The Hobbyist #6: An Interview with Music Supervisor Rob Lowry

We discuss “Friendship,” the AMC A-List, the Miami Dolphins, and cold brew

Graphic design by Thomas Euyang; photo by Brianne Tju

Back when I was a teenager I had dreams of being a music supervisor for film and television. I loved music, I loved movies. Why not marry the two and tell filmmakers what songs to use in their projects? I even interned for a music supervisor one summer, assuming I would show them all the best secret songs I knew and would immediately become a supervisor myself. It ended up being a lot of script reading and research into publishing information to see what was available, who held rights, things like that. I mostly forgot about the dream but would still get that twinkle in my eye every time I heard a particularly good film sync; those one-of-one needle drop moments are still unlike anything else in movies.

Fast forward to around now (three weeks ago) when I saw the trailer for Friendship, the new movie starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. There’s an unbelievable diegetic performance of “My Boo,” and I loved it so much I wanted to see who the music supervisor on the project was. Turns out it’s the newest mega-homie, Rob Lowry, the best music supe in all the land. He did supervision for the new Gossip Girl, the excellent Her Smell, and a ton of movies from last year and this one (plus some coming out soon) that are buzzing: Heart Eyes, Companion, and The Threesome, among others.

I wanted to talk with Rob about day to day life as a music supervisor, but it turns out we like a lo of the same stuff so we ended up touching on a bunch of good stuff: football, AMC A-List status, coffee, and Tim Robinson. Check it out below, but not before watching the Friendship trailer. Until next week.

You’re in Philly right now. Are you from there originally?

Rob Lowry: Yeah. I’m here now and I’m from here.

Well, congratulations on the Super Bowl.

RL: I’m, quite unfortunately, a Miami Dolphins fan. All my friends and family are Eagles fans, so I’m happy for them and got to watch with my cousin and my mom and stuff, which was great. I also have to remind them that they've had two Super Bowls in seven years and the last time the Dolphins won a playoff game I was a freshman in high school.

Well, I’m a Jets fan, so I can empathize. How did you become a Dolphins fan?

RL: I think I was just obsessed with the colors, and I loved dolphins. I was probably like four years old, and unfortunately, I’m apparently a very loyal person. I’ve not been able to jump ship and I’ve ushered my wife into this fandom and I feel terrible.

Oh, lucky her. Yeah, I can blame my dad for all of it, which he hears about quite often. Do you live in Philly or are you in LA most of the time?

RL: I split time. I try to spend more time in Philly. I’m much happier here. I love LA. I was there for 16 years, very fortunate to have a very small bungalow there. In Philly, there’s the walkability, and I feel like I’m better able to set boundaries with work stuff. I enjoy my work more. Everything doesn’t feel tethered to the industry and stuff. You’re in New York. I love New York. It’s a little bit overstimulating for me at this point in my life, and I feel like Philly has a lot of what New York has to offer just on a much smaller, more accessible scale, I guess.

As someone who wanted to be a music supervisor for the first 20 years of my life, I’m dying to know how you got into that world.

RL: I always wanted to do it too. When I was younger, there wasn’t as much visibility to it. I was always obsessed with movies. I was always obsessed with movies to the extent that I was in middle school taking film classes. Very fortunately one of our English teachers started this video production class, and so I was always making movies. I was making silent movies to put music to. I love horror movies, too. I remember seeing Scream and I loved the pop culture of it all. I was just so taken by it. Then when I saw Almost Famous I was like, ‘Oh my God, what the fuck? How do I do this?’

I thought I wanted to be a director, but then, The OC and Gossip Girl and that stuff came along. Music was so integral to those shows. I kind of figured out what this job was, and I went to school as a journalism and elementary education major. I was in a small town in Pennsylvania, and it’s a long story, but I eventually did an internship in LA while I was in college at a record label and I was like, ‘Oh, I could do this. I could move to LA.’ I graduated, moved out to LA, became a PA, and then began trying to figure out how to do music supervision.

I was on a talk show as a PA, then I got a job with Parenthood and Friday Night Lights on NBC. I was in the writer’s office, and I had no inhibition. I was just telling everybody I wanted to be a music supervisor. I was 22, 23 years old and was giving the writers mix CDs and sitting in with the editors, just learning process stuff. One of the editors on the show did a small independent film while we were on hiatus. He introduced me to the director. I ended up working on the movie. I had no idea what I was doing, but figured it out. From there, it was really just like anything, it was about building relationships. I did really small things for no money for a long time, but I learned a lot.

I didn't realize how much legal and publishing details are involved in the job.

