“Sandy is a country-singing Texan squirrel, who moved to the Pacific and misses her family. But she has her chosen family in Bikini Bottom, and she loves both her families and I'm like, I am Sandy Cheeks!”
Tami Neilson is an award-winning Canadian-born country and soul singer/songwriter based in Aotearoa. She’s got a big heart, always cheering on her friends and in more ways than one, is the perfect fit to be writing songs for the upcoming Netflix movie Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.
Although this isn’t Neilson’s first time writing for screen, it is her first time working on such a scale, with the American animators of the beloved children’s animated series Spongebob Squarepants.
Previously, her music appeared on TV screens through the cult favourite The Brokenwood Mysteries – filled with local darlings of folk music like Marlon Williams and Aldous Harding thanks to a lead detective obsessed with country music.
“They even had me come on and do a cameo as an artist. There was a whole episode with my album as a clue in the murder. I loved it!”
Every artist's dream is to get a sync (or synchronisation), which means their songs are included in the soundtrack of a film, TV series, video game or commercial, Neilson says. It’s a lucrative industry, especially in the form of passive income and career opportunities.
Sometimes, these soundtracks remind a new generation of classic waiata like Dalvanius Prime’s Patea Māori Club Poi E! mixed with Michael Jackson’s Thriller in Taika Waititi’s Boy. There are the iconic fist bump ending notes of The Breakfast Club, or when the soundtrack becomes a life of its own – I’m yet to watch The Bodyguard, but I’ve given I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston a spin in a sticky karaoke bar.
For Neilson, being open to unexpected and new opportunities is vital for a sustainable and vibrant music career. “I think it’s a string in your bow! You have to try all these things to see if you can diversify and grow.
“You’re always told as an artist, you need to be in the market, you need to be on the ground to get to somewhere like LA, Hollywood or Nashville in my case, being a country artist,” Neilson says. “But as a New Zealander, that’s not often a financial option. It’s not always an option for people and their personal lives. So it’s exciting that we live in a world where your music can take you worldwide.”
She shoots down any idea that Aotearoa musicians need to only aim for the big shots overseas to get global connections. Instead, she emphasises that it’s the local connections that helped create a global reach with her music.
“It was a very homegrown experience with The Brokenwood Mysteries. It’s this little show that could – made in New Zealand but way bigger overseas,” she explains, noticing that at least half of her gig audience overseas are familiar with the series.
“I constantly have people say, I don't like country music, but I love The Brokenwood Mysteries, and I love all the music,” she cheekily laughs. “I'm going… you do love country music. You have secretly been brainwashed, welcome!”
Most recently, being part of the earnest and silly world of Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants arose when Neilson connected with the legendary Karyn Rachtman, an American music supervisor based between Tāmaki Makaurau and LA with credentials like Pulp Fiction, Clueless, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! – award-winning Hollywood classics with distinctive musical worlds.
“Karen is like a tornado,” Neilson describes. “She is the quintessential Los Angeles movie person. She talks a million miles a minute. When you look at her laptop screen, she’s got about 50 billion tabs open. I joke with her – your laptop is you, personified. She is so incredibly well-connected.”
Rachtman is currently the head of Mind Your Music, a music supervision company and runs Aotearoa Syncposium: A Screen Music Conference – a two-day conference on building relationships between local music talent and Hollywood key players. This year’s event will be held February 23-24 at Q Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau, with a mix of seminars for artists to soak up the knowledge plus workshops that Neilson describes as “trial by fire”.
“You’re thrown into a room with three or four strangers and asked to create based on these briefs. We’re asked to sign these NDA agreements, it’s all very top secret,” says Neilson. She’d previously tried her hand at scoring music with her brother Jay Neilson on The Brokenwood Mysteries but describes the experience of writing songs for a brief, a whole new creative challenge. “I loved it, definitely my wheelhouse.”
“Having two kids, I knew about the characters quite a bit already [...] The Spongebob world is very specific. They’ve existed for 25 years and are so beloved. And having those clear boundaries can be freeing and amazing,” explains Neilson, reflecting on the difference in the creative process with her personal projects.
“It’s made me less precious about what I write,” she says, stating that her albums often include her deepest and most vulnerable self. “You put it out for the world to consume, and it can be devastating when it’s criticised or exhilarating when it’s connecting.” But when it comes to writing for a brief for a screen project, with a specified character and mood, Neilson has noticed she’s been able to hold things more lightly. She describes it as a much more freeing process as there’s no personal rejection – a perspective she’s since been able to take into her personal creation.
Neilson initially held back from pitching for the Nickelodeon brief, as she felt it was out of her league. After Rachtman contacted her directly, she threw her hat in the ring: “It still blows my mind that it all came to fruition.”
“I’m a songwriter. I’m an artist. I’m a producer, but I am not an engineer. I don’t have a laptop with all these bells and whistles. I felt very intimidated at the thought of it [...] I wish I was one of those incredible all-rounders!”
But the exhilaration and growth she’s experienced from taking a plunge out of her comfort zone, has only pushed Neilson to enthusiastically encourage other local artists to lean into opportunities in the screen industry or attending events like Syncposium.
This year’s lineup includes Pasek and Paul: Grammy, Tony and Academy award-winning songwriters of films like La La Land and The Greatest Showman. There are producers like Stacey Sher, who worked on projects like Erin Brockovich and Django Unchained. Plus music supervisors like Gabe Hilfer who’d taken care of shows like Ozark and The White Lotus.
“Writing songs for a cartoon animation is not what I do in my original music. But those people might hear those songs and fall in love with Sandy [Cheeks from Spongebob Squarepants]. So they might be curious and check out my other music,” says Neilson, excited at the prospect of introducing more potential fans to the country genre. “They might dabble, and go further into other artists too.”
“We have to diversify as artists. Gone are the days you could survive on just selling albums or live touring,” she adds, pointing to the still-recovering live events industry since the most intense waves of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last few years. “Live touring is challenging, even for big artists like Lorde, [who’d written about the interconnecting difficulties of touring in her November 2022 newsletter]. It’s not sustainable.”
“Not only [are music syncs] a great creative decision, it's a really wise business decision as well.”
