Picture this. You're sitting in your living room,
maybe halfway paying attention to the TV or,
you know, just scrolling on your phone. Right.
Usually totally tuning it out. Exactly. But suddenly
there's this piece of music driving the visuals
that is just so undeniably catchy. Oh, yeah.
We've all been there. It's so uniquely energetic
that you find yourself scrambling for your phone,
opening up an app, and trying to Shazam the track
before the 30 -second spot even ends. And that
specific scenario completely changed the music
industry, especially in the early 2010s. It really
did. And today, we are unpacking the fascinating
trajectory of a group that lived exactly on the
other side of that scenario. Welcome to the Deep
Dive. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited
for this one. So today we're taking a stack of
source material, basically centering around a
single detailed Wikipedia article. And we're
pulling it apart to look at the intersection
of underground music and massive global advertising.
Right. We're looking at the Kid Street Band.
Yeah, the Kid Street Band. If we had to put a
label on this deep dive, like a title, we might
call it something like the Kid Street Phenomenon.
How a Canadian sibling trio. became the sound
of apple and ford i like that it has a nice ring
to it Right. And we are tailoring this specifically
for you, the listener, who loves uncovering those
hidden stories behind the sounds that subtly
score our everyday lives. It really is the ultimate
backstage pass because we often hear these massive,
ubiquitous sounds and just assume they were generated
in some, I don't know, sterile corporate boardroom
somewhere. Totally. Just executives in suits
pressing a button. Exactly. But the reality is
usually far more grounded and frankly, a lot
sweatier than that. Right. Okay, let's unpack
this. We have to start right at the foundation.
To understand how they ended up in millions of
living rooms, we are traveling back to the year
2007. 2007, a very different era. Definitely.
And the location is Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
That is the birthplace of Kid Street. And that
location provides some vital context, really.
When you look at the landscape of Waterloo, Ontario
music, it has always had a rather distinct texture
to it. Yeah, it's a bit of a hybrid city, right?
It is. Waterloo is this unique hybrid where it's
a major college town, but it's also a massive
technology hub. Oh, right. The tech side. Yeah.
So out of that specific environment in 2007,
you have this Canadian electronica group emerging.
Right. But what makes the foundation of Kid Street
so compelling isn't just their geography. It's
their DNA. Because it's a family band. Exactly.
It is entirely a family affair. This synth pop
trio is made up of three siblings. Which, I mean,
that always adds a layer of complexity to any
band story. Absolutely. You have two brothers
and a younger sister. Carl Snyder is on the drums.
Cliff Snyder is handling the synth and the guitar,
and the younger sister, Edna Snyder, is providing
the piano and the vocals. That dynamic is always
so interesting. Whenever you look at the history
of music, sibling bands are fascinating. Think
about Oasis or the Kinks. Oh, man, the Gallagher
brothers. Right. There is often a lot of tension,
but there is also this unspoken, innate chemistry.
They share a rhythmic language that is incredibly
difficult to manufacture with strangers in a
rehearsal space. I'd imagine the shorthand they
have with each other is just built in. Like you
don't have to explain to your brother that he's
playing too loud. No, you just give him a look.
Yeah, a look across the stage that you've been
giving him since he was 10 years old. And that
intuition clearly translated into their sound.
The sources we're looking at today describe Kid
Street as having a, quote, unique form of synth
pop. Which is a pretty broad term, but it fits.
They fall firmly under the umbrella of Canadian
electronica. but they are doing something very
distinct with the genre. And that brings me to
their live setup, which completely challenges
what you might expect. How so? Well, when you
hear the phrase electronica band, the immediate
stereotype is a single person standing perfectly
still behind a glowing laptop screen. Maybe just
pushing the space bar. Yeah, pushing the space
bar, turning a single knob, and just nodding
their head to the beat. But the sources highlight
that Kid Street actively shattered that mold
they are a live electronic music group in the
truest sense on stage they aren't relying on
a static backing track to do all the heavy lifting
no they're really playing they're actively blending
electronic elements with real live instrumentation
you have live drums from carl live vocals and
piano from edna and live guitars and synths from
cliff What's fascinating here is how fundamentally
that choice transforms the relationship between
the band and the audience. Oh, for sure. When
you introduce live instrumentation into electronica,
specifically a highly physical instrument like
an acoustic drum kit or a distorted live guitar,
you completely change the kinetic energy of the
room. Hold up. For those listening who might
just hit play on Spotify and not think about
the production side, how does a live drum kit
actually change the mechanics of electronic music?
