Butter Music and Sound has expanded its in-house creative offerings with the addition of two new executive creative directors, with Tim Kvasnosky taking the helm in Los Angeles and Aaron Kotler in New York. The newly appointed ECDs will maintain creative oversight on all projects going through the L.A. and NYC offices, managing workflow across staff and freelance talent, composing on a wide range of projects, and supporting and mentoring in-house talent and staff. Kvasnosky and Kotler both bring extensive experience as composers and musicians, with backgrounds crafting original music for commercials, film and television. They also maintain active careers in the entertainment and performance spaces. Kvasnosky recently scored the feature film Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, awaiting its theatrical debut in April 2019 after a successful launch at the Toronto Film Festival. Kotler continues to perform and record regularly with groups such as the avant-garde big band “The Awakening Orchestra,” Ethel & the Chordtones, and Jeremy Bass.
Kvasnosky and Kotler will work closely with Butter’s NY-based CCO Andrew Sherman and managing director Ian Jeffreys, and Los Angeles-based EP Annick Mayer.
Kvasnosky is a composer and music producer with extensive experience across film, TV, advertising and recording. A Seattle native who studied at NYU, he worked as a jazz pianist and studio musician before composing for television and film. His tracks have been licensed in assorted television shows and films, and his house music work garnered three Top 5 Billboard club mixes in the late 2000s. Kvasnosky has been a producer and remixer on releases for Warner Brothers Records, Verve Records, Om Records, Stone’s Throw, Reprise Records, Atlantic Records, EMI and Universal Music. He has scored commercial campaigns for advertisers including Nike, Google, McDonald’s, Amazon, Target and VW.
Along with Detroit based music producer Waajeed, and singer Dede Reynolds, Kvasnosky formed the electronic group “Tiny Hearts.” Their debut 2013 EP “Stay” premiered on the Boiler Room music series and was featured on NPR, BBC1, Pigeons and Planes and Vice/Noisey.
Native New Yorker Kotler holds a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University School of Music and a Masters in Music from Manhattan School of Music, both in Jazz Piano Performance. He began his career as a performer and studio musician, playing in a variety of bands, genres including neo-soul, avante-garde jazz, funk, rock and more. He also music directed “Jihad! The Musical” to a month of sold-out performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Since then, he has composed commercials, themes and sonic branding campaigns for a wide range of brands such as AT&T, Coca Cola, Nike, Verizon, PlayStation, Samsung and Honda. He has also arranged music for “American Idol,” The Emmys, and scored films that were screened at top film festivals, as well as co-produce Nadje Noordhuis’ debut record. In 2013, he teamed up with Michael MacAllister to co-design and build Creekside Sound, a recording and production studio in Brooklyn.
Review: Director-Writer Megan Park’s “My Old Ass”
They say tripping on psychedelic mushrooms triggers hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia and nervousness. In the case of Elliott, an 18-year-old restless Canadian, they prompt a visitor.
"Dude, I'm you," says the guest, as she nonchalantly burns a 'smores on a campfire next to a very high and stunned Elliott. "Well, I'm a 39-year-old you. What's up?"
What's up, indeed: Director-writer Megan Park has crafted a wistful coming-of-age tale using this comedic device for "My Old Ass" and the results are uneven even though she nails the landing.
After the older Elliott proves who she is — they share a particular scar, childhood memories and a smaller left boob — the time-travel advice begins: Be nice to your brothers and mom, and stay away from a guy named Chad.
"Can we hug?" asks the older Elliott. They do. "This is so weird," says the younger Elliott, who then makes things even weirder when she asks for a kiss — to know what it's like kissing yourself. The older Elliott soon puts her number into the younger's phone under the name "My Old Ass." Then they keep in touch, long after the effects of the 'shrooms have gone.
Part of the movie's problem that can't be ignored is that the two Elliotts look nothing alike. Maisy Stella plays the coltish young version and a wry Aubrey Plaza the older. Both turn in fine performances but the visuals are slowly grating.
The arrival of the older Elliott coincides with her younger self counting down the days until she can flee from her small town of 300 in the Muskoka Lakes region to college in Toronto, where "my life is about to start." She's sick of life on a cranberry farm.
Park's scenes and dialogue are unrushed and honest as Elliott takes her older self's advice and tries to repair... Read More