Lana Del Rey was virtually unknown a year ago. Today, she is one of the hottest new artists on the planet. So how did this remarkable transformation come about?

A couple of meticulously-crafted publicity shots played a part. So too did the buzz around the video for the single ‘Video Games’, stirred up in advance of the release of Del Rey’s official debut album Born To Die – which has since gone on to hit the No.1 spot in seven countries in the first week of its release.
Did the self-styled ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ successfully plot this extraordinary rise, all by herself? Hardly. But whoever was behind it, it’s a case study in how the right image, presentation and marketing can make all the difference to the way an artist is perceived.
Lee Walsh, director of Irish production house Creative Sounds, is in the business of packaging and marketing pop stars and musicians. And he’s good at it. Very good. Having designed promotional content, including music videos, tour posters and ad campaigns for superstars like Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue and Blink-182, to name but a few, Lee and his team are hugely in demand. Indeed, so successful have Creative Sounds been that Lee is currently splitting his time between their HQ in Ashbourne, Co.Meath and their new Los Angeles branch.
“Just the other day we got asked to do Justin Bieber’s new video,” he says, “and I thought to myself, ‘God, is this the highlight of my career, the biggest thing I’ve done so far? I don’t know, but it’s great to get that work. You really look forward to doing it because you know it’ll get 20 million YouTube hits in the first couple of days – so it is a real test. It has to be brilliant. It has to stand up alongside the best.”
Would Justin Bieber know who Lee is and what he’s done?
“No, and I intend to keep it that way!” he laughs. “The ex-pats who are over in LA tend to hang out together, which is great. With the US people… it’s kinda funny. I remember walking up to Lisa Kudrow when she was doing her comedy tour and I said, ‘Hi Lisa, I made your TV commercial for you’, and she just looked at me as if to say, ‘Get away from me!’ To some extent you get that attitude, but it’s cool. Doing the work is the important thing.”
Lee was the creative genius behind the success of the Crazy Frog ringtone, which was so big that Tony Blair had it on his phone. It was project that established the foundation for Creative Sounds’ subsequent success. “Blair talked about it on radio once with Chris Evans,” Lee recalls. “So that was a marketing dream for me, at 22 years of age, to work on that.”
Now 28, Lee is at the top of the game internationally, designing the promotional campaigns and imagery for world tours by the likes of Il Divo, Lionel Richie, Kelly Clarkson and Cirque du Soleil.
“With Il Divo at the moment, we’re creating a massive amount of content – TV commercials, radio commercials, their official tour poster, online branding and things like that. That’s all being designed from our base in Ireland, which is amazing.”
Applying the imagery developed for the marketing in live production represents a particular challenge.
“We’re specialising now in designing content for bands who are going on tour,” he says. “95% of the bands and artists that we work with are very image-conscious. It is in the nature of what they do, at the poppier end of the business. On the other hand, the likes of The Who wouldn’t really care. We worked with Roger Daltrey last year, and we could put graphics anywhere on the screen behind him during his show, behind his head or whatever. With someone like Lady Gaga, when her face is on screen, the graphics cannot be anywhere near her. You have to get a handle those kinds of details.”
Household names with big budgets are one thing, but what of up-and-coming Irish acts? Do Creative Sounds work with them?
“Absolutely,” he says. “The Irish music industry is very strange at the moment – but it’s a great time for the music itself. I had a call from a new Irish boyband last week asking if we could listen to their album and choose what tracks would make good singles and music videos. We’re always there to help out with stuff like that. At the end of the day, you never know what the next big thing is going to be, and we want to be part of it.
“Look at Bressie. We shot the video for ‘Breaking My Fall’ live at his gig in The Academy. He’s doing really well at the moment. I think The Voice Of Ireland is probably the best thing that’s happened to him because he has crossed a threshold in terms of public awareness – and also in terms of his own confidence.”
Ireland has long been recognised as a source of major international music talent.
The success of Creative Sounds confirms that our backroom boys have something special to offer too.
“There could be 10,000 people at a concert wearing the same T-shirt which we’ve created,” Lee says. “While you’re doing it, you don’t really have much time to think, you just get stuck in and do whatever feels right. But when it’s all approved and you’ve gone to print or they’ve gone to air and it’s broadcasting to however many people across the US, and an entire tour is selling hundreds of thousands of tickets, you do get a chance to stand back and think: we created that. It’s a good feeling.”
You can’t argue with that...

For more information on Creative Sounds, visit creativesounds.ie.