established in 2002 in venice, ca, mophonics has grown from a small team of songwriters and producers to a bi-coastal music production and publishing house, always driven to create music that feels like it belongs on your stereo.  we develop and invest in talent, taking the time to craft timeless, quality music for brands, agencies and ourselves.

MICHAEL FRICK

Our West Coast EP is the founding partner of Mophonics, opening the doors of our Venice CA studios in 2002 after 15 years in film, visual fx, radio, music journalism and supervision. Michael set up the team that still forms the operational backbone of Mophonics, and his A&R eye has spotted the talent that has formed Mophonics creative backbone over the last decade.

It seems glib to say Michael loves music - loves listening, loves being involved in creating - and yet it is worth mentioning, as this passion is what drives everything he does. One of life’s irrepressible networkers, Michael has a mighty mental rolodex that gives him that magic knack of being able to connect disparate people who might just have convergent interests.

Always looking to push Mophonics’ boundaries out beyond original composition, sound design and licensing, Michael is an ahead-of-the-game thinker who understands how harnessing digital technologies, and driving emerging social media relationships, can help us deliver a wide array of services and solutions to clients who want to use music more meaningfully to engage with their customers.

Michael lives in Redondo Beach, CA with his wife and two childering, and is a keen surfer.

STEPH ALTMAN

Uncompromising creative powerhouse; conscientious husband, keen local community leader; possessing of a wonderful head of hair; great footballer, excellent tipper; and, of course, modest... are just some of the phrases people use to describe Steph.

A precocious child multi-instrumentalist, Steph aborted his childhood dreams of being a recording artist heard by millions, moved to California, met Michael Frick and spent the next decade building Mophonics into a mighty bi-coastal creative behemoth. The 2000s brought music for film, albums, and lots of commercials. And in the end, Steph’s voice did find its way into the ears of millions around the world, in the form of songs written to help advertise wonderful products.

Today, Steph creatively oversees most of the music that leaves the studios under the name Mophonics. He is a key creative conduit between our clients and our composers, and he enjoys writing pithy bios.

He is loved by animals and children.

SHELLEY ALTMAN

Shelley Altman is almost intimidatingly impressive. The head of production and CFO of Mophonics since 2003, she oversees our most complex campaigns, manages our team of producers, and is the financial brain of our operation.

Beginning her career in the high-profile and glamorous world of strategy consulting, Shelley took an unexpected u-turn and joined the fledgling Mophonics. Here she has built a well-balanced, effective team, in an environment of honesty and trust that has allowed creativity to thrive, within a responsible framework.

With a reputation for fierce business intelligence, transparent integrity and solid judgment, Shelley is considered by both clients and composers to be a trustworthy collaborator, straight-talking yet compassionate: a dependable production partner, always driven to deliver.

She is extremely stylish, and is very easy on the eyes. She is also my wife. She lives in Venice with her very devoted husband and young daughter.

Once a successful composer in his own right - a soulful and melodic guitarist with a penchant for gypsy jazz - Adam had put on his business hat and joined the Mopho partner group when we opened up shop in New York in 2008. Patiently, methodically he led the integration of our two coasts’ operations into a single cohesive entity.

And when the New York studio was strong enough to flourish without him, he switched coasts and became managing director, bringing his clarity, intelligence and stamina to the LA office.

Adam is one of those people who can drink all night but never utter an ill-placed word. Which is a useful trait in this industry. Still known to occasionally pick up a guitar and deliver haunting renditions of Appalachian bluegrass classics, Adam lives in Los Angeles with his wife, young son and beloved hound Liam. Adam is a keen photographer and closet conservative.

AMANDA FINK

Long Island native Amanda Fink is perhaps our spunkiest Mopho. A sharp, bright gal studying to be a theatrical actress, she headed to LA, like so many others, to pursue her dream. How could she have known that her “stage” was to be Mophonics, and her “dream” was to be working with all of us?! 

Starting out in the famed Mopho LA mail room, she rose through the ranks, with her eye on a hybrid producer/music supervisor role. Having established herself as this razor-sharp wit with Pitchforkian music tastes, we were smitten, and when she decided to move back east, we begged her to take a position in the NY studio.

And so today, resplendent with blazing mane, she produces and music supervises many of our NY ad jobs, she A&R’s for new talent, and she generally continues to be the coolest kid on the Mopho block, by quite a stretch.

Josh is many things to us: first and foremost he’s one of our most experienced Producers, managing some of our most intense and creatively challenging projects over the years with a superb attention to detail, and a tireless drive to deliver only exceptional music and sound to our clients. 

Next, Josh is a respected Music Supervisor who finds music for America’s greatest brands like Apple, Intel, Jeep, Pepsi and Budweiser.

And yet, thricely, Josh is a creative in his own right: a classy remixer, producer and engineer, with the Arbiters, Locussolus and for Hanni El Khatib.

Perhaps Mophonics’ greatest music aficionado, Josh has a deep and at times tiresome love of all music: liable to blast Alice Coltrane B-sides first thing in the morning, or enjoying a Botswanan click orchestra after lunch, we can rely on Josh to nod sagely when a client refers to that obscure 1930s Hungarian spoon player. Also worth noting: Josh is between 6 and 10 ft tall, and when aloft, his sheer elevation interferes with our wifi.

Josh was born and still lives in LA, and is married.

Another of our long-standing Mophos, Colette has been with us for much of our history. A critical part of our production chain, Colette is 1 part highly-experienced producer with an encyclopedic memory of all our projects since 2005; she is 1 part business manager who manages much of our back-room affairs, and 1 part unicorn-filled fountain of sun-rays.

Colette has a profound and almost clairvoyant knowledge of the Mophonics Original Music Library, and is usually responsible for those internal music searches that somehow yield just the right track before we’ve even begun writing demos.

A Floridian, of Austrian origin, Colette is also plugged in to the LA punk scene, though that might be a complete shock to those who have met her. She has dropped precisely zero balls in the 7 years she’s been with us, and is generally considered to be one of the nicest people in North America.

Life would be bleak and pointless without her.

Josh Brochhausen, aka DJ SaeOne, is the more tattooed, German half of The Resource. A self described 'programmer and Macintosh thrasher', Josh is a gifted producer with a knack for infectiously hooky head-nodding beats, and also a sick engineer with a flair for perfect mixes. Though in reality quite a cuddly man, Brochhausen projects the rough and ready streetwise persona of a goomba from the Sopranos. Josh does not enjoy knitting, but claims to have once ollied a shopping cart.

He is our lead creative in New York, and knows approximately everyone who has worked in a recording studio since 1992.

In Norse legend, the young blacksmith Kristoffer sailed across the ocean in a small vessel made entirely of cheese, and won the hearts of foreign ladies with his deep smooth singing voice. 

A thousand years later, NY-born Norseman Kris Roggemann decided to make an epic trip of his own: leaving mighty UMPG, where he was Associate Director of Music for Advertising, helping to drive a highly successful team pitching the Universal repertoire to TV and film, he sailed over to Mophonics NY, to be our new NY Creative Producer, managing and directing projects both logistically and creatively.

With his solid near-decade of experience on the synch side of the business, at Warner/Chappell, Rhino, and UMPG, not to mention his proficiency on the french horn, we had no choice but to snap Kris up.

Kris is the only Mopho to have a Bachelors in Music Industry from USC, and has completely abandoned his cultural heritage of pillage. Kris is also the only Mopho to have the word “pillage” in his bio. Twice.