Yellow Boat Music’s Angela Penhaligon Is A Medley Of Musical Wonderfulness!

Angela Penhaligon, Music Supervisor at Yellow Boat Music is a one Woman tour de Force when it comes to all things music. Expanding Yellow Boat’s composition offering into the world of sync,  Angela brings the full force of her musical knowledge to the party. She’s worked on  high pressure shows like The Circle, and found and negotiated syncs for many advertising industry clients. The Singer, and Artist in her own right, lives and breathes music. She has a radio show, she works with global musical stars arranging, vocalising and she music supervises while also working her magic on TV series and Ad campaign’s alike.

You bring a whole new dimension to the Yellow Boat Offering, how do you feel that enhances what Yellow Boat have to offer their Agency Partners?

 It's just a new feather in the cap, innit?  They already do fantastic work and have clients that trust them and love working with them, so now I'm here to help with the music supervision jobs they couldn't take on before, now they can offer a full 360 service! I'm so happy to enable that. 

 I met Phil and PC (of Yellow Boat) at a composer drinks do, they are charming chaps and we hit it off socially! They were then looking to expand their team to include music supervision services & they kindly invited me to join them. The work they do is so great! I absolutely love our new partnership and look forward to working with them more.

Ok now to dive into Angela Penhaligon! What would be the soundtrack to your life so far? 

This is a huge question and would vary not only day-to-day but hour-to-hour sometimes!  But I think if I had to pick just one song to sum it all up, I'd choose "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" as sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.  The song itself it gorgeous, but they had originally cut the song from the film.  Can you imagine Wizard of Oz without that uplifting, dreamy song?   I love that story, saving the diamond in the rough from the cutting room floor!  There is also this kind of Old Hollywood beauty and tribulation within the subtext of the song, as Judy was such a tragic diva yet she was able to create this magical performance of what is a forever timeless song.  Sometimes beauty comes from adversity.  The film is even more close to my heart because I was born in Kansas, raised in Kansas City and had a little black dog && yes I still have an extensive red shoe collection!

What's it like working with a superstar like Noel Gallagher and how long have you been working together?

To be honest I have to pinch myself sometimes because little me from Kansas would have never imagined I'd be singing with not one, but two British legends! It was through singing with Gaz Coombes (from Supergrass) that Noel Gallagher discovered me, or rather us, as I'm a founder member of the backing-singer, girl-group Roxys... think The Ronettes, The Pointer Sisters and Bananarama, all of whom got their start as backing singers. It happened quite organically as Gaz saw us performing at Glastonbury in 2015 with my solo project Piney Gir and he loved all the layers of vocals. I had 3 other girls on stage with me adding their extra sheen and he thought "I want that too!" so he invited us to join his band. The Roxy line-up shifted a little over the years, but it was us three: me, Amy (Ashworth) and Emma (Brammer) that got the attention of Noel. We supported Noel with Gaz at Edinburgh Castle, which was an amazing outdoor gig on a lush summer night. Noel loved what us girls brought to Gaz's sound and said "I want that!" so he invited us to record with him at the famous Rak Studios in 2019. Gaz did another tour with Noel that spring and Noel invited us on stage with him during his set (so we were playing in 2 sets a night!), Noel then invited us back in the studio again and we have recorded quite a lot with him now. We are embarking on another album with Noel, which is exciting & we are honoured he trusts us to present our own ideas, it's a very open and collaborative process with him & he seems so pleased with our work and I'm learning a lot from him! It was a shame our big tour in 2020 was postponed due to Covid, but as the world is opening up again we have more tour dates coming this Spring 2022 and festivals this Summer as well, which is pretty exciting! I've missed touring a lot.

Here is Noel bigging up us Roxys... He went through a little phase a few months ago, of bigging us up a lot, so here’s an article about it.. here's my favourite quote "What I'm into in a minute, I've got these three girls who do backing vocals and they’re called Roxys. The single 'Flying on the Ground', when I was doing that I thought the song was good, and I thought it would turn out good, but they come up with this backing vocal part and when they sang it on the track it elevated it. Every time I write a song now I hear those girls in the background somewhere doing something amazing.”

Have you ever sung on Jools Holland? (...the show not the man) 

 I have had the pleasure of singing on Jools twice now!  The first time was with Gaz and we had the absolute best time singing and playing sleigh bells on his song "Deep Pockets!"  We got to meet the other bands back stage and there was a bit of a party in the corridor after the show (there wasn't really a communal space to hang out in, but we made it work!)... After giving Chaz 'n' Dave a hug, us girls were hell bent on meeting Nile Rogers (I mean, what a musical hero he is!).  He was so down to earth, hanging out in the canteen with the crew and everyone else, he constantly had this beaming smile, but we were kinda shy to approach him. After the show however, he approached us and pointed at each of us saying, "Roxy, Roxy and Roxy music, who knew sleigh bells could be so sexy!" so that's how we got the name Roxys.  We had the joy of singing on Jools again with Noel and that was such a treat because it was my first time performing in the iconic BBC Television Centre (Jools used to be filmed in Maidenhead), so much television history came out of that place! 

