What do you listen to while you work? I started listening to Spotify after I got bored with Pandora. I am always genre-jumping depending on my mood and work load. I am a huge music junkie, always listening, collecting, reading, and writing about music. I have a somewhat specialized knowledge of certain periods in music, my favorite being British Post-Punk. I am also a huge ska fan, and I always listen to 60′s-era ska. So those are my go-to genres but I listen to lots of current indie rock, lots of classic rock, lots of garage, you name it. When I am doing research, I prefer more mellow music, but when I am writing specs I prefer tunes with more energy to keep me going, like The Ramones.

How do you listen? I listen to headphones on my iPod every day on the subway; I use that time to learn songs for my band. We started as a Go-Go’s tribute band, so I spend a lot of time learning the intricacies of each song on my way to work. Once I get to work and turn on my computer, I listen to Spotify. If I am working at home, then it’s more complicated because I have more choices and can crank up the volume. We have a vintage Bang and Olefsun turntable and a ton of records, so it’s fun to play them (but it’s annoying to have to get up and flip records while I am working). So I usually just load up the CD player or listen to Sirius satellite radio (my favorite stations are Little Steven’s Underground Garage, First Wave, XMU, and Classic Vinyl). I usually don’t listen to MP3s at home; I save that for time alone with my iPod.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? In addition to Spotify, I like Hype Machine, which catalogs MP3s posted by music blogs. But generally, I’m old-school and collect CDs and vinyl. I do buy from iTunes, but it’s not my preferred method of obtaining music. Digging in a record store is still one of my favorite things to do.

Does music influence your work? It doesn’t influence my design work as much as visual art does, but it keeps me company and is a wonderful companion—I couldn’t get through the day without it. It can help me adjust my mood to suit the tasks I am doing. Record cover art is also inspiring! I love graphic design and typography, so I am as equally interested in album art as much as the music.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? My musical taste was set very early, in 1979, when I was ten years old and heard “Rock Lobster” by The B-52′s for the first time. I was completely awestruck, threw away the Muppet Movie soundtrack I used to carry around on my portable Panasonic 8-track player, and never looked back. My older neighbor also taught me about New Wave and Punk. That was and still is a huge influence. I also know a ton of people who are in bands and into music, so we all share info, recommendations, etc. I go to a lot of shows as well; my boyfriend is a music promoter and we are always seeing bands. My band also meets other bands that we play with, so there is never a shortage of new music, or the desire to learn about older music. Another huge influence is the music scene in Philadelphia, which is really vibrant and thriving right now. We are so lucky to be a part of it.

If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? Elvis Costello once said, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” So I don’t think I can answer that—it’s so complex and would change all the time. Some things can’t be captured in words.

ROYCE’S PLAYLIST

Newly Released Stuff:

Romance, Wild Flag
Bedroom Eyes, Dum Dum Girls
Baby Missiles, The War on Drugs
Austere, The Joy Formidable
Belong, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Miranda, Surfer Blood
Recharge & Revolt, The Raveonettes
Georgia, Yuck
Colours, Grouplove
I Love My Label, Wilco (cover of Nick Lowe)
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, J.C. Brooks & the Uptown Sound (cover of Wilco)
Valerie, Amy Winehouse
Cruel, St. Vincent
Crystalline, Bjork

Old Stuff:
Roadrunner, The Modern Lovers
Crazy Rhythms, The Feelies
Do It Clean, Echo & the Bunnymen
X-Offender, Blondie
Lost in the Supermarket, The Clash
Mind Your Own Business, Delta 5
Damaged Goods, Gang of Four
Going Underground, The Jam
Transmission, Joy Division
Echo Beach, Martha and the Muffins
The Beat, Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Typical Girls, The Slits

Fire in Cairo, The Cure
This Charming Man, The Smiths
Images: Royce Epstein

What do you listen to while you work? When I write I like to listen to music without words. Something more ambient. But when I’m researching or editing I’ll listen to a whole range of stuff from Sufjan Stevens to Elvis Costello to Vampire Weekend.

How do you listen? Through speakers attached to my Dell monitor. I work from home so there’s no one but the dog to disturb. I don’t have to worry about keeping it down!

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I’m addicted to Pandora. I hear a song I like, create a playlist and get a whole bunch of other songs I like. It’s perfect. I like what pops up on my Eric Satie station – it works well when I’m writing and I need to concentrate. I got into Spotify for a while and I like being able to look at other people’s music lists but I keep returning to Pandora. I’ll also sometimes jump into iTunes and let that play at random. A lot of that music came from my husband so it’s fun for me to listen to it – like getting a mixed tape from him.

Does music influence your work? It certainly influences my mood but not my work directly. There’s nothing like a good song to pick you up out of those 3pm doldrums. Almost as good as a cup of coffee.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? I dread this question! My mind goes completely blank at the thought of pinning down one song to describe all the different work I do. I heard Kate Bush interviewed on KCRW yesterday and was reminded how much I love “Wuthering Heights“. It’s such a wonderfully overwrought, operatic song and fun to work to. But a better song to represent the work I do would be Hauschka’s “Children” – it’s a rich, layered instrumental piece that’s busy (like me) and beautiful (which is what I aim for with the work I produce).

