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Job of the Month #30: Music Supervisor

by IDOL

New episode of our Job of the Month series to discover the many facets of the music industry. This month, Steve Bouyer, Music Supervisor at Noodles (Supervision), looks back on a career marked by memorable encounters and original soundtracks.

Each month, IDOL presents a job in the music industry. Or more than a job, a person! Because behind the same job title, there are significant differences from one structure to another. Each person can define the scope of his or her job according to his or her career path, qualities and skills! Meet Steve Bouyer, Music Supervisor at Noodles (Supervision), who explains how he uses music to enhance visuals, forging connections between directors, composers, and music libraries to create unique soundtracks.

What does a Musical Supervisor do?

A music supervisor is a kind of musical architect; they coordinate all the aspects related to music in an audiovisual project: series, film, documentary. They are hired to meet artistic needs, whether it’s finding pre-existing tracks or original music.

We arrive with our ideas and our tastes, which we adapt to the project, depending on the actual needs and the discussions we might have with the different protagonists of the project. We talk with the directors, then we manage the executive production, the recordings, and the artistic follow-up in the studio.

There is also a whole negotiation part, with agents, publishers, and labels to “clear” the rights of pre-existing tracks or negotiate the contracts of the composer(s). Without being a lawyer, we are there to advise the producers on the music and make sure everything is legally clear. With the development of video streaming platforms, everything is more legally framed, but it’s important to have notions to follow the discussions.

What’s different about being an independent music supervisor?

It’s a particular profession. We are independent in the sense that we represent neither composers nor catalogs (we are not agents), which allows us to propose what we want, without conflict of interest. This independence is priceless; it clarifies our position.

We can intervene at any moment of a project, sometimes right from the first versions of the script. On very musical projects like ‘Le Monde de Demain’ (the series about the birth of the group NTM, DJ Dee Nasty, and hip-hop in France), we knew that music was essential.

It is essential to budget the music needs as accurately as possible for this kind of project, which is still too often underestimated, and that sometimes requires pedagogy.

Since music is often under-budgeted, we work a lot with music libraries. Many people think it’s low-end music known as “stock music,” whereas certain library catalogs are real gold mines, with gems composed by big names like Ennio Morricone, Francis Lai, etc. For the series OVNI(s) (Canal+), we spent a lot of time drawing on and digging through repertoires of Italian and French films from the 60s/70s in the library with the director Antony Cordier.

Noodles (Supervision) is part of the ASM. Can you tell us more about it?

In the United States, the profession of music supervisor is developed and unionized. In France, we created the ASM (Association des Superviseurs Musicaux) in 2020, with about thirty members, for the recognition of the music supervisor profession and its remuneration. Our expertise and know-how help avoid many pitfalls and problems.

Hiring a supervisor means investing in music and recognizing that it is not free. This is also integrated into the directives of many American platforms like HBO, Netflix, Apple, Disney, which encourage a real musical investment. At Netflix or HBO, for example, music is recognized as a key factor in the success of certain programs.

Good music at the right time can transform a scene. It can give a completely different meaning to the images, which can sometimes scare some directors, but Anglo-Saxon projects have shown the way, and now young directors are more imbued with music. The profession is developing in the right direction.

What are the qualities required for your position?

It’s a commissioned work; most of the time, we must serve a desire, a direction as a starting point. Curiosity is essential: listening to everything, monitoring, being interested in all periods and all genres without exception.

You have to know how to talk to everyone and take the time to present the project to record companies and publishers to facilitate their task and obtain authorization from the rights holders. You must obviously always be attentive to the director, but also to the editors, who have “their hands in the music.”

You have to be able to feel the scenes, understand the director’s intention and the role of the music, while respecting the budget. You also need to be pedagogical to propose alternatives that will do if a musical choice is not relevant.

Can you tell us a little about your career path?

As part of my Master I in Sociology, I interviewed music professionals, such as Matthieu Gazier from the Ekler label, Nicolas Arnaud at Because, Philippe Laugier from Barclay at the time, and artists like Miss Kittin.

After a Master II in economics and management of cultural products, I started at Believe Digital in 2007. I then moved to sync at EMI, on the catalog side, representing the phonographic rights of French and international performing artists like Daft Punk, Air, Blur, Massive Attack, which allowed me to be in direct contact with music supervisors who solicited us to “clear” the rights of these artists.