Is there an Artist you would love to do a duet with?

 I mean, I'm such a fan girl!  There are tonnes of great artists I'd love to collaborate with.  I'm a huge Cure fan, so Robert Smith would be great!  I toured with Erasure a couple of times and would love to work with Andy & Vince to make some kind of sugary synth-pop perfect song!  If I could time travel, I'd love to sing with Lee Hazelwood or Johnny Cash, those deep dulcet tones just make me happy!  Jeff Goldblum does some pretty amazing jazz these days, maybe he and I could duet a kinda "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" duet.  My hero is Dolly Parton, but I wonder if I'd be so in awe of her that I'd struggle to actually duet with her, but it'd be cool to try.  I absolutely love Motown, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, etc, but I'm not sure my voice lends itself to soul singing; it'd be fun to attempt some kind of mash up or something.

Does your inner 'Fan Girl' ever steer your decisions when thinking of commissioning artists to do covers of tracks?

 To be honest, not really!  When I'm working and researching artists to commission for covers or bespoke work, I stay pretty focused on what will serve the creative best.  That means putting my personal bias aside and devoting my head and heart to what will serve the film.  There is a sometimes a struggle between the director who wants push boundaries, the client who wants to play it safe, and the producer who is trying to keep costs down and enforce deadlines, so those demands go beyond my personal taste in music.  I can't turn my preferences off like a light switch, of course!  But when it comes to deep diving, crate digging and artist research I keep an open mind.  Also, these days, with brand engagement it's sometimes about more than the music, it's about an artist's social media stats and their image, as well as the music.  It's a lot of pressure for an up-and-coming artist, but actually a good sync or a band/brand collab can really help raise the profile of both the band and the brand.  

The senior music supes are me, Karen Spearing & Amy Ashworth; together we create the musical world of The Circle. If you’ve watched the hit reality show before you’ll know it’s wall-to-wall music, the songs often have a relevance with vibe-and-lyrics relating to the plot or one of the characters, or the settings, for different themes, games, events etc… Because the show is filmed live and is a reality show (i.e. unscripted, we don’t know what’s coming); it’s edited as live, with roughly a 24 hour turnaround per episode. Meaning, we have to be extremely flexible in our approach to music supervision by way of pre-clearance. This approach is quite unusual, honestly pre-clearance can get some rights holders in a bit of a twist! It’s very stressful and we do end up clearing more music than we can use, but I always feel proud of us when we are filing our final cue sheets at the end of the season.

The ridiculously fast-paced edit means that creatively to ensure everything is covered, we make musical wish lists months ahead of time, featuring songs we think will work well for the show (based on past seasons, likely scenarios in the show & also our knowledge of rights holders who are amenable to pre-clearance and/or working on this type of reality show). We then receive a wish list from the editors, producers, games team and director, weeks prior to production. We divvy up the lists and go through the music wish lists meticulously, tracking down the rights holders, negotiating and pre-clearing with the publishers and labels so that we can present the edit with cleared music options for the extremely fast-paced weeks ahead. If we waited to request clearance once the song was placed in the edit, there wouldn’t be enough time to clear it, so we cannot use the traditional clearance model.


That sounds really intense! Do you have to take a holiday after each series? 

Yeah it's VERY intense, I'm just lucky I love the music and I love the team.  Usually Christmas comes along as the final stages of licensing and cue sheets are being processed so everyone gets a bit of downtime in mid-late December... I love Christmas, but it's always such a crash after such an adrenaline-fuelled few months on the Circle.   I'm always really proud of the music choices on the show though, and it feels great to look back at the season and feel pride in our work on what is a pretty mammoth accomplishment.

What has been your favourite music supervision gig to date?

 I love my work, I have done music searches of all kinds!  From gorgeous fashion campaigns and alcohol brands, to lo-budget ads (like tampons), to library music searches for charities like British Heart Foundation, I did a lot of work with McDonalds who have really good creative and are very prolific; I have worked on global fashion campaigns with movie stars and famous directors.  I once did an Absolut ad where we worked together to find a band that would write a bespoke song for the ad, and then the song was released with the promo for the single coinciding with the TV, theatrical and online campaign.  That was really exciting to be a part of as the song started to take shape and then to see the impact that campaign had, it took a lot of coordination!  Each type of ad has its challenges (which I love!)... so it's hard to pick a favourite, although I'm proud of those award-winning, high profile ads for sure!  

For me, it felt like a new level when I started working on films, which led to long-form television.  As an indie kid from Kansas City, I would go to our local art house cinema (The Tivoli) at least once a week and I'd see whatever was there.  I fell totally in love with film, especially boundary-pushing cinema like The Crying Game, Trainspotting, Reservoir Dogs, Swingers, Four Rooms, etc... and all of these films specifically have strong soundtracks, music is a huge part of those movies, so it's no wonder I do what I do now!  My first film was "Cold Blow Lane" by director Penny Andrea, we started pre-production in 2018 and now I've done lots of films.  It feels like a dream come true!  That being said, of course it's still hard work & I do still enjoy ads as they are much more fast paced than long-form cinema and television, some films take years to complete.  Ideally I'd carry on doing both as that gives me a good balance.

