Allegro

‘Why we joined the union’

Volume 117, No. 1January, 2017

Tony Shimkin

I first joined Local 802 in 1996 when I began working on music in advertising. I later got into songwriting and producing. My musical goal in New York City is to work on as much music as possible, including original music in advertising, music supervision. and developing and producing new artists. In particular I enjoy branding and creating sonic footprints. A recent challenge I experienced was to write a song for a major advertising campaign of an iconic brand. It’s highly confidential, so if I were to tell you I would have to…ya know. Another fun recent challenge was composing a happy major-key song. My inclination is always to write in minor structures but it was a very fun challenge and I really enjoyed the outcome. Working outside of my comfort zone is always very useful for me. Rarely do I have an outcome that I do not like or did not learn from. My primary instrument is bass. I arrived there after attempting both piano and guitar.