Tom Seufert

SHORT BIO

Tom Seufert started Visual Music in 1998, expanding his original company (VMP) into a full service music boutique. In 2005, he added Napoleon Dynamite composer John Swihart to the roster and in 2006, Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary. This year, Eagles hit songwriter Jack Tempchin joined the team, as well as emerging artists Hotel Cinema, Brendan McCreary/Young Beautiful in a Hurry, Karmina, Tim Blane and Maestro-Matic.

“What is most unique about Tom is that he has worn almost every musical hat possible” states Algis Jaras, Creative Director at Leo Burnett, who has collaborated with Visual Music on Phillip Morris International, General Mills and Freschetta. “He is articulate, personable, dedicated, a great communicator and human. That’s why I choose to work with him.”

FULL BIO

Tom Seufert’s professional career started at age fifteen when his group, The Realm, became the house band at what was then Hollywood’s largest rock club, the Hullabaloo (later the Aquarius Theater).

Tom went on to become a solo recording artist for Epic Records, and, later, via Ariola/America, where his group, La Seine, had a top ten record in Holland (Tango All Night), later recorded by The Beatles Ringo Starr. He also produced artists for Elektra/Asylum, United Artists, EMI and a host of others. He’s co-written songs with Jack Tempchin and Glen Frey (The Eagles), Trevor Rabin (Yes), and many others. Seufert then built Redwing Studios which soon became home to well-known recording artists (Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis & The News, Pablo Cruise, etc.) and their platinum album projects. This success allowed Tom to explore his intense interest in experimental cinema, special effects and video.

Tom then founded a networking/interface organization of artists, filmmakers, musicians and multi-media creatives called the Visual Music Alliance. Members included Star Wars special effects directors Richard Edlund and Scott Squires, Tron special effects director Richard Taylor and the Band’s organist Garth Hudson, among 100+ others. He organized events at AFI, Disney’s Theater on its Burbank lot and at Art Center in Pasadena.

A prolific and dedicated songwriter, Tom has written for many recording artists as well as for feature films and television. He worked with Academy Award nominated composer Thomas Newman as a synthesist and music sound designer on such films as Jumping Jack Flash, Man With The One Red Shoe and Gung Ho and on television’s remake of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

After Visual Music Productions became the focus of his “work for hire” Seufert formed a visual music band with then partner Chris Desmond and film director Kevin Dole called “Eye In The Village,” named as a tip of the hat to painter Marc Chagall’s work “I and the Village.” Eye In The Village became a forum for collaborations of a more personal and experimental nature. The band’s first effort, a five-minute film titled “No One Turns Away From The Camera” won first place awards at both the Chicago International Film Festival and Canada’s Video Culture International’s competition. It then went on to gain wide exposure on television and in video clubs around the world.

The next project for Eye In The Village came about in the wake of the Chinese massacre in Beijing. Shortly thereafter, they were approached by a group of underground Chinese filmmakers and asked to provide an anthem for a documentary that was intended to unite the Chinese in their struggle and to keep the memory of the tragedy alive. “The Ghosts of Beijing,” a song mixing Chinese and Western elements and written by Desmond and Seufert, was broadcast worldwide over Voice Of America International Radio. At the invitation of the International Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, Eye In The Village performed “The Ghosts of Beijing” before a crowd of thousands in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a Washington D.C. concert and rally on Oct. 1st, 1989.

Professional Affiliations/Memberships: AMP/AICP, SAG, AFTRA, AFM.