Squeak E.Clean Studios: “It’s like holding onto the roof of this bullet train that’s speeding across the desert.”

Australia is big on talent and small in market size. An overseas connection is a hugely useful thing to have. Nylon Studios had already conquered the challenge of launching in New York, when it achieved greater expansion in a merger. It happily gave up its name for growth and innovation as the global creative audio network, Squeak E.Clean Studios. Now it’s open for business any time of the day or night. “It’s like holding onto the roof of this bullet train that’s speeding across the desert, says Simon Lister, executive creative director, Squeak E. Clean Australia. When you talk to him it’s patently obvious that continues to be a joy.

Simon Lister

It began with a coffee date

Nylon had been operating for 17 years when the opportunity to merge with Squeak E. Clean Productions presented itself. It had a studio and office running successfully in Melbourne since November 2017 when Method closed down, forcing the closure of Flagstaff Studios, a flourishing studio and office in Melbourne led by Paul Le Couteur and Ceri Davies.

The opening of the New York office back in 2008 had been triggered by work from US clients that came to Nylon in Australia. “They filmed in Australia because they used local directors, and had this amazing experience with us. That turned into friendship and they kept on feeding us work. So we realized that there was an opportunity for us to do some American work,” explains Simon Lister. “Those clients then fed our New York studio a lot of work, which really got us off the ground. There are a few things that have to be in place before you can just jump into a new country. We had clients and an owner, David Gaddie, moving there and we were lucky that everything just lined up.”

Fast forward a decade and some staff in Nylon’s New York office were having coffee with friends who worked at Squeak E. Clean…

Mates and artists

“Literally the conversation from them was, ‘We love what you guys do and you specialise in post AND music. You have a presence in New York and strength in Sydney and Melbourne too.’ And then we were saying, ‘We love what you guys do, because you have an amazing reel of work and reputation’,” Lister recalls.

“The music culture Squeak E. Clean has in America is very cool. We wanted to skill up. Squeak E. Clean has incredible artist relationships. Sam Spiegel alone is a bit of a rock star. Squeak E. Clean was in Los Angeles, Chicago and Austin, with a small presence in NYC. It had mates who hung out with cool artists. It had a whole lot of stuff that we wanted to bring into our team.”

Squeak E. Clean’s experience creating work that embeds brands in pop culture was another plus for the merger and its work with artists such as Doja Cat, Karen O, Anderson.Paak and Childish Gambino was a major drawcard. The final incentive was that Lister wanted to grow the brand and team, injecting renewed enthusiasm into the company and its staff. And that’s how Nylon became Squeak E. Clean Studios. “Squeak E. Clean Nylon Studios as a name just didn’t flow,” Lister quips. “So we added ‘Studios’ which was our bit. Squeak E. Clean Productions also had heritage as ‘that cool music company with great culture’. We wanted to keep that going,” he added.

Open all hours

We were fortunate that the merger was incredibly smooth and there were no redundancies. “We got there, with scars and new tattoos,” Lister comments.

Lister put everything onto the cloud, which means that anyone at Squeak E. Clean can access everything related to a job, from wherever they are, whenever they need to. “We can have one place that houses all our projects, and then New York can hop onto it and Sydney can hop onto it. Any of our people can go into the same folder, open it up on their computer and we don’t have to use the hard drives anymore,” Lister explains. “We’re working as a team, even across continents. It’s been a game changer for us.”

One of the immediate advantages of the merger means that during quiet periods in Australia or the US, work still flows from the other. “And with the size of the US market, there’s always a lot of work,” Lister notes. “Plus if a job is urgent, it can be done overnight in Australia or the US, while the other countries are sleeping. Working from the cloud also means that jobs run more smoothly – no missing files, work double-ups or communication hiccups.”

The merger has proven to be an asset for the Australian arms this year. “Locally, it was a little quiet for this first few months of the year, although last year was great. So we’ve been lucky to have that little bit of top-up from the States to keep our guys busy. Our composers have been working in the background on American jobs during the day while Americans asleep. And in America, we have to present numerous demos, we can’t just give them one; it’s more like seven or eight. So having a lot of composers is an asset.”

Squeak E. Clean’s sound design recently amped up the drama of The Monkeys’ cliffhanger for Macpac:

And Squeak E. Clean’s original music and sound design made a wild idea even wilder for Toyota:

Rock and roll and hanging out with clients

Future plans? Squeak E. Clean Studios has also secured a space in Hollywood that is about to have a fit out. “We have secured an incredible part of music history. The Jackson Five went through its doors, as did Jimi Hendrix. Stevie Wonder even recorded the full album, Songs in the Key of Life, there. That’s going to be the flagship studio for our company. I’m really excited for this space,” Lister enthuses. “We want to try and keep the rock and roll within the industry and also provide a great space for clients to hang out in.”

“Our people are at the top of their game in the industry. We want to work on the best ads, so we’ve got to have top people to do that. We have people who have won awards and do great work. So, it’s been a big ride, but a fun ride at the same time. We’re lucky; we love music and sound. We like to jam and do jingles. We have these big spaces where we’re all creative, where we’re all producing something and having fun doing it – even if it’s recording a more basic voiceover. Clients enjoy coming in and watching their music track being put together, being part of the creative process.”