The return of a prodigal son.  David Della Santa, a self taught musician was one of the first composers in San Francisco to do current “alternative” music for advertising. He had met some ad executives at a party, not knowing they were from McCann SF, and the next thing he knew he was doing a spot for them. After winning a NY festival award, he was off and running. He caught the tide of the dot com boom with his company, Rebar Sound, but unfortunately was also part of the dot com bust.

This motivated him to move to the East Coast and do work with a NY company Tonefarmer. NY turned out to be a great training ground to understand the Advertising industry. At Tonefarmer he was surround by a strong creative team, and he loved working there, but he felt the calling to return to his West Coast roots.

So back he came and Volume Music + Sound was born.  David described his new found company as “a small, personal SF company with a NY way of composing/producing. We have a NY approach in that we deliver several options and ideas. At the same time, we are small and personal in that our clients can give creative direction directly to the composers who will be writing their tracks. Sometimes we understand what the client is talking about, even when they don’t”

Volume M+S has affiliations with AICP, SAG, AFM and ASCP, and is also home to a number of talented collaborators, including; composers/ producers Dan Miller and Joe Gore. Both of these talented musicians have their roots with bands and artists. Miller with They Might Be Giants,, and Gore with the likes of Tom Waits, Courtney Love, Tracy Chapman and Primus.

In today’s ever expanding world of media resources, agencies today have access to more musicians then ever before. Much of the cutting edge of music is happening with indie bands, and advertising, which needs to stand out from the crowd, is attracted to it.  The only problem is that most of these bands and artists cannot score to picture, nor do they understand the emotion of picture reacting to sound. On the other side of the coin, most commercial music composers don’t understand the subtle textures of the raw indie musicians. David and team at Volume M+S understand both these worlds, and is one of the reasons they have found success.

With operations on both the East and West Coast David and team have attracted a growing and adoring client base, and continue to create award winning, distinctive sounds. They continue to keep it as a small knit group.  They would rather be good and small, then big and average. Only a handful of companies in town have the kind of success and experience that Volume M+S brings to the table. When you combine that with the fact that David is a really great guy, and old school gentleman, (who happens to play with a indie rock band in his spare time) you can understand why we included this company in our family of PHS companies. Seek these guys out, listen to what they do, and consider them for your next project.