Grammy-nominated DJ, music producer, composer and music and film director Sam Spiegel’s “To Whom It May Concern,” featuring Ceelo Green, Theophilus London and Alex Ebert, premieres today at Consequence of Sound. Consequence of Sound raves about Spiegel’s “funky-as-hell electronic jams” and hails “To Whom It May Concern” as “undeniably smooth.” Read their interview with Spiegel and listen to the track at http://cos.lv/crG530l6k77 and share it at https://bit.ly/2L9UHyk.
15 years in the making, “To Whom It May Concern” was initially written in 2003. Spiegel later adapted it for Ceelo Green after the pair met in a sneaker shop in Japan in 2006, and the track continued to evolve as Spiegel later added Theophilus London and Alex Ebert’s contributions. See below for Spiegel’s note about the making of the track.
Spiegel recently marked his return from a two-year hiatus from making music with the new track “20 Below” featuring Anderson .Paak and Doja Cat. Complex hails “20 Below” as “a chilled-out, soulful track with crisp percussion and warm synths that naturally incorporates smooth vocal performances from both Anderson .Paak and Doja Cat.” Listen to the track at https://bit.ly/2J6XsP6.
“To Whom It May Concern” and “20 Below” are Spiegel’s first releases since his 2016 single “Mutant Brain” featuring Assassin (out now via Interscope Records), which was featured as the soundtrack to the Spike Jonze-directed “Kenzo World” short film (hailed as “the greatest fragrance ad of all time” by Fast Company). The track reached #2 on the Spotify Global Viral 50 playlist and won the AICP “Best Music” award as well as two Gold Lions at the Cannes Lions Film Festival. Listen and watch the short film at https://youtu.be/ABz2m0olmPg.
Since Spiegel’s landmark 2009 collaborative project N.A.S.A. (with Brazilian DJ Zegon), whose debut album The Spirit of Apollo featured appearances by Kanye West, Childish Gambino, M.I.A., Tom Waits, RZA, David Byrne and many others, he has gone on to establish himself as a critically acclaimed music and film director. Spiegel served as music director for Kanye West’s “Glow in the Dark” tour and Karen O’s Stop the Virgens theatrical project, the latter of which Spiegel co-wrote and produced with Karen.
In 2005 Spiegel founded his award-winning commercial music house, Squeak E. Clean, through which he has scored commercial campaigns for Nike, Adidas, Cadillac, Honda, Sonos and many more. Other highlights among Spiegel’s film credits are the scores to Spike Jonze’s Yeah Right!, the top-selling skate movie of all-time; HBO’s Pretty Things; Drew Barrymore’s Whip It and more. Spiegel’s track “Hello Tomorrow” won the Gold Lion for Best Music at the 2005 Cannes International Advertising Festival and Silver for Original Music at the 2006 Clio Awards upon being featured in an Adidas commercial directed by Jones.
In 2015 Spiegel turned his attention to film direction with the video for the final track to be released by N.A.S.A., “Jihad Love Squad” feat. KRS-One. He went on to direct a pair of short films for National Geographic and CNN’s first-ever live commercial, which aired at 11:35 p.m. ET on New Year’s Eve 2017 during CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” and received nearly 3.3 million live viewers.
SAM SPIEGEL ON THE MAKING OF “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN”
I’m so geeked to finally release “To Whom It May Concern.” It was 15 years in the making!
Zegon and I started work on it in 2003 as a N.A.S.A. track for our first album.
I met Ceelo in a sneaker shop in Japan in 2006, and asked him if he was down to make a song. We tried to make it happen for a year and a half. Finally one day I got the call, “Ceelo’s in LA and wants to come by the studio right now.” He came through. We partook in the spirit of creativity, and then he entered the booth, freestyled for about 40 minutes, and then bounced. I sculpted a chorus out of his freestyles.
Shortly after that, I had an orchestra play on the song when I was tracking all of the strings for the N.A.S.A. album. For the next five or six years, I fucked around and kept redoing the track, trying to find the right vibe for the song. I finally got it to a place that I liked it and had my friends, Emily and Theresa from the band Warpaint, come in and sing backups on the chorus.
A year or so later I met Theophilus London, the greatest disco/boogie rapper in the world, so he naturally fit on the song. We met and vibed a few times, and then he came through and blessed the song. We still had one open verse and for the next year and a half Interscope had me redo that verse about 10 times. We had all of these great artists come through and give it a shot: Kali Uchis, Aluna George, Godlilox, Sunni Colon, Bipolar Sunshine. etc. Interscope was not satisfied. In retrospect I’m glad they pushed so hard, because when Alex Ebert finally blessed that second verse, the song really coalesced. Interscope still didn’t release the song, so I finally got out of my deal and am able to deliver this classic straight to your ears. Enjoy!
