Anthony Marinelli/Music Forever is now representing and collaborating with Grammy-nominated music duo JoLi for spot work. JoLi is the songwriting and production team of Joshua Bartholomew and Lisa Harriton. They are best known for co-writing (with Shawn Patterson and The Lonely Island) and producing the version of “Everything Is Awesome” featured in The Lego Movie, official trailer, TV spots, video game and featurette.
JoLi–a French word that means “pretty,” and an abbreviation created by combining the names Joshua and Lisa–starts a new career chapter at Music Forever. Composer Marinelli, founder of Music Forever, said he’s enthused over the opportunity to help introduce JoLi to the ad world. “JoLi is about making memorable melodies,” said Marinelli, himself a composer of hundreds of commercials. “That’s the key to great branding. What Lisa and Joshua did for The Lego Movie was literally awesome. They took a brief from the movie’s producer and were tasked with creating the happiest tune on Earth. They hit a home run.”
Harriton studied jazz at USC, coming from a musically inspired family. Her father was did the score for an Oscar nominated foreign film titled O Quatrilho. As a child, because of her dad, she listened to a lot of “film scores” and world music. She also soaked up some Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young. Harriton performed from 2007-2009 as the keyboardist/backing vocalist for the Smashing Pumpkins. She has always wanted to compose for commercials. “My desire is to reach a lot of people,” she said. “What better way than through commercials? As a kid I was in love with Coke commercials; they were so cute I wanted to wear them like a suit. Now I realize that in order to do great work you need the proper skillset and mindset, to understand the brand and tell the right story.” When not composing with Bartholomew, Harriton works on solo projects in which she plays guitar, keyboards and sings. This past August, Harriton was tasked with entertaining the throng at Comic-Con. She performed and arranged concerts with a 30-piece orchestra that spanned several evenings.
Bartholomew has less formal music training but a similar family background. As he explains it, his love for music and practice had more to do with long Canadian winters than anything else. “I spent lots of time in my basement, because it was too cold to do anything else,” he said. “I listened to records, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and the Guess Who.” The cold weather paid off for Bartholomew, allowing him to become proficient in playing drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals in addition to engineering and mixing his own songs. As for composing for commercials, Bartholomew is all in. “A great ad can reach and influence more people in a short time than any other genre,” he said. “Lots of musical output is inspired by advertising.”
Music Forever EP Josh Reynolds noted, “JoLi can do larger-than-life anthemic themes. Josh and Lisa are accessible and able to listen to creative ideas. It’s their first foray into the commercial world and we’re excited to offer them through Music Forever.”
Marinelli’s alluded to credits include spots for Apple, the memorable “This Is Your Brains on Drugs” spot for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Super Bowl ads for Budweiser and Accenture, work for Shell (nine years of pneumonic branding), Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Fancy Feast and Boeing. He’s composed Disney jingles, logos for Paramount and Morgan Creek, along with original music for over 70 feature films including Young Guns, 2 Days in the Valley, Planes Trains and Automobiles and Leaving Las Vegas. He’s arranged and performed for the Olympic opening ceremonies, the FIFA World Cup and Super Bowl XXVII’s halftime show.