It's a great question. Electronic music by...
very nature is inherently precise. It's quantized.
Meaning what exactly? Meaning the musical notes
are snapped perfectly onto a digital grid. A
computer program ensures that every single beat
lands on the exact mathematical millisecond it
is supposed to. It's basically flawless. Flawless,
yes. But because it's flawless, it can sometimes
feel robotic or sterile. But when Carl Snyder
hits a real drum, or when Edna Snyder physically
strikes the keys of her piano, it introduces
these microscopic human variations in timing.
It gives it a pulse. Exactly. It introduces a
groove. More than that, it introduces a visual,
physical... exertion that the audience can literally
see and feel in their chests. So the crowd isn't
just watching musicians press buttons. No, they're
watching them sweat and physically labor to produce
these massive sounds. It makes the performance
an active rock concert experience rather than
a passive listening session. Which totally explains
the touring pedigree they built up. When you
look at the roster of artists Kid Street shared
the stage with, it's a pretty staggering list.
It really is. To give you, the listener, a sense
of their peers. The sources mention major Canadian
acts like Dragonette, Mother Mother, Thunder
Heist, and Rich O 'Coin. There's actually a specific
tour reference noted in the sources with Rich
O 'Coin in 2011. That was a big year for them.
Massive. But they weren't just playing with local
acts. They were also sharing stages with huge
international names like Girl Talk and Health.
That specific lineup of tourmates speaks volumes
about their versatility. Think about the contrast
between those artists. Yeah they are all over
the map. Girl Talk, especially around that 2010
era, was known for putting on shows that were
absolute, unbridled, sweaty chaos. It was a massive,
relentless mashup dance party where the crowd
was essentially on the stage. Right. So for Kid
Street to be booked alongside and act like that,
their live show had to be incredibly high energy.
They had to be able to move a massive dance floor.
Absolutely. But then on the exact opposite end
of the spectrum, you just mentioned health. Yeah.
Totally different vibe. Completely. intense,
dark, sometimes abrasive noise rock mixed with
industrial electronica. It's a much heavier,
more aggressive aesthetic. And then Mother's
in there too. Right. And you have a band like
Mother Mother who are beloved for their sharp,
quirky vocal harmonies and tight indie rock sensibilities.
The fact that a single synth pop trio from Waterloo
could comfortably fit on a bill with all of those
wildly different acts just proves that their
blend of live instrumentation and electronic
pop was incredible. Incredibly adaptable. They
could bridge the gap between a frantic dance
party and a serious indie rock show. And all
of that live hustle culminated in some highly
respected milestones. Our source explicitly highlights
that they performed at the 2011 Canadian Music
Week. A huge industry event. Specifically, there
is a noted show on March 12th at the legendary
El Macombo in Toronto. Which is not a venue you
just casually stroll into. Not at all. For anyone
who follows music history, playing the El Macombo
is a massive badge of honor. It's this historic,
gritty, neon -lit venue where everyone from the
Rolling Stones to U2 has played. So you have
this sibling trio honing their chops, playing
iconic venues, and touring relentlessly. They
are clearly putting in the groundwork. And that
hard work eventually triggers a major pivot point
in their career. The sources note that in 2010,
the band signed with Network Records. If we connect
this to the bigger picture, signing with Network
Records in 2010 was essentially the catalyst
for everything that followed. Because Network
is huge. Network is an independent label, but
it has a massive international footprint. They
have a long history of breaking Canadian artists
on a global scale. So it opened doors. This signing
provided Kid Street with the infrastructure,
the widespread distribution, and most critically,
the industry connections required to take their
sound out of the clubs of Ontario and inject
it directly into the mainstream. Here's where
it gets really interesting. And that leads us
to the corporate licensing deals. Kid Street
landed some of the most coveted placements you
could possibly imagine in the advertising world.
The holy grail for an indie band. Truly. But
before we get into the specifics, I want to play
Devil's Advocate for a second. In the underground
indie scene, especially going back to the 90s
and early 2000s, licensing your music to a massive
corporation was often viewed as selling out.
Yeah, it was a dirty word. How did an indie band
navigate that without losing their credibility?
It's a really crucial point to bring up. The
stigma around selling out shifted dramatically
right around the time Kid Street was emerging.
What changed? By the late 2000s and early 2010s,
the traditional revenue streams for musicians
like physical album sales had completely collapsed
due to digital piracy and the early days of streaming.
