% of all our work, sometimes more, is from overseas. Sometimes much more. I think people work with us because of our track record, and also because we are professional, experienced and easy to deal with.

Tom – what are you heading off to do work-wise?

I will still be working with Marshall on certain projects, so it won’t be a complete shift. I plan to concentrate on more creative projects such as song production, world music and collaborating with songwriters. Anybody who has an interesting idea and would like to get in touch can email me at tomgroovesong@gmail.com

Marshall – how will The Sound Room adapt?

The Sound Room will continue to do what it’s always done – write and produce great music for just about anything you throw at us. The studio operation has been extended so there may well be more of a focus on recording and post production – but the future is, as Tom Petty said, wide open…