Interview with Songwriting and Music Production Duo Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin

Today we are speaking with the Emmy nominated songwriting and music production team, Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin. This talented duo wrote and produced music for Kenny Ortega’s Julie and the Phantoms, a Netflix Top 10 series in 2020 that hit #4 on the Billboard charts. Their song, “The Other Side of Hollywood,'' was nominated for Outstanding Original Song in the 48th Daytime Emmy Awards to take place on June 25, 2021. They bring their expertise and fun energy to each project they work on. In this interview, Doug and Tova discuss how they got started in songwriting and music production, their influences and dream collaborators and their experience working on Julie and the Phantoms.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What was your first job in songwriting and music production and how did you decide to pursue your craft professionally? 

TOVA: I decided to pursue music professionally when I was 8 years old. I was obsessed with 1960s music and decided that I had to be a singer when I grew up. My mother took me seriously even though I was just a kid, but there was the minor element of the fact that we were living in a village and we literally knew no one who was remotely involved with the entertainment industry. When I was 16, I moved back to Los Angeles, and started writing my own music and playing in bands. I fell into songwriting by accident when an artist I knew wanted to cut a song I had written for myself. It was called “Hollywood,” and it literally had a line about spiders on steroids. So that was probably my first “official” gig, and opened up the door for me to start working with artists and producers for different projects. Eventually, I found my favorite co-writers, and started having some success with that. Then one thing led to another and I ended up getting signed in Japan and working with the Kpop and Jpop markets, which was awesome because I got to fly to Tokyo and Seoul and write with some amazing artists and writers there as well, which opened up a whole other aspect of music that I never expected to be involved with. Somewhere in the middle of this, Doug and I met at a party. I was dressed as an obese coke bottle, and he was a full-on Gumby creature. I don’t even think we said hello, I think we just yelled “AYYY!” at each other. We became friends, and realized that 1. Our trajectories were super similar, 2. We were both feeling a little creatively stifled in the pop world, and 3. We absolutely loved writing for script. We wrote a song for Marvel Rising together and after that, things took a very conscious turn where we started working as a team and focused on curated writing for the Film & TV world because we loved it so much. And here we are! 

DOUG: I’ve also known since I was 8 (spooky!) that I wanted to be a musician when I grew up. I started off playing in bands in elementary school through high school, and then as soon as I graduated I toured around the country. After a while, life on the road didn’t really feel sustainable and just didn’t fit my lifestyle either. I took some time off and started exploring other avenues. My mom worked at a local radio station down by the shore, and after bugging her a whole lot, she was able to introduce me to some of the people there. They hired me to write a few jingles for some of their advertising clients. While putting focus on that, I really wanted to get involved in writing for other artists, and was introduced to now, one of my dearest friends, Bill Grainer. He had success in the writing world, and he took me under his wing and was and still is an incredible mentor. At the same time, I got really into music production and spent most of my days picking apart songs, and watching tutorials on youtube to learn some tricks. I had a crappy little studio that I put together in my mom’s basement. It was a dream (note the sarcasm) — it was completely unfinished, bare walls, concrete dusty floors, little bugs crawling in and out of the cracks — I was in the suburbs of New Jersey, so the summers were very hot and humid. But between all of the creepy crawly friends and the exposed water pipes, I spent almost every free minute I had down there obsessing over how to get better, recording local bands from around the area and even my own. And I’m so glad I did. I still obsess over the same things today, just in a much nicer space! The first real job I got in music was actually what brought me out to Los Angeles. I started working for a pop/rock producer named John Feldmann. It was pretty surreal, since he had produced some of my favorite records growing up, and was also in one of my favorite bands. Eventually, as all things do, that ran its course and I moved onto the next chapter. I signed a publishing deal with Disney Music Publishing and started writing for artists full time. After a while I felt like I hit a bit of a wall so to speak. I wasn’t feeling inspired, I felt like I was writing the same song over and over again, since that’s what a lot of people wanted. I felt like I needed to make a change but I had no idea what that change needed to be. Tova and I had been friends for a few years, but didn’t write together much, mainly because we were friends (strange how that works). I had gotten an opportunity through Disney to pitch a song for the new Marvel Rising franchise at the time, and asked Tova if she wanted to co-write it with me. We ended up winning the spot, and that led to a handful of other Marvel cuts. We had so much fun writing to guide a story, and being able to write in different genres. We also both ended up finding out about each other’s love for musicals, and it’s like a lightbulb went off. We decided to officially team up, and everything started falling into place. It felt like we finally found our “thing” and haven’t looked back. And the great part about the world we live in is that a lot of the talent we work with on these projects have their own artist careers, which we’re able to be involved with. It’s the best of both worlds. And that’s the extremely, extremely short version of the story!

Who are some of your favorite long term collaborators? 

TOVA: So there’s a writer named Doug Rockwell…. ;) Another one of my favorite songwriters is Tyler Shamy, who is an incredible writer and artist. We've written about 9 million songs together. 

DOUG: I’d have to say my two favorite people: Tova Litvin & Bill Grainer. I also work on all of The Loud House stuff with Michelle Lewis, so she deserves a shout out as well!

What song was the most fun to work on for Julie and the Phantoms? 

BOTH: That’s a hard one, but we’d have to say “The Other Side of Hollywood,” because it’s always fun to write for a villain. In the song, we got to introduce Caleb to the audience, so part of our job was to make him seem extremely alluring and charming, but also lyrically hint at some of the dark stuff that was coming later in the show. It’s so fun. And then Cheyenne Jackson came in and just embodied the entire character so flawlessly that it brought the entire song to life. Kenny Orgtega had such a big vision for that scene, and he really knew how to bring the best out of everyone. We worked so, so hard on that song from start to finish, between getting the lyrics just right, to setting the right musical tone. It was a very rewarding experience overall.

What gear do you tend to use, especially in the production of Julie and the Phantoms? 

DOUG: I’ve always been a Pro Tools guy. Mainly because that’s just what I know how to use the best. I use an iMac Pro, and run through a UAD Apollo x16 interface with a few satellites hooked up for extra DSP. My monitors are Amphion which I love, and I monitor through the Dangerous D-Box. I recently got the Dangerous Convert AD+ as an a/d converter which I’ve been loving. I use it for both tracking and mixing. My vocal chain can vary depending on the vibe, but for the original JATP demos, I used a Bock 251 mic into a BAE 1073 pre/eq, into my Purple MC77 compressor. Internally, some of my go-to virtual instruments are Kontakt, Serum, Spire, Output, and Spitfire. Lots of UAD plugins as well. Can’t forget about FabFilter either, I probably use their plugins more than any. 

Who are some of your influences? 

DOUG: Honestly, I get influenced by so many things. It could be as simple as a good song, regardless of its genre or time period. If a lyric or melody, or even production hits me the right way, that’s all I need. Stories also inspire me, because they paint colors and pictures in my head which can translate to melodies and chord progressions. 

TOVA: Musically, give me everything from the 60s: the Beatles, Leslie Gore, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. Musicals, especially Rent. Lyricists like Jon Bellion. Poets: Rumi and Hafez. Writers like Paulo Coelho.

What is your dream project? Dream collaborators? 

BOTH: A dream project is getting our own major feature film project that can later move to Broadway. That is literally the dream. We would love to work on something with Marc Platt Productions because we’re huge fans of a lot of their stuff and they make incredible films. We also really admire what Lin-Manuel Miranda has done, as well as Pasek & Paul. 

DOUG: Also, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ve always dreamt of working with Billie Joe from Green Day, since they were the first band I ever obsessed over back when I was a kid.

Where can we find you on social media? 

@dougrockwell and @tovaonmars