Right. Napster and then early Spotify just gutted
album sales. Exactly. Indie bands suddenly realized
that corporate synchronization or indie music
licensing was no longer a compromise of their
morals. It was a necessary survival tool. You
had to do it to keep the lights on. Beyond just
the paycheck, a major commercial placement became
the new radio. It was how you got your music
in front of millions of ears. So the culture
shifted from criticizing bands for doing commercials
to actually celebrating them for securing the
bag and getting their art heard. That makes total
sense. It was the new mechanism for discovery.
And for Kid Street, that discovery all revolved
around a specific track with an almost hilariously
modest title. I love this part. The song is simply
called Song. That's it. Just Song. Right to the
point. But what it lacked in a descriptive title,
it more than made up for in its sonic profile.
The track is driven by this incredibly infectious
staccato piano riff. The timeline of indie music
licensing for this specific track is a masterclass
in how a single piece of music can have a multi
-year life cycle. Oh yeah, it wasn't a flash
of the pan. Not at all. According to the sources,
it wasn't just a one -and -done placement. Song
first entered the corporate advertising space
in 2009 when it was used in Ford commercial music
campaigns. And clearly... The marketing executives
at Ford saw a massive return on the energy that
track brought to their visuals because the sources
note that song was actually brought back to score
most of Ford's 2011 television commercials. That
is a massive win. To be the sonic identity of
a major automotive brand for multiple years is
huge. It is, but they didn't stop there because
in 2012, this exact same track was licensed by
an entirely different corporate giant. A completely
different industry. It became the Apple MacBook
Pro commercial song. Specifically, it was the
television spot, introducing the MacBook Pro
with retina display. Okay, this is where I need
to stop and look at the mechanics of this. You
have one track, modestly titled Song. It is selling
pickup trucks and sedans for Ford in 2009 and
2011. And then it is selling high -end, cutting
-edge laptops for Apple in 2012. Musically speaking,
why does this specific track work so perfectly
for two completely different products? It all
comes down to the architecture of that specific
staccato piano riff Edna Snyder is playing. Let's
break that down. When you analyze why it works,
you have to look at the nature of a staccato
note. Staccato means the notes are sharply detached
and separated from one another. It's the opposite
of a long, flowing, legato sound. Okay, so it's
punchy. There is no lingering, no bleeding of
sound. It's tap, tap, tap, forward, forward,
forward. Right, it has an immediate sense of
propulsion. Exactly. If you are Ford and you
are trying to sell a vehicle... You want to convey
momentum. You want the viewer to feel tires gripping
the pavement, moving fast and reliably. And the
piano does that. The staccato rhythm naturally
mimics that forward physical motion. Now, pivot
to Apple in 2012. They're introducing the Retina
Display. Think about what that product represents.
It's crisp. It's sharp. It's about high -definition
processing speed and modern efficiency. So the
sharp, detached notes of the piano reflect the
sharp... high definition pixels of the screen
spot on that fast precise driving piano riff
perfectly encapsulates both the mechanical momentum
of a car and the processing speed of a computer
without a single lyric needing to explain it
to the audience that is brilliant It's a brilliant
piece of compositional engineering, whether Kid
Street intentionally designed it for that purpose
or simply stumbled into a universal groove. It's
the absolute perfect marriage of sound and product.
Yeah. But what really strikes me when I look
at the source material is the sheer velocity
at which this band was operating behind the scenes
while these commercials were airing. Why we're
busy. Let's look at what I'll call the sprint
of 2011. Based on their discography, 2011 wasn't
just a busy year. It was an absolute avalanche
of output. The volume of their releases during
that 12 -month window is staggering. In that
single calendar year, they dropped an EP titled
X. They released two separate singles, Birthday
Boy and Never Coming Back, and they released
a full -length album. Yeah. To put that into
perspective for the listener, releasing an EP,
two standalone singles, and a full -length album
in one year is an exhausting undertaking for
any artist, let alone an independent one. Just
the studio time alone. it requires writing the
material spending weeks or months in the recording
studio producing the electronic layers tracking
the live instruments mixing mastering and then
coordinating the press releases not to mention
as we discussed earlier 2011 was the exact same
year they were actively touring with Rich Alcoyne
and playing high profile showcases like the El
Macombo during Canadian Music Week. Right. Oh,
and their music was simultaneously backing the
majority of Ford's 2011 television campaigns.
They were quite literally everywhere at once.