My first real job was working with Matthieu Couturier from Disque Primeur who was starting artist management (just before creating Grand Musique Management) with Chateau Marmont, Adam Kesher, Triptik, etc. In parallel, I started working part-time with Pascal Mayer, founder of Noodles (Supervision).

Pascal and I hit it off very well right away. When his activity grew, I switched to full-time, which was in 2011. I really enjoyed the management-related activity, being as close as possible to the artists, on tour or in the studio, but I wanted to return to supervision.

All these experiences allowed me to develop an essential network in this profession where you have to be connected, listening to agents, managers, and producers, and playing a matchmaking role to make collective musical projects happen.

What do you like about your job?

What is the most artistically rewarding is participating in the creation of something that did not exist. I bring my vision, my tastes, I accompany the composer and the director, and I see the project being born before my eyes. When we propose a composer to a director and they do projects together again, it’s a real source of pride, it means our intuition, our idea was good. And if sometimes it doesn’t match as well, we bounce back, we adapt.

Each project is different, with varied characters, desires, and tastes. It’s fascinating to be at the genesis of this creation, to be an essential link. I never learned music theory, I don’t play an instrument, but thanks to my passion for music, my tastes, and my curiosity, I was able to find my place.

Why did you choose to work for Noodles (Supervision)?

At EMI, I saw the limitations of being on the record company and publisher side, where you can only propose works specific to a precise catalog. I wanted to become a Supervisor to not be restricted in music proposals and to be as close as possible to creation.

Before creating Noodles (Supervision), Pascal Mayer worked for many years in record companies (EMI, Sony, Warner), then he had a label The Perfect Kiss with the composer Marc Collin. It’s very enriching to work alongside someone like Pascal, with his experience and knowledge of the profession. I am extremely proud that he trusted me when I was only 25 years old. It’s not easy to collaborate with someone, especially in this profession; many supervisors work alone. It was extremely pleasant to be there, at the beginning of this company and the profession that was starting to develop.

Today we are three supervisors at Noodles with Inès Griffart who has been with us since 2022. The relationship we have is very pleasant, quite natural; Pascal has become like a second father to me. I think he has contributed enormously to this profession; he is someone who deserves to be known.

What is the strangest task you have done in your career?

It’s not a task, but rather a feeling that comes to mind. It was at the very beginning of 2015, I was returning from my honeymoon in Burma. The return flight was on January 7th, the day of the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices. This mixture of a magnificent experience and a brutal return to violence was very strange.

Four days later, Pascal and I took the plane to Rome to record the music for the film En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît by Christian Carion, with the maestro Ennio Morricone and the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, at Forum Studios.

You should know that Pascal is a huge fan of Ennio Morricone. The name of the company comes from the nickname (‘Noodles’) of David Aaronson, played by De Niro, in Once Upon a Time in America. So, recording this music in Rome with the maestro was completely crazy for us!

It was very moving to see this 86-year-old man, who was recovering from back surgery, composing and conducting this music. He was truly impressive, precise, and meticulous in his work, in addition to being extremely talented, a real workaholic!

We had an incredible opportunity to spend those days as close as possible to this genius. It’s a moment I will remember all my life.

What is your connection with IDOL?

Pascal Mayer knows Pascal Bittard, the president of IDOL, well. That is why, quite naturally, IDOL became one of our privileged partners when we were looking to put the soundtracks of films we had supervised at Noodles online.

Once the film or series was finished, if there was original music or syncs of pre-existing tracks, we recommended the audiovisual producer go through IDOL to distribute the music.

The market has evolved a bit; now it is mainly the original score that is released as a soundtrack, because compiling the pre-existing tracks from the project is more complicated: you have to make a new deal with the rights holders for the master side, and it is often quite laborious.

But we still have soundtracks released via IDOL; the teams do very good work.
For example, recently the soundtrack we supervised for the series Privilèges (HBO Original) composed by Amine Bouhafa, was managed by 22D Music via IDOL. With Amine, we went to record the Grand Organ of the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, that’s a great memory too!

Steve's playlist

It was very hard to reduce the playlist to 20 tracks, but I tried to put in tracks that I love and listen to every day, compiled with tracks extracted from film or series soundtracks (many of which were actually released via IDOL) for which we handled the supervision with Noodles (Supervision).

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