“Sounds Good” is the title of this Dunkin’ Iced Coffee commercial–aptly named for a creation that scored the #1 slot in SHOOT’s Top Ten Tracks Chart for the second quarter of 2023.
Beacon Street Studios took on the music, sound design and audio post mix for a Dunkin’ dance which went viral in a big way, generating fun and attention. Teaming to direct the piece were Morgan Harary of 1stAveMachine and tabletop/food/drink guru Michael Schrom of Schrom.
The Dunkin’ assignment from Leo Burnett posed a unique challenge: “Create the song of the summer using nothing but the sound of a cup of Dunkin’ Iced Coffee.”
Danny Dunlap and Andrew Feltenstein served as composers–with the former literally recording the first cup of iced coffee.
Dunlap reflected on the project, saying of the creative premise, “At Beacon Street, we love to sink our teeth into exactly this kind of thing. An out-of-the0box idea combined with our commitment to authenticity always leads to some extremely rewarding and fun recording sessions.
“That said, recording the sound of ice and coffee is not easy. The ‘instrument’ is quickly melting every second. The sound is constantly changing as the ratio of liquid to solid changes. Add to that, exposing microphones and electronic equipment to sloshing liquids and its every producer’s nightmare. We made a mess, broke lots of cups banging them on the table, the studio smelled like coffee for a good week afterwards, but it was a blast.”
“Sounds Good” features a diverse cast “making music” with their iced coffee. A woman sings in the background, “Watch me do my thing, watch me do my shake, shake.”
Dunlap observed, “One of the most challenging parts of the process compositionally was getting enough variety in the sounds to make something musical. Cups of Dunkin’ Iced were recorded full, half full, ice only, lid off, etc., to produce the wide sonic palette that made up our final hooky beat.”
The composer added, “In our experience when you’re creating something like this, a supporting visual is extremely helpful in understanding where the sounds are coming from, especially during the pitch process. So, we created a clean white cyc environment and shot video of the entire recording session. The recording itself involved 19 microphones, which may seem like overkill but having that amount of flexibility allowed us to make sure were able to perfectly reproduce different camera perspectives in post production. We ended up using every last one of them.
“I feel like a lot of these types of projects end up being chopped together artificially. Our process has always been to commit to doing things the ‘real way,’ Which usually means the ‘hard way.’ In our view the work ends up being way more special and authentic, and people always connect to that.”
Artists connecting with one another also helped bring the job to fruition. Among that talent was a Beacon Street colleague of Feltenstein and Dunlap–Rommel Molina who served as sound designer and mix engineer. Kate Vadnais was executive producer, mix/sound design. Overall EP for Beacon Street was Leslie DiLullo.
Click here for SHOOT's Q2 Top Ten Tracks Chart.
