After arriving at the GraysonMatthews Audio Design production studio in Toronto, it is disappointing to find the mysterious Mr. Matthews, the company’s silent figurehead, again not in attendance. Much like the elusive Polkaroo, his presence is felt within the confines of GraysonMatthews as though he is sitting in a dark office somewhere, sipping scotch and watching every move being made in his studio.

GraysonMatthews partners/musicians Dave Sorbara and Tom Westin don’t mind, though. They’re too excited about their new piano to worry about the whereabouts of their boss. The piano, a 1940 Bechstein, just arrived from Sweden, is one of the last of its kind to be shipped to Stockholm from Dresden before the Allied Forces bombed Germany during the Second World War. It proves to be a classic centrepiece in a place known for its modern take on commercial music.

Sorbara (a pianist since the age of 10) and Westin (a guitarist since he was 11) joined forces to create music for commercials just over two years ago. In December, they hooked up with executive producer Elizabeth Taylor. The two musicians agree that since Taylor entered their lives, business has been steadily good.

‘These last few months have been amazing,’ says Westin. ‘With Elizabeth, part of the reason we got together was because she made people get excited about something new out there, and we’ve been surprised by how excited they have been.’

Recent work for GraysonMatthews includes audio design for McDonald’s in Quebec, where they offered up some ‘happy, funky’ music to complement the visuals.

The pair also put together music for a Much usa show opening. Their assignment was to come up with a tune for the show, that gives popular regional bands exposure to a wider audience.

‘Because it is not really genre-specific in terms of the type of music [featured on the show], we wanted to have a lot of different elements without being hokey. What it ended up being is something with rock elements, hip hop, dance and electronica,’ says Westin, who adds it was important to cover as many musical bases as possible in the piece. ‘You just have to be careful, especially with a show like that when you know it is going to be on air for a while. It has got to have legs.’

In addition, Westin and Sorbara completed the music for a new Raid spot, which features a colony of ants inside a Roman-looking stadium, much like an animated Spartacus. Speaking of the Kirk Douglas epic, Westin and Sorbara admit they drew inspiration from the film’s soundtrack. To help with the music, GraysonMatthews brought in a studio musician adept at playing some of the rarer woodwind instruments to give the ad an authentically Greco-Roman feel.

‘We had some fun with the instrumentation, and one of the creatives ended up calling it ‘The Last Temptation of the Ants’ because it has all kinds of cool stuff going on in there,’ says Westin.

Also a source of pride for the pair is their work on a number of interstitials for The Shopping Channel and spots for Tide where they were called on to help change the image of the service and product, respectively.

Sorbara refers to the ads as a ‘departure’ from the music normally affiliated with both clients, especially Tide. The music used for Tide is vastly different from that typically used in laundry detergent advertising. It is an electronic-sounding, tranquil piece that, when listened to without the accompaniment of visuals, is able to mellow even the most uptight.

‘I think in the past [Tide] didn’t really push the envelope,’ says Sorbara. ‘Because of it being a laundry detergent, I’m sure [others who created music for Tide] didn’t have that much leeway. It was a complete departure from what they had been doing visually, too. The ads have sort of provocative visuals. They are not typical Tide commercials with clothes on the line, blowing, and the mom with her two daughters running through green pastures.’

The GraysonMatthews boys are called on a lot to take arguably stagnant campaigns and make them sound fresh. Months ago they were given the opportunity to create a sting for Bell and its assorted products and services. Even that, if recorded and looped a few hundred times, could have slipped its way into the rotation at an unsuspecting dance club without too much notice or complaint from patrons.

Sorbara and Westin also handled some of the audio design work on a recent pair of Doritos commercials.

The two agree a hazard of the job is the quick turnaround time they are sometimes expected to perform in.

‘Some commercial stuff we’ve turned around in 48 hours,’ admits Sorbara. ‘The scheduling sometimes gets a little weird; they’ve left a certain amount of time to go to air, and then the shoot days are so close to the air date that we are just sort of stuck with that amount of time. I think [we are given] enough time, but if there was more time the world would be a better place.’

After further thought, Sorbara adds: ‘Sometimes a quick turnaround is good because you are kind of under pressure. The stress is there and we do seem to work well under pressure.’

Sorbara says if you cracked open his cd player right now you would probably find a Top 40 compilation, the odd hip hop disc and, on the right day, perhaps the Blade Runner soundtrack. Westin says his cd player is likely to have Radiohead’s O.K. Computer, Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden and a smattering of classical discs (he really digs Beethoven) inside.

As a musician who loves music, Westin says it is sometimes difficult to leave it all at home in his cd player when he heads off to work.

‘The music I would write for myself is radically different than the stuff I end up writing for other people,’ says Westin. ‘Yet it is always difficult to escape your influences and they sort of seed their way into your subconscious when you are writing. I don’t know if it is a matter of leaving one’s set of influences and trying to write in a different way, although I guess that has to happen sometimes.’

Westin and Sorbara say they are never ones to turn down work and don’t feel bad about perhaps stealing work from established audio design companies. They say there is enough commercial work to keep all Toronto music shops busy.

‘There are companies that do so much work they don’t know what to do with it all,’ says Sorbara. ‘I think there is enough work to go around and more work coming in all the time. That could be one of the reasons newer companies coming around have a better chance. Business is good and the economy is good. Although it’s not like the ’80s, I hear.’