RL: Look, it’s my dream job. I never had a backup plan. I had a degree, but I was always like, ‘I’m going to do this.’ With that being said, the creative aspect can be a very small part of it. Even then, when you’re working on something, I don’t think people quite grasp how many decision makers are in the room, and how many of those decision makers absolutely take priority over your own creative perspective or vision. Yeah. I always want to be positive and encouraging about the job because it’s a dream job. But one of the hurdles is that it only takes one. It’s like: “I love this song. The editor loves this song. The director loves this song, the studio loves it. And then someone at the network shows it to their kid and they don’t like it, so we have to swap it.’ Getting a sync for any artist is lightning in a bottle. There are just so many variables that go into it that you can’t control. So much of my job is taking the tastes of 20 different people and trying to find a middle ground where everybody’s happy.

Can we talk about Friendship? I’m so excited.

RL: I don’t want to overhype it and I will say I am a huge, huge, huge Tim Robinson fan.

I’m right there too.

RL: I’ve never been in a theater having the experience that I had with that movie at TIFF during the midnight screening. People are laughing so hard that you miss jokes. There are payoffs that I feel like people missed because there’s so much laughter. The movie's insane. It is so special, and it's so funny.

How do you decide whether to take on a project or pass? So much happens from the script phase to what ends up on the screen. I imagine it can be hard to tell how a film is gonna shape up.

RL: The most important thing to me is meeting with the filmmaker and making sure we get along. No matter what the movie is, you can always have fun with music. You can always elevate it, you can always shift the perspective. With Friendship, the script was amazing, but meeting with Andy [DeYoung] and having an understanding of what he was wanting to do with it, both sonically and humor wise, was just really inspiring. There hasn’t really been much that I’ve come across that I’ve been like, ‘Oh, this sounds terrible.’

A bigger part of that is just trying to connect with the creative behind it and seeing if they’re open to collaborating and doing something like fun. As a music supervisor, you have to find something to enjoy in all kinds of music. You just have to be a fan. A big thing for me is I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures. I like pretty much everything. I’m the same way with movies. There’s certainly stuff I don’t like, but for the most part, I can usually find something to enjoy in almost everything. Every project is so different that I do end up learning something or gaining something from it.

For being a professional critic, I'm not very discerning. I like everything. Okay, since you do a job that encompasses two of your favorite things in the world, when you want to clear your mind, what do you like doing?

RL: I mean, going to the movies [laughs]. Especially in Philly, my favorite thing to do is walk to the AMC. We’re about 45 minutes by foot. My wife and I walk 45 minutes, we see a movie, and then we walk home and talk about it. It really doesn’t

I have other hobbies. I’m very into yoga, but balance is very, very important to me in my job. I set boundaries, which affords me the opportunity to still enjoy things outside of the context of work. Going to concerts is also a favorite activity. When I’m in that space, I feel like I’m not worried about figuring out how the song they’re playing will fit into a movie. I can just be present and enjoy it without cataloging it.

So that’s most weekends?

RL: My wife and I are big on just getting coffee and walking and talking. I do sometimes think, ‘Should I get some new hobbies? Should I try woodworking?’ But I’ve evolved into this. I like my routines. I wake up, I read for an hour every day. I try to meditate. I try to stretch. I like those types of things. But we really love going to the movies. That's usually our default: movies, concerts, obviously spending time with friends, watching the Dolphins lose.

Talk to me about AMC. There’s nothing like half off Tuesdays.

RL: Look, we're A-List members [laughs].

Oh, you are. Good for you.

RL: That shit paid for itself within a few months. I’m a little more discerning when I go to the theater. With that extra movie they added each week I feel like I’ll watch things I usually don’t. The Den of Thieves Twos of the world.

It was fun. I liked it.

I’m like, ‘Do I need to watch these?’ I didn't see The Beekeeper, but had I had that fourth AMC movie, I might’ve slipped it in.

Oh yeah. I saw that movie with my A-List membership. It was great. At home, are y’all watching Criterion? Hulu? What’s the streaming situation like?

RL: We do a lot of Criterion and we rent a lot too. We try to see most things in theaters, but there’s stuff we miss that we end up watching at home.

Are we doubling up on the weekends?

RL: Oh yeah. Anytime I go to the movies, especially with the A-List, I'm like, ‘I'm not just going to see one movie.’ We’re walking for almost an hour or we’re going into Jersey, because right over the bridge there’s an AMC with an IMAX and 24 screens. Now that football’s done, I might go see three movies on a Sunday.

Isn’t it kind of nice that football's over in a fucked up way?

RL: Sundays are back. In two weeks I'll be wishing for a Browns Jags Thursday night game, but for now it feels good to have a break. I'm going to knock out all these movies I haven't seen.

I know you mentioned coffee. What’s your coffee order when you’re grabbing one on your way to the theater?

RL: I’m usually a cold brew guy.

It’s never too cold for cold brew.

RL: Never, but you gotta be careful. I feel like so many shops have started to just give you iced coffee when you ask. If that’s the case, you gotta get an iced Americano.