Sharp-eared Toledo viewers may have recognized a voice as they watched national cable channel TV One on July 3. Local singer/songwriter Carmen Miller’s song “Let’s Go” was used as backing music during the debut episode of the reality series “Bad Dad Rehab.”
“One of the things that I’ve always said I wanted to do, and it was on my vision board for last year, was to do music for films and television,” Miller says
Coming together quickly
Miller, who has recently been performing with local group The Overton Project as well as branching out into the production side of the business, said the deal that brought her song to the show came together surprisingly quickly.
Miller belongs to a networking group for talent called Artists Launch, run by manager and advisor Karen Marie Mason out of Atlanta. Mason, who works as a liaison with television and film production companies, contacted Miller about how the makers of “Bad Dad Rehab” wanted to use “Let’s Go,” a unique gospel/metal hybrid track.
“It’s a song about second chances and living for today, and not wasting your opportunity to live. Do what you were put here to do,” Miller says.
“It went on TV the same day I signed my releases. And it was crazy, because I’m sitting there watching, and I see the scenes with the clips of our music right there!”
Preparedness meets opportunity
“It was just a matter of being ready when the opportunity presented itself. Because if she would have called me, and our music wasn’t licensed and taken care of, they would have moved on to the next person, and found something else to use,” Miller says. “Now, I can add that to my resume, having had music licensed for movies and television, and the next time it will be that much easier.”
Miller says those are the real benefits of this experience— beyond whatever financial compensation her song’s brief appearance may garner, more importantly, it means her name is out there. And so is “Let’s Go.”
“The feeling is so crazy, to have [the song] shared with millions of people all over the country, wherever TV One is shown,” Miller says.
“That’s a piece of my art that people will be able to consume for all time, that has become something greater, because it’s attached to another work.”
For more information on Carmen Miller and her upcoming performances,
visit carmenmillermusic.com or facebook.com/cariller
