What's That Song From the Crayola 'Spin Magic' Commercial?

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 11:30AM by Phil Brondyke
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'Summer House,' Gold Motel

Happily providing the background to kids drawing car race scenes in glow-in-the-dark ink for this Crayola ad is an instrumental version of Gold Motel's 'Summer House.' The band's pop guitar riffs accompany scenes of children discovering the magic of circles and light refraction.

"The blacklights and neon colors in the commercial look sweet," Gold Motel guitarist Dan Duzsynzski tells Spinner. "They should probably give out mushrooms with this thing they're selling."

The band approved of the ad, and from the look of things, it is on par with Crayola's communication strategy. Tom Pratt, of Crayola's ad agency, McGarryBowen, explained to the music-branding blog B(r)ands that "Crayola is a storytelling brand, and the right music helps tell that story."

The story that 'Summer House' tells is one of unencumbered fun in the Southern California sun -- perfect coloring music. Frontwoman Greta Morgan expands, saying, "Crayola is all about the happiness of creativity for kids. That carefree attitude is how we approached some of the songs on Summer House."

Absent in the 'Spin Magic' spot, however, are Morgan's vocals. In 2009, Morgan (formerly Greta Salpeter of the Hush Sound) reunited with friend Duzsynzski (of This Is Me Smiling) in -- sure enough -- Los Angeles and laid the foundation for the band. In addition to Duzsynzski and Morgan, Gold Motel are made up of Duzsynzski's This Is Me Smiling bandmates Matt Schuessler and Adam Kaltenhauser. Eric Hehr of the Yearbooks completes the quintet.

With these robust musical résumés, members of Gold Motel come together to create a vocal-intensive, upbeat sound described by Duzsynzski as "bouncy, poppy, happy but not cloying.

"Greta is the main songwriter," he continues, "so she kind of has the most to do with the style. I'd say some of the songs are similar to her work in the Hush Sound and some are an entirely different thing."

Morgan echoes with "Often, our full-band arrangements can pull the songs I write in a different and better direction than originally imagined. Gold Motel has its own original sound, different from all our prior bands."

Much more is in store for Gold Motel in every aspect. The band relaes a 7-inch vinyl single titled 'Talking Fiction' on Nov. 30 and has a solid schedule of gigs on into the new year. And if the 'Summer House' album is any indication, more commercial partnerships may be in store.

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