We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael A. Levine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael A., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

There are two.

1) I was just starting to write music for commercials back in the 1980s, when Chris McHale, then a young producer at DDB Neeham NY, invited me into his office. He had seen a rock opera I wrote in college and asked me if I’d be willing to write a song for a “kamikaze” mission. He explained that the agency had already chosen another song and had prepared a very expensive pitch campaign to go with it, but they couldn’t give the client just one option. He promised he would get me a “real job” next time and paired me with a young copywriter from the agency named Ken Shuldman. I wrote the melody for the song in the elevator ride down. We had no money for singers so Chris and his assistant and I sang it. There were a few more twists that occurred but the result was that the song – the KitKat Gimme A Break jingle – is still in use 37 years later. All thanks to Chris’ kindness.

2) I had moved to L.A. in 1999 to write music for film and TV. For years, I got nowhere. Then, one day, in 2003, there was an open-mike poetry reading at a local coffee shop. I brought my electric violin and looper and they let me play instead of poetizing. One of the baristas, Louise Runge, loved what I did and said she would introduce me to her landlord, composer Harry Gregson Williams. That didn’t happen but a few weeks later I was at a concert of another barista who was a singer-songwriter and the man standing next to me was Harry Gregson Williams. We started chatting and he said, “Yes, Louise told me about you.” One thing led to another and I ended up playing Irish fiddle on a film he was scoring called Veronica Guerin.

During the session, Hans Zimmer walked in and I gave him a CD of my music. Miraculously, a couple of days later he called and said, <German accent> “I just listened to your CD and it’s F*CKING incredible. Of course, I just came from the dentist so I’m probably just high.” So I ended up working for Hans. Meanwhile Harry was hung up on the climactic murder scene of the movie. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer had fallen in love with a cue from Gladiator that featured the duduk, a thoroughly inappropriate (to Ireland) Middle Eastern instrument. I said, “You know the uilleann pipes are the Irish duduk” To which Harry responded, “Why don’t you write it?” I did. We recorded it, Jerry liked it, it went into the movie – and the movie was shelved.

Almost a year later, because of another act of kindness (Han’s then-partner’s lawyer Mark Berger, had put my CD on top of a pile going to Jerry) I was being considered for as composer for a new TV show. I met with head-of-Bruckheimer TV, Jonathan Littman, who was naturally skeptical as I had no track record scoring TV shows. He said, “You know, what this show really needs is music like this one scene from one of Jerry’s films that hasn’t been released yet.” “Which film?” I asked. “You haven’t seen it,” he replied. “It hasn’t been released yet.” “Which film?” I persisted. “Veronica Guerin,” he answered. “Which scene?” I asked. He looked at me funny and said, “The murder scene.” I smiled and said, “I think I can do something like that.”

The show ran for 7 seasons and I scored every one. Thanks to acts of kindness from Louise Runge, Harry Gregson Williams, Hans Zimmer, and Mark Berger.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Composer, songwriter, and violinist Michael A. Levine is an 8-time ASCAP award recipient for work ranging from the Jerry Bruckheimer/CBS dramas Cold Case and Close to Home, to the George Lucas-produced Star Wars Detours animated Star Wars parody. His theme song for the award-winning documentary, Landfill Harmonic, was Oscar-shortlisted, as was his song Running with legendary vocalist Roberta Flack for the feature documentary 3100: Run and Become. His theme song for Resident Evil VII Biohazard became a viral hit as was his production of Lorde’s version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Michael also composed the theme for Scrat, the sabertooth squirrel featured in the Ice Age shorts.

Levine provided additional music and violin on a number of Hans Zimmer scores, including Dunkirk, The Simpsons Movie, Batman: The Dark Knight, Megamind, and Rango. Michael’s choir arrangement of Spider Pig was conducted by Hans at the Hollywood Bowl in 2015. Levine’s concert music includes Anthem, performed by piano virtuoso Lang Lang and, Double Crossings, an album of duets with percussionist great Evelyn Glennie on mallets and Michael on electric violin. Glennie and Levine recently performed together at Wembley Arena in London in a concert to welcome home the Paralympians from Tokyo.

Michael also wrote book, music, and lyrics for Orpheus Electronica, the world’s first EDM opera, directed by Philip William McKinley. He is scoring the Fall 2020 Big Apple Circus show in residency at Lincoln Center in NYC, also directed by McKinley.
Michael began his career in advertising where he composed the classic KitKat candy bar “Gimme a Break” jingle. Levine is a former Governor of the Television Academy (Emmys) Music peer group.

In recent years, Levine has began writing screenplays. Two have been semi-finalists in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship competition. A short film he wrote and produced, The Aspirant, won 20 festival awards worldwide including showings in Tokyo, Seoul, London, and the U.S.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

One of the most philosophically impactful books I ever read was Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This is not about entrepreneurship and is only self-help if you choose it to be. Man’s Search is his memoir as a concentration camp survivor. That doesn’t sound very cheery but his resilience and insight are truly inspirational – it’s actually quite an uplifting book.

The essence of what Frankl believed gives life meaning boils down to three things. The first two – what you do and who you love – are somewhat obvious. But the third is how you deal with pain. His point is that everyone deals with pain of one sort or another whether psychological, physical, or both. If you deal with your pain with courage and honesty you will add a dimension to your life that no amount of New Age Feel Goodism can match.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As an artist, I can’t recall any time I WASN’T pivoting. My first sale as a songwriter was at age 16 – a friend recorded as a B side on a single. I joined bands and was planning to be a rock star. Meanwhile though, I made a living any way I could: accompanying dance classes, performing in country bands and Irish bands, and playing music on the street. Each one taught me something valuable. One thing I learned on the street was that you had to figure out what kind of music people wanted to hear and get their money from them in about 30 seconds. Later when I started writing music for advertising I realized it was the same job. I pivoted from ads to film and TV, games, songwriting, and back again. In recent years I have been writing screenplays. A short I wrote and produced has won 20 festival awards and I am trying to get a feature and a television show launched as well.

I have a business card that where it should say something like “composer”, instead it says “pathological eclecticist.”

Contact Info:

• Facebook: MichaelALevineMusic
• Linkedin: Michael A. Levine
• Twitter: @MLMusic
• Youtube: Michael A. Levine
• Instagram: michael_a_levine