The "just the facts" version
Arpix Media, founded by Ron Proulx, has a long history in music supervision spanning more than 25 years, overseeing music for over 1700+ television episodes and 99+ films. Beginning in 1994, Ron transitioned from various roles in the music industry to music supervision, leading to his work on notable early projects like "The Hanging Garden," eventually leading to many opportunities and relationships in the Canadian film and television industry.
Originally named Ron Proulx International, it was renamed as Arpix Media Inc., reflecting its growth and unique offering in the industry. He formed lasting relationships with film producers, composers, songwriters, publishers, record labels, and staff, contributing to the success of numerous productions over the years. Ron credits his success to a supportive network, including family, friends, and a dedicated team that was integral to Arpix Media's journey.
After 29 years in music supervision, Proulx announced on April 1, 2023 that he was no longer in the music in film game, though he continues to represent a boutique roster of composer talent.
The "in his own words" version
Arpix Media has been in business approximately 25 years. It has been responsible for the Music Supervision of over 1700 episodes of Television and 99+ Films across four decades. All told, I have personally worked in music supervision for 29 years. How on earth did that happen? After what seemed an entire lifetime of adventures, from campus radio Music Director, to record store employee, to cover band keyboard player, to original art pop band founder with indie CD releases, to music publicity company owner, to artist manager, I found myself in 1994 on the verge of starting a company to work in this new-fangled phenom called "the internet."
But then... I got a phone call that would change the course of my life.
Music industry titan Frank Davies was on the other end of the line, and he asked me if I would consider becoming a "music supervisor." At the time, I had no idea what those two words even meant. And boom, I said yes. I joined SL Feldman under my bosses Janet York and Sam Feldman, and I earned a whopping $18,000 a year. I had a small corner office with a Windows computer, an internet connection, no real idea what I was doing, and I was forced to learn fast. I was in heaven. I worked on various projects, including Due South, National Lampoon Spring Vacation, and several Harlequin romance films. The mid-90s marked the heyday of Indie Rock, and artists were beginning to understand the value of licensing their music for TV and film, so I quickly became a popular guy. After 2 years there, I decided to move on and, thanks to my friend Heather Pollack, landed a role as the Head of Music at Greenlight Communications. Working for CEO Gary Howsam and his music sidekick Fraser Mohawk was an interesting experience to say the least. My windowless office was sweltering hot, and I spent most days in shorts and a T-shirt. It was during this time that I worked independently on the Feature Film The Hanging Garden, produced by Louise Garfield and directed by Thom Fitzgerald. This project earned them the TIFF Audience Award, and it cemented my lifelong friendship with Louise. During that period the newly branded GFT wasn't producing many films, so I began moonlighting as an independent music supervisor. One day, I received a call from Jean Desormeaux, former Film Head at Alliance Communications, who was indie producing two films for HBO. He asked me for my price for each film, I randomly suggested $7500, and he countered with $5000. I accepted, and boom, I was off to the races. Before I knew it, I received an offer to work on another film, White Lies, starring Sarah Polley, and I never looked back. Shortly after, a young woman named Natalie Pancer asked to intern for free for five years. I recall replying that if she was still working for free in a year, there would be no future for either of us in this business. We worked together for a few years, Natalie was fantastic, and I actually paid her. She coined the term “a little cheese goes a long way” when discussing what defined good music in a film. Eventually, my friend Jeff Rogers found me an amazing 2500 sq foot space at 103 Church Street, so we moved my company, with the help of my new partner in composer management, Alister Sutherland. We had so many good times, many early successes, and it’s where I truly built the business.
If you ever came to a party at 103 Church, you know what a special place it was.
