Musician Amy Ward takes flight with music for film and television

Photo Courtesy of Amy Ward

Kansas City singer-songwriter Amy Ward’s intimate and emotionally vulnerable songs have long been perennial favorites around the office, but it wasn’t until recently that we’ve had the chance to sit down and speak with the former New Yorker who now makes KC her home.

Ward’s work spans the gamut, but it’s where her music has ended up which had us agog. She’s had music placed across the pantheon of television and film, be it Burn Notice, Smallville, All My Children, or Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta. Her latest single, “Take Flight”, comes from the animated film, A Tooth Fairy Tale, out now on digital from Shout! Kids, in which Van, “a teenage tooth fairy with a rebellious streak who wishes to explore life beyond the boundaries of his secluded civilization and rigid traditions… encounters Rupee, the world’s cutest troll, and Gemma, a daring goblin girl with a knack for science” and the three “embark on an adventure to unite their separate kingdoms.”

With a voice cast including BooBoo Stewart, Larkin Bell, Vivica Fox, Jon Lovitz, and Fran Drescher, it’s a huge release, and so we spoke with Amy Ward to discuss her work in both music for sync and placement in popular entertainment, as well as her own, more personal work.

The Pitch: How’d you get into doing music for sync?

Amy Ward: Back in the early 2000s, I ended up connecting with a sync company out of New York. They were based in L.A. and I was at a Berklee College of Music alumni event a little bit after I graduated. I performed at an alumni event, and after I performed, out of nowhere, one of my former professors came up to me and she’s like, “Amy, your songs are really good. They have a lot of potential and they’ve grown. Do you have a demo?”

I was like, “Yeah!” I gave her a CD, and the next day she gave me a call and said, “ I have a spot on ABC for track two. Are you interested?” That’s how it started. It’s about the cliche story of being in the right place at the right time—and working on your craft, too.

And that was not a custom song. The song was already recorded and it just happened to fit the scene, but it was the beginning of a new relationship. I started writing everything under the sun to try to get more placements on TV and film.

What is the difference in the process for you versus writing songs that you’d like to see placed versus songs for which you are contracted?

I would say the biggest difference is, if it’s something contractual, it is more of a very specific brief and it’s usually like a one- or two-liner: “Boy meets girl love song. Make it sound like Norah Jones.” Very specific. “This is the scene, it’s a rom-com,” whatever it may be, but usually, there’s a genre involved. They’ll even give examples, so I’ll have a reference idea. It’s very specific for custom stuff and then, stuff that I do for myself is obviously just kind of however I feel like writing or in the moment of therapeutic moments.

Everybody who’s familiar with soundtracks are familiar with when someone is asked to make a song that sounds like something else. Occasionally, you end up like Ray Parker Jr. and you get the hell sued out of you by Huey Lewis, so are there challenges in making a song that sounds like Norah Jones, while not making it sound like one of Norah Jones’ songs?

I mean, it’s a skill. You have to learn to tread lightly on copyright infringement. It’s usually more about the vibe, the tempo, but it is kind of tricky at times where you need to be original. I play piano, but I feel like the melody is such an important piece, especially when it comes to not ripping people off, so if you come up with an original melodic idea, that can really change the lanes of it being anywhere close to the reference now.

Given all of the work you’ve done over the course of your career, what’s been the thing that gave you the biggest like shiver when you found out that you were going to have a song on a show or in a film?

It’s hard to put my finger on one, just ’cause they’re all very different, but I’ve had a couple end-credit songs and that definitely is a moment, something that I remember, that sticks out in my mind, and is such a milestone. But the recent placement that I had in an animated film definitely gave me chills because it was a montage scene where these two characters were flying together.

It just makes the scene because they’re talking about the relationship and it definitely defines what the movie is about, so that one definitely is a highlight for me. The song also plays at the end and kind of ties everything up in a bow, and then it continues throughout the end credits.

You’ve been in Kansas City for almost 10 years now. What has Kansas City helped you do, in terms of your career? I know you moved here to to raise your children, but does moving to a place that allows you to raise your children allow you to concentrate on your career more?

Yes. I kind of took a break for a little bit, so it was more about my kids until they all got into elementary school. The plus about being in the middle of the country is you are smack down in the middle. If you fly west to L.A., it’s two hours. Two and a half hours, if you go to New York. If you go to Nashville, you could drive, which I have, and also Chicago, ’cause Chicago also has a really cool music scene in the film world, as well, which is really growing.

Just a shout out to Kansas City—I feel it’s such easy living compared to living on the East Coast. Everything is just a little bit more chill and I appreciate that. I feel like it centers me as a musician. I can just work in my studio and send files to wherever they’re going. It is kind of refreshing. The other side of it is, I do have to travel, when it comes to networking or actually being in a studio with somebody, so that is kind of a negative that I do have to travel, but it is nice to kind of get out of my comfort zone and be around humans that do the same thing as me.

You’re making this music at home in your studio. I have to imagine that traveling and actually getting to interact with people face-to-face provides a little bit of relief from being home all of the time?

Yes. It is such a breath of fresh air to be able to work with people in person, and it’s something that I used to do all the time. That was how it was from day one for me. You would collaborate with people in person. You would be in the studio coming up with ideas together. Now, it’s Zoom or it’s just shooting files back and forth. It is sometimes a disadvantage, but it’s also just so inspiring to be around people that are doing the same thing you are. I wish I could do it more. But hopefully that will continue, this journey that I’m on.

Amy Ward’s “Take Flight”, from the soundtrack to A Tooth Fairy Tale, is streaming now, and the film can be found on most digital on-demand services.