Tue, Feb 12, 2008

‘Good Times’ for local musician at Super Bowl

Local musician and surfer Gavin Heaney of the band Latch Key Kid got the news two weeks ago—Coca-Cola wanted to use his song for a commercial -- a commercial to air during the Super Bowl.

The spot features Democrat campaign consultant James Carville and former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist gallivanting through Washington D.C. to the Heaney’s cheery, head-bobbing ditty, “Good Times.” “There’s this saying: ‘Don’t believe it until it’s on the air.’ Well, I guess I can believe it now,” Heaney said this week in a phone interview from his annual sojourn to Oahu.

Neilson ratings for the New York Giants/New England Patriots game were the highest in the history of the event, with 97.5 million viewers tuning in. The Coke ad with Heaney’s song aired in the fourth quarter. Heaney, 31, who started the band Latch Key Kid as a side project to his other band Slackstring, recorded the track in the studio he built in his parent’s Manhattan Beach home. It was a bare-bones song with acoustic guitar, drums and vocals he said he threw together a few years ago. Recently a third party licensing company, with whom he had done some business, asked if he had any music to submit for a Coke ad.
“I didn’t hear anything about the song for awhile so I didn’t think they were going to use it,” Heaney said. “Then they called and said it was down to me and a few others.”

The choice boiled down to Heaney’s “Good Times” and a Stevie Wonder Beatles’ cover. “Maybe Stevie Wonder wanted a chunk of change or something,” Heaney joked. Once Coke selected Heaney’s song, they sent him back to the studio to remix it, filling it out with keyboard and drums, but keeping the basic guitar and vocals the same.

An MTV follow-up that reviewed the best and worst music during the Super Bowl ranked Heaney’s tune as among the best, casting him with music superstars including Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, and the Flaming Lips. Heaney, who is still unsigned to a major label, exhibited an outlook to his new found fame similar to that of his past UCSB friends Jack Johnson and band members from Animal Liberation Organization (ALO):
“You do what makes you happy and you play what you like. You don’t play music to get rich or famous; you play it because you love playing.”

Heaney recently finished a self-produced album of old and new songs called “Miracle Mile,” which will be available on i-Tunes next week. He and Brett Thomas, Taylor Kennedy, Dave Birnbaum, Kenny Harrison and Brendan Reynolds (a revolving cast of musical friends) will play at the Troubadour on Feb. 14, and then at The Roxy on Feb. 23 with Dreadstarr.
Go to www.latchkeykid.org or myspace.com/latchkeykid1 to hear some free tunes. ER