It’s during this time that we were fortunate to discover a young composer named Rob Carli, who has since become one of the most celebrated composers in the country, not the least reason being his score for at least 19 seasons of Murdoch Mysteries. Following Rob, I built some similarly long associations with composers Jono Grant, Peter Chapman, Angelo Oddi, Phil Bennett, Wolfgang Webb, and Lora Bidner. As you read this some of these people may not be associated with me anymore though. Life does happen. I had initially called my company Ron Proulx International, but I eventually felt the need to create a unique name. That’s how I came up with Arpix Media, which uses the initials of my original company RPI. The name also ends with an X, which I’ve always liked, given my last name. Add an A to put it at the top of an alphabetical list, and Arpix Media was born. During this time, I added Chris Robinson to the team. He had been answering phones at Attic Records and joined us as an intern for a day. Chris stayed with me for over 12 years, and he has continued to have a successful career in music and film. In the summer of 2001 I met Andrea Higgins, a young talent who had dreams of working in music supervision. She has excellent taste in all things and she’s awesome. We worked together for 22 years. How often does that happen in the modern age? By 2001, the many industry parties I co-hosted with Robert Ott and BMG got so big that we decided our upcoming TIFF party needed to be split over two days, 9/11 and 9/13. Of course, they never happened, and nothing seemed like it would ever be the same. Interestingly, I had already decided to make a move to a new location that summer, but it was with great sadness that I left 103 Church, as I had no idea if I could ever find a better workspace. Fortunately, I found a fabulous live/work condo at 670 Richmond St. W., which became the new home of Arpix Media and my personal residence for 20 years until I sold it in 2022.
The 670 condo was also the site of many of its own film and TV adventures, parties, and people.
If you know me well, you know that Venice Beach became a second home for me in the mid-00s. For seven years, I went back and forth between Venice and Toronto, operating my company remotely from wherever I was. My love for Venice Beach began when I worked on films with my then new friend and Venice resident, filmmaker Alan Moyle, having first met when he directed the film New Waterford Girl. By the mid-2000s, we seemed to have become specialists in biographical dramas, having worked on films about Donald Trump, Evel Knievel, Judy Garland, Michael Jackson, Shania Twain, Terry Fox, and Pierre Trudeau. We also worked on films based on true events, such as The Matthew Sheppard Story and The Mary Kay Letourneau Story. Personally, I have always preferred working on television series. There’s something about getting to know the characters and the people you work with that makes it feel like a well-oiled machine. Some of the series Arpix oversaw music for include kid fare like Life With Derek, In A Heartbeat, Girlstuff/Boystuff, Radio Free Roscoe, and many dramas, including Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland, Regenesis, Flashpoint, Wynonna Earp, Workin’ Moms, and Hudson and Rex. Though I have a background playing keyboards and drums, I never wanted to be the guy who wrote the music for the shows we worked on. I wanted to focus on overseeing the best possible music scenario for each production. But I did co-write the theme songs for Life With Derek, Radio Free Roscoe, and Mischief City. While I dabbled in scoring films in a previous life, I ultimately decided it just wasn’t for me. However, in 2002, we music supervised the film Twist, and I also provided the original score, which won a Genie Award for the song “Pantaloon In Black,” co-written by Director Jacob Tierney and myself. Other Genie Award-winning songs I oversaw include River Blue for The Fishing Trip and One Thing To Say for Jacob Two Two.
I firmly believe that people are the most important aspect of our lives. Without the help of others, we would be nowhere.
I owe a great deal of my success to the support and guidance of my family, particularly my parents who encouraged me to pursue my dreams from a young age. Although my dad never had the chance to witness my work as a music supervisor, my mom did in the early days, and I appreciated her support. My brother Gord, who unfortunately passed away in 2013, was my main mentor, teaching me the nuts and bolts of running a successful company. Without his guidance, I believe none of this would have been possible..
As I have often said, I never went to school to learn how to run a company.
A special mention for the success of Arpix goes to Christina Jennings, founder of Shaftesbury Films, who I met in 1999 on Jacob Two Two, and who has been a close friend and remained a client for well over 20 years. And, of course, my team for much of the 21st century, Andrea Higgins and Kyle Merkley, together for 22 and 13 years each, were a dream to work with. Andrea became a creative powerhouse in the world of music supervision, and Kyle was a huge asset ever since we met upon his college graduation. I am very proud of my association with each of them, and I continue to wish each of them the very best in all things.
I am always grateful to the many staff, helpers, assistants and interns who for worked months or years at Arpix, including;
Brian Bautista, Noel Uzelac, Michelle Ewing, Tim Des Islets, Walter Zwol, Alister Sutherland, Jean Wilkinson, Kubby Kubbernus, John Jay Hebert, Nick Longo, Drew Reavie, and of course those from the early years, including Natalie Pancer and Chris Robinson.