Cerentha’s Playlist

Ryan Adams, Dirty Rain

Sufjan Stevens, Chicago

Lenka, The Show

Ingrid Michaelson, Be OK

Badly Drawn Boy, Once Around the Block

Aimee Mann, Save Me

Ben Lee, Apple Candy

Bernard Fanning, Hope and Validation

Nick Cave and Various Artists, The Ship Song Project

Billy Bragg and Wilco, California Stars

Fiona Apple, Across the Universe

Erik Satie, Gymnopedie

What do you listen to while you work? It depends. If I’m working away on something that’s totally work-related (we’re talking lengthy emails, reviewing contracts, doing selects from photo shoots) it needs to be dead quiet. But if I’m writing my syndicated column Do Just One Thing or the manuscript for a new book, I have to have music on. It drains out any distractions and lets me focus on the creative writing at hand.

My iTunes account tells me what I’ve been listening to a lot lately: tons of classical music (but traditional and more modern compositions from Philip Glass) and the whole album “Ivory Tower” from Gonzales is fantastic, too. I also found a lot of songs from the “September Issue” documentary to be fun to listen to. But I also have my fun music: I’m a closet Westlife fan, so I think I have all of their albums. And who does not love a little Madonna in their life, right?

How do you listen? I’m boring. I have a run-of-the-mill iPod with some noise cancellation headphones. I have a iPod docking station that can be a stereo, but I never, ever use it. I prefer to drown out the sounds completely in my head.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I get a lot of my inspiration for work and to clear the mind from runway shows. I sit there and watch all of them online—Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Armani, Ralph, DKNY, etc. It’s fascinating to watch the shows and see how they pair up music to the feel and look of their latest collections. There are never runway music notes for the shows, but thank God for active YouTube comments who figure out what it is and share the information. Usually, one or two good leads on iTunes will lead to more recommendations and finds.

Does music influence your work? Our new Danny Seo Kids line is a good example. I remember hearing the song “Over the Rainbow” when Etoys.com existed.  It was such a heartfelt commercial with beautiful black/white imagery.   The Hawaiian artist Israel “IZ” Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole recorded it with a simple ukulele. The innocence of the song—a children’s song—was inspiration to create beautiful kids towels that were fun and spirited and that celebrated the youthful innocence of kids today.

We often want to design kids products to look like smaller version of grown-up things, but this reminds me kids don’t want to be dressed like adults, so we kept it young and totally different from our regular home products.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? The right response is probably some indie band or critically loved darling nobody has heard of, right? But in reality, I think the right and true answer is NKOTBSB—yep, the marriage of New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys. The reason is simple: I started my work when I was a teenager in 1989 when NKOTB was popular….then my work grew into lifestyle and books when BSB gained popularity (and even Kevin Richardson of the BSB ended up being a client at one point). And now, I’m all grown up with a business where these “boys” are now men and have found a way to retain their popularity without trying to grasp onto their childhood. So, yeah: NKOTBSB.

DANNY’S PLAYLIST

Sad Song, Blake Lewis

Destroy Everything You Touch, Ladytron

Closer, Westlife

Loaded, Seal

Knight Moves, Gonzales

Time to Pretend, MGMT

Don’t Forget About Me (When I’m Gone), Glass Tiger

Symphony No. 3, II, Philip Glass

Blow, Ke$ha

Uprising, Muse
Images: Amy Feezor

What do you listen to while you work? Actually, I love listening to someone talk while working! That means I listen to a lot of radio and podcasts and collect all sorts of weird and wonderful information on music, political issues, and comedy. However, I also like listening to music, which is usually within the jazz, soul, or easy-listening rock/pop genre. There’s nothing like putting on an Ella Fitzgerald album while sitting down with the first cup of coffee of the day. I also happen to be lucky enough to have a boyfriend who’s a jazz pianist, who happens to practice just next door to me. That means I’m not always allowed to listen to music (headphones distract me), so I sit and listen to him practice the same tune over and over again.

How do you listen? I’m not very proud to say that I’m not that high-tech. That means I play music off my computer… or if I feel a bit more motivated, I put on a vinyl on my old vinyl decks. There’s something special and real about the scratchy sound of and old Joni Mitchell vinyl.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I listen a lot to Danish national broadcast’s new station P6 Beat. I love BBC’s selection of comedy shows, Monocle‘s weekly podcast, and the funky soul mixes at royalgroove.org.

Does music influence your work? Hmmm. Besides suddenly realizing that I’ve been sitting and singing along out loud all through some old album—not really! The music I listen to while working has fallen completely to the background and I listen without really noticing. If the music is too attention-seeking, I simply can’t concentrate.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? As my boyfriend is a jazz musician, I have a kind of living jazz encyclopedia walking around my home. He’s amazing at recommending new (old) stuff. Recently, he’s made me fall back in love with James Taylor and discover the amazing Ethiopian vibraphone player Mulatu Astatke.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? Eek—that’s a hard one! Maybe Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s sublime collaboration Painted From Memory. The album is a weird and unusual yet exciting and beautiful mixture of two completely different key figures within the history of music. I like experimenting and combining well-known techniques and styles in atypical ways in order to create something new and exciting.

SOFIE’S PLAYLIST

Yèkèrmo Sèw, Mulatu Astatke

California, Joni Mitchell

In The Darkest Place, Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach

Ta Douleur, Camille

You Don’t Know What Love Is, John Coltrane

Autumn Leaves, Cannonball Adderly & Miles Davis

How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore, Prince

Mean Old Man, James Taylor

‘Round Midnight, Bobby McFerrin & Chick Corea

Bon Voyage, Mathieu Boogaerts

Use Me, Bill Withers

Black Coffee, Ella Fitzgerald

Images: Sofie Brünner