As an Artist in your own right, have you ever licensed any of your own music or do you keep it separate?

I have!  But I tend to keep it on the down-low that it's me, i.e. I don't want the client or director to choose my song because they like me as a person, or because they feel social pressure to do so, so if I feel like one of my songs ticks the right box, I will present it along with other strong options and let the director and client choose their favourite option in an unbiased fashion.  If it happens to be me that they select, then that's fun! But if it's not me, that's okay, I have a pretty thick skin!  Ultimately it's about serving the film and the creative vision.  I love it when one of mine lands though!

 You are a very bright sparkly person, what practices do you keep, to keep your energy going with today's deadlines and plate spinning?

 I try to meditate, I'm not sure if I do it right because my brain feels so busy all the time, but I like to think meditation helps!  I also do a thing in my head that I call Time-Tetris, it's a colour-coded list/graph of things I need to do by order of urgent and/or important.  I should probably make it an app one day, ha!  But I do have a fairly strict system with time-management.  The main thing that helps is to stay focused on one thing at a time.  Plate spinning is to constantly toggle between projects, which I do, but when I am working on something, that something gets my undivided attention.  I block out specific time for specific tasks and I find staying focused is far more efficient for me that quickly flitting from thing to thing.  It enables me to hit my deadlines and is my attempt at keeping some kind of balance/control of my time.

You have a radio show. What was the catalyst for that?

 Yes that's right, The Other Woman Show on Soho Radio is a show that I'm involved in as a host/presenter.  The Other Woman is a collective and I do one show a month, each presenter takes a turn doing a monthly slot (every Thursday 2-4), it's a platform for women and also LGBTQ+ artists, musicians, filmmakers, comedians, scientists, etc.  I started doing the Other Woman Show about 12 years ago with Ruth Barnes (of Chalk and Blade) firstly as a podcast, then as a show on Resonance FM and we moved to Soho Radio a few years ago.  As a women in music, it's obvious that the playing fields are not yet even... if you look at any festival line up, it's about 20% female and 80% male.  I'd love to think of music without considering gender, colour or socioeconomics, but we're not really in that place yet.  Until these things are not an issue, it needs to be a topic that we keep out in the open, knowledge is power, talking is key, actions are important.  

There is a lot of diversity within the Other Woman collective and we are inclusive of anyone who might struggle to find a platform.  As a music industry professional I think the issues come from a systemic problem and perhaps it's an issue with who is at the top and how the trickle down effect doesn't really trickle down very equally.  This will change as the old guard retires and new, more progressive thinkers start making big decisions to change the way things work (it's happening now, but slowly).  I'm sure the same applies in other industries.  At Soho Radio, we are doing our best to put women & the LGBTQ+ community in the spotlight, showing by example that no matter what sex you are, what age you are, what gender you identify as, there is a platform for you!  It feels like a very positive thing to do, to celebrate these people and their achievements, and it's fun getting to meet all kinds of people! 

Pick two guests that best describe what you are utilising the platform to achieve?

I regularly have bands, musicians and songwriters on the show, and I really enjoy delving into music and curating the playlists each month, but my most exciting guests that spring to mind are not musos...

I once had a pioneer of 3D printing on as a guest, they were one of the first people in the world to master the machine, growing the technology for over 20 years.  They also happen to be non-binary.  They own one of the most successful 3D print companies in the world, lecturing on the topic at Oxford and Cambridge, developing 3D organ printing, providing medicine for 3rd world countries, exploring the possibility of printing food for starving nations, it really is the machine of the future!  It's so great for us to show by example that you can be non-binary, once treated like an outsider, being super smart and successful!  

I once had a life coach on the show, she gave really great insight into how to manage anxiety and look at behavioral patterns that might trigger anxiety, using meditation and breathing techniques to keep the mind calm.  Even her presence in the studio was calming, and response to the show was really great!  So many people in these times need a little reassurance.  She's also a lesbian who would have been an outsider growing up, but now she runs her own successful life-coaching business, facilitates wellness retreats all over the world, in addition to life coaching she regularly does gong baths, fire-walking workshops, yoga retreats, and yoga teacher training.  Her ability to share her calm is an inspiration.  

What Advertising brands would you like to work with in the future?

I'm very open to working with all brands.  Fashion is an obvious one for me because I've worked on a lot of fashion ads historically.  I love how beautiful they are, how luxurious they feel, and how they are often quite open to unique music options, they are usually trying to push the envelope and do something truly artful.  That being said, I've done fabulous creative with unexpected brands like McDonalds or Marmite... I love it when car ads do something a bit different, I.e. I worked on a Honda advert that made a sweet little film of how the car is so compact it can fit in anywhere and the music was small and quirky; I did a Peugeot Ad where a bride picks up a hitchhiker and marries him in Vegas, car ads can be so predictable, so that was fun to change the script!

 For more information on how to work with Angela and Yellow Boat Music please get in touch with athene@lemonadereps.com