There have simply been so many who have impacted myself and the journey of Arpix. The following is an honour roll mention of many who were either there in the beginning, lasted throughout the middle, came near the end, or had an impact throughout, and all are part of the mosaic of this one small company. In no particular order, I give thanks to;
My wife Carla Lewis, Louise Garfield, Christina Jennings, Rob Carli, Jono Grant, Peter Chapman, Keith Power, Phil Bennett, Wolfgang Webb, Angelo Oddi, Maylee Todd, Kristjan Bergey, Lora Bidner, Amy Lennie, Drew Reavie, William Genereux, Claudia Leclair, Frank Davies, Gary Howsam, Janet York, Sam Feldman, Jean Desormeaux, Eric Norlen, Tony Tobias, Jeff Rogers, Robert Ott, Jacob Tierney, Debra Kouri, Anton Leo, Greg Stephens, George Koller, Laura Harbin, Randy Frisch, Jamie Grant, Vince Degiorgio, Janis Lundman, Charlotte Mickie, Pegi Cecconi, Charles Cozens, Jacqueline Kelly, Ron Murphy, David Harrison, Sebastien Chorney, Heather Conkie, Jana Sinyor, Jamie Vernon, Kevin Leflar, Mark Quail, Lisa Kalushner, Victoria Hirst, Paul Vella, Adam Roberts, Ted East, Adam Haight, Jerry Ciccoritti, Michael Doherty, Cal Coons, Michelle Lovretta, Fred Brennan, Jeff Cohen, Craig Lasky, Lindsay Spiller, Jeff Renfroe, Richard Flohill, Nick Krewen, Michael Doherty, Barry Stanley, Emil Glassbourg, Michael Beard, Evan Tussman, Rebecca Herr, Walter Zwol, Scott Garvie, Suzanne French, Saul Pincus, David Ostry, Andrew Mech, Barbara Lieberman, Dan Fill, Beth Stevenson, Steven Denure, Adrienne Mitchell, Alan Okada, Dan Lyon, Stephen Ujlaki, Byron Martin, Joey Plager, Richard Evans, Dale Burshtein, Harvey Glatt, Robert Wertheimer, Neville Quinlan, Elana Adair, Nicholas Tabarrok, John Gillespie, Allan Moyle, Sherrie Johnson, Garth Douglas, Gaye Hardiman, John Anderson, Lewis Chesler, John Delmage, David Buchbinder, Michael Decarlo, Peter Meyboom, Heather Pollack, Jarrett Sherman, Peter Mohan, Kevin May, Kevin Lafferty, Steve Collins, Maria Alonte, Joan Fisher, Susie McGregor, Paul Stillo, Steve Solomos, Carolyn Mill, Sebastien Nasra, Virginia Rankin, Kari Scogland, Peter O'Brian, Mark Smith, Moira Nordholt, Vesna Svilanovic, John Nabereznyj, Don Gamsby, Ian Menzies, Charlie Finley, Roger Clown, Michael Cooper, Paul Ackerley, Peter Mitchell, Catherine Reitman, Daphne Ballon, David Steinberg, Greg Spottiswood, Jordy Randall, Karen Kosowski, Karyn Nolan, Stephen Montgomery, Emily Andras, Tom Cox, Laurel Macdonald, Lisa Dalbello, Jay McCarrol, David Leask, Suzie Vinnick, Kathryn Calder, Adeline, Patrick Cassavetti, Donna Serafinus, Ari Wise, Blair Purda, Sean Mulligan, Ralph Singh, Diane Lametti, Jen Mulligan, Janet Baker, Alex House, Steve Hoban, Cheryl Link, Avi Diamond, Gary Koftinoff, Peter Willis, David Hayter, John May, Leif Bristow, Mary Young Leckie, Brian Dennis, Janice Dawe, Tina Grewel, Dave Huband, Paul Aucoin, John Lecuyer, Greg Dummet, Austin Wong, Ambrose Roche, Michael Cline, Nick Longo.... I am also humbled to give a nod to those who are no longer with us, but were a part of the fabric of this fullfilling life and career, and have been an ongoing inspiration; Brad Lavelle, Graeme Bousada, Vic Horvath, Gregor Hutchison, Ralph Murphy, Jake Hiebert, Rod Duncan, Ritchie Yorke, Bill Malcolm, Sponto, Howie Jamieson, Tim Laing, Ross Perlmutter, Haydon Heathcock, Cynthia Browse, Frazer Mohawk, Chris Dedrick, and Don Zaluski.
Finally, so much of my thanks for everything goes back to the morals and direction shared with me by my brother Gord Proulx, and my parents Anne Proulx and Eddie Proulx. I miss them every day of my life.