Jody Colero is a little ‘too comfortable’ doing commercials these days. This probably explains his humorous reaction to continuing praise for his music production on the Shoppers Drug Mart spot ‘Opera Diva.’ It also explains why he and his company, The Einstein Bros., will no longer accept any commercial work after Jan. 31, 2001.

‘It’s hilarious!’ Colero exclaims, in reaction to all the fuss about the spot’s score. ‘It’s Johann Strauss Jr. – not even the dad!’ Nevertheless, it did win Einstein this year’s Top Spots nod for best music.

Colero took the Strauss opera Die Fledermaus and pulled a chunk of music called Monsieur Le Marquis as the basis for his music production on the Floria Sigismondi-directed spot, produced out of The Partners’ Film Company.

‘All we did was get the piece of stock music and [with midi] added to it our own samples of strings and violins to make it sound way bigger,’ Colero says. The midi work took a full day and was led by Einstein’s Jim McGraph.

‘And then we put this girl on it, who is a trained opera singer. Her name is Alexandra Pomeroy, and we had her sing over the actual piece.’

At the point in the spot where the singing goes sour, Pomeroy’s sweet tones are replaced by the intentionally dreadful vocals of Melanie Melody.

‘Here, Melanie, sing as horribly as you possibly can,’ Colero would say, preparing his artist to perform at her worst.

Says Colero of the recording session with Melody, ‘We did a whole whack of takes and picked the one that was most grotesque.’

Although Colero downplays Einstein’s role in the effectiveness of the music on the commercial, there is no question it was integral to the audio success of the production.

‘You need to get the score. You need to understand how the woodwinds work, how the strings work. What size is appropriate for the piece and how the piece should sound if you were doing it for real with a gigantic orchestra. So you’re doing exactly what you would do with live musicians before a session. You’d map it out, plan it out – you’d have all the swells in the same places, all the crescendos in the same places, all the small techniques stuff, except that you don’t do it with an orchestra, you do it with machines,’ Colero explains.

Strauss’ music is now in the public domain. However, arrangements of the piece can be copyrighted, and ‘that’s why [Einstein] bought a stock music arrangement.’ And, Colero reiterates, ‘you have to take into account that most of the stock music is not done on computers – it’s live guys. So there are intricacies involved in timing, pitch change and tuning.’

The stock music, inexpensively acquired for ‘around $750 or $1,000,’ also has the advantage of being residual free. Each time the commercial plays, fees need be paid neither to the arranger nor the Strauss estate.

Colero, basking in his last commercial hurrah, says he will continue in the audio business doing ‘anything musical that is non-advertising – mostly Web stuff and tv.’

The Einstein owner also has designs on the deep-fried dough business, having acquired the rights to open Hooker’s Beaver Tails franchises in the Muskokas, a popular cottage country destination outside Toronto.

The carefree musician says, ‘I’m doing whatever I feel like. Whatever makes me scared or happy. Those are my two mission statements in life. If it doesn’t scare me or it doesn’t make me happy, I’m not doing it.’ *