By Genny Boots ‘18
You can find Ken Morrison’s name in the credits of television shows like Handmaid’s Tale, Better Call Saul, Pretty Little Liars, Boardwalk Empire, Fargo and movies like Passengers and Bad Grandpa. Morrison says he’s grateful to have found his niche creating source music for TV shows and movies, even if his credit always comes at the end of the movie.
What is your PLU story?
I went to PLU and graduated in 1979. I majored in communication with an emphasis in broadcast journalism. While I was there, I was the music director of KPLU.
When I first came down to PLU, I came with just enough money to pay for one semester. I joined a band and that helped me pay for my tuition throughout school, and I haven’t stopped playing since.
What has your career path looked like?
After graduation, I got a job at KOMO TV. I taught broadcast journalism and media literacy while I worked there in various capacities: mostly magazine programming and documentaries, including the magazine show Frontrunners. I also started my own ad agency called Blue Rocket Creative.
In my TV and advertising career, I have written a lot of original music, including jingles. My best known jingle is for Car Pro’s, which is fairly well known in the Northwest. I recorded some songs in hopes of maybe getting my original music to Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. or Michael Buble.
While that never worked out, it led me to source music and music placements.
What is source music?
When watching a movie or a TV show, there are often scenes that take place in a cafe, a restaurant, nightclub—anywhere where there is music playing in the background. That’s called source music because it’s implied that the music is coming from a source, like a jukebox or a PA system.
People aren’t paying enough attention anyways so, rather than pay a lot to use Frank Sinatra or the Beatles, movie studios will use something that sounds similar.
“Passengers” is a good example: the three songs I wrote all take place in a bar where my music plays in the background.
How did you create source music?
Typically, I write source music with 10-12 people from all over the country. Sometimes I take liberties with the melody, but for the most part I am the lyricist. They’ll send me a melody and say: “What words would you put to this?” That is my specialty.
What’s a memorable background your music has been in?
I met Jerry Seinfeld through a friend I met while working in television. And so I have had four songs in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld’s online show that he does. So that was a fun crossover, including the one he did with President Obama. And so that was a neat thing to hear him interview President Obama and hear my music in the background.
How has music transformed your life?
I am totally amazed by how much music has propelled my career. Even when I was a TV producer, music was a huge part of what I was doing: finding the right track to but behind the story I produced, or even writing the track for the story I produced.
I have done a lot of stories, but the ones that have meant the most to me have been with music.