I loved this conversation with two super cool professionals from the world of music in TV and Movies.
Mike Ladman is Senior Music Supervisor at Droga5. Since joining Droga5 in 2016, Mike has developed the Music Department and manages music and audio capabilities across the agency and client roster. During this time, Mike has helped lead the agency to win over 25 music and advertising industry awards, notably four Cannes Lions, two D&AD Pencils, four Clios and six AMP awards, among others, across Droga5 clients such as Google, The New York Times, Hennessy and others. In 2018, Mike was named one of Billboard’s s Top Branding Power Players. He has been an international music delegate around the world at music festivals and conferences in Denmark, Amsterdam, Israel, Brazil and more. Prior to joining Droga5, he was a Music Producer at McCann for nearly seven years, where he provided music for clients, such as Microsoft, the United States Army, Verizon, MasterCard and more, across the agency’s roster. Mike received his first film credit managing the music supervision for an indie film, Tracktown, which premiered at the LA Film Festival in 2016. In his free time, you can find Mike DJing around New York City as DJ PuppyHiccups.
Nikolas Keenan (p.k.a. "shy niko") is a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer and music supervisor. Born and raised in Chicago, IL his career has spanned over 10+ years. It began under a poorly devised French artist moniker while doing remixes for major labels and independent releases with Kitsuné (Boys Noize, La Roux, Bloc Party). Formerly a full time Head of Music at global advertising agency VMLY&R, Nik has seen many sides to the creative industry from producing artists, to crafting original music for commercials, to leading music supervision for major brands. His original music can be heard across global brands like Apple, Meta, Google, Nike, J.P. Morgan Chase, Samsung, Puma, Sonos, Michael Kors, Coca-Cola, Coors, Sephora, Coach, Toyota, and many more. His music has also been featured on popular shows such as Hulu's The Kardashian's, ABC's Grown-ish, MTV's Siesta Key, HBO's ...And Just Like That and films on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. His music has also been featured by Chicago's very own, Lyrical Lemonade, and other major publications such as Pitchfork and Forbes. In the studio, Nik has collaborated with artists such as Skizzy Mars, Grouplove, Loren Gray, Ayelle, Piwa, and many more. He currently lives in Chicago and drinks way too much iced coffee.