And there is a fascinating little quirk in their
discography timeline from our sources that highlights
how strange the business side of music can be.
Oh, about the release dates. Yeah. The single
song, which, as we just discussed, had already
been used in massive Ford commercials in 2009
and 2011, is officially listed in their discography
as a 2012 release. Hold on, how does that work?
How is a song released in 2012 if it was already
on my TV screen in 2009? This happens quite a
bit in the sync licensing space. A track might
exist purely as a demo or it might be pitched
exclusively to ad agencies long before it gets
a formalized commercial release to the general
public on platforms like iTunes or Spotify. So
it's just a corporate asset first. Oh, it essentially
lived as a commercial asset for three years before
it was officially packaged as a 2012 single release
for their fans to purchase. That is wild. But
looking at that timeline as a whole, it really.
paints a picture of incredible momentum building
up to a crescendo. It does. The 2010 signing
with Network Records clearly opened the floodgates.
It provided the resources they needed. Then you
have this furious activity in 2011, the massive
recording output of Foo and the XEP, the relentless
touring. All leading up to Apple. All of this
ground level grinding culminates in the massive
2012 Apple commercial placement. I want you,
the listener, to just imagine the sheer work
ethic and and the physical exhaustion required
by the Snyder siblings during this highly condensed
period. Yeah, it's hard to fathom. It is a monumental
undertaking to balance the creative demands of
a live electronic setup with the corporate demands
of global sync deals. It genuinely makes you
appreciate the hustle behind the music you hear
on your screen. You hear 30 seconds and a catchy
piano riff while someone opens a sleek silver
laptop on TV. And you have absolutely no idea
that those 30 seconds represent years of sweat,
complex sibling dynamics, endless highway miles
and late night studio sessions in Ontario. Exactly.
So what does this all mean? If we zoom out and
look at the entirety of the source material we've
unpacked today, we have traced an incredible
arc. We really have. We started in 2007 with
a sibling trio in Waterloo, Ontario. We watched
Carl, Cliff, and Edna experiment with Canadian
electronica, actively deciding to break the mold.
They didn't want to just press play. They didn't
just want to be laptop DJs. They chose to build
a live electronic music experience, blending
real drums, guitars, and vocals with their synth
-a -pop elements. We saw how that physical, high
-energy stage presence allowed them to hold their
own alongside wildly diverse acts like Girl Talk
and Health, ultimately leading to that crucial
2010 signing with Network Records. And we saw
how their unique musical sensibility specifically,
a perfectly crafted staccato piano, riff caught
the ear of marketing executives. Bridging the
underground and the mainstream. Allowing them
to brilliantly bridge the gap between underground
indie art and global commercial commerce, turning
them into the unmistakable sound of both Ford
and Apple. It's the ultimate indie dream fully
realized. It truly is. And the next time you
find yourself watching a commercial or a movie
trailer or even just a random sponsored video
on your feed and you hear an undeniably catchy
instrumental driving the action, I want you to
remember the story of Kid Street. Keep them in
mind. Remember that the music didn't just spawn
out of thin air. There is a very real chance
that the massive sound you are hearing was created
by a hardworking indie band, maybe even a group
of siblings dragging a drum kit into a basement
somewhere, finally getting their big break and
seeing their art broadcast on a global scale.
That's the beauty of looking closer at these
seemingly everyday details. And it raises an
important question to leave you with today. Oh,
I'm ready for it. We've been dissecting the early
2010s, which was a very specific golden era for
indie music licensing in television commercials.
But the landscape of media has shifted so dramatically
since then. Right, cord cutting and everything.
We don't watch TV the same way we did in 2012.
So it sets you wonder. In an era where millions
of songs are uploaded to streaming platforms
every single day and where TikTok trends move
at the absolute speed of light, what is the modern
equivalent of that one perfect staccato piano
riff? Wow, that's a great question. What is the
new mechanism today that can instantly launch
an independent band from a local stage in Ontario
straight into the global cultural zeitgeist?
Is it still the massive tech commercial or has
the path to ubiquity completely changed its rhythm?
That is such a fascinating thought to chew on.
The avenues to success in the music industry
are constantly shifting, but the sheer power
of a perfectly crafted sound catching your ear
clearly never does. Thank you so much for joining
us on this deep dive. We love taking these single
sources, unpacking the hidden mechanics behind
them, and sharing these incredible stories with
you. Keep your ears open, pay close attention
to the soundtracks of your daily life, and we
will see you on the next deep dive.