b'going to drown. I bought a cake and a 12-pack, he recalls wryly.Other music buddies thought Bright was crazy for leaping into an entirely new business model. But when he invited Johnston to help out, Johnston replied, Well, I aint doin nothin. Johnston would head to L.A., and the partners would spend 15-hour days over several-day stretches, creating and recording in the garage studio Bright had built in the familys 1921 house, sweating in the summer heat. Over the next several years, they created thousands of soundtracks for shows including The Real Housewives, MTVs Jersey Shore and Duck Dynasty.Guitarist Luis Maldonado strumsI SAW A MARKETin the Bright family atrium. He lives in Los Angeles andLeonor Bright was toddling around the sound studio in her diapers with currently plays fora bottle hanging from her mouth when she first picked up a drumstick and Foreigner. started banging on the drums, her father recalls.(Photo by Cynthia Bright) But after just three years in L.A., the Brights had had enough and wanted a better environment for their family. They even talked about leaving the Left: Guitarist Jasoncountry.Walker lives in LasMeanwhile, reality TV shows were exploding in popularity, along with Vegas and was on tour with the Gene Simmonsexpanding cable network channels. Johnston was like, No, bro, you cant Band - the former bassistdo this, he recalls.for Kiss. I saw a market where there was more demand than supply. I had (Photo by Thorsten Seiffert) never seen that so clearly in an entrepreneurial environment, Johnston continues. When the pair marketed their music services, the response was, Yes! Give me more, give me more! And they had the supply: I saw Pfil as a music-generating machine.If everyone could just keep to the script and stay in the country, If only he could solve the Bright familys quality-of-life concernsRight: Jeff Martin, left, of theMy mom and sister were still here in Nevada City, Johnston recalls. Lake Tahoe area, was lead singer for Racer X and playedThe Brights had never heard of the place, but he convinced them to check drums for other platinumit out. I know a nice place in California, he told them. A wholesome bands in the hard rock/heavy metal genre. Ken Morton,place. The Brights visited over Independence Day weekend in 2004, right, is editor of Highwirelooked around, and bought a house.Daze fanzine. Eventually, Leonor picked up saxophone and played in the band (Courtesy Jeff Martin) programs at Seven Hills Middle School and at Nevada Union High School. Multi- Johnston moved to Penn Valley, allowing him to be close to his mother instrumentalistand sister, who still live in the area.Dennis Dismore played drums in DECODING THE SCENE: ITS WHAT THEY USEPhil Brightsfirst band inSan Francisco. The partners success stemmed, in part, from Brights ability to notice (Photo by the difference between what their clients said they wanted and what they Leonor Bright) actually used.Composing sucks, because you compose, and then theres an eight-person committee at the production company, plus more layers of people at the network who review the material, Bright says. He watched the shows he wrote for and studied what the producers actually used; he likened it to deciphering a secret code. Whatever the producers actually used, Bright and Johnston gave them more of it.Music also codes for culture. That dramatic chord, with a little twang at just the right moment, says cowboy. The same chord over an urban beat says hip-hop. They learned to pepper the tracks with subtle clues that 12 Nevada County Business Focus2025'