Home Base / Denver, Colorado
Activities / Mountain Biking, Skiing, Fly Fishing
Bodie grew up on a dairy farm outside of Greeley, Colorado, but spent most weekends and school breaks climbing with family and friends in Hueco, Yosemite, Tahoe, Ouray, Bishop, and the Tetons.
It’s common for a sports photographer to get a start by taking shots of friends. Bodie’s introduction to the business of licensing music for the film business was similar. He loved music, and he loved climbing. “My career started because I was making my climbing friends mixed CDs. A few of those people happened to be top athletes who were making climbing movies. They asked me to help on their projects.”
In 2008, Bodie served as music supervisor for “Spray,” a film about bouldering California’s Coastline. He did this work in exchange for a pair of sunglasses. Later, as Bodie’s name scrolled through the credits as a music supervisor on other films, new clients reached out. “They saw that I was good at not only navigating the many nuances of licensing songs, but also finding the correct songs to bring scenes to life,” he says.
In the years since, Bodie has worked on films for The North Face, Outdoor Research, 5Point Film Festival, Teton Gravity Research, Red Bull, Yeti, Anthill Productions, and Sweetgrass Productions. “One of my favorite projects was Patagonia’s Damnation documentary because it combined all my passions: music, the outdoors, and conservation,” he says.
The film work eventually put Bodie in contact with musicians, which led to more opportunities. Today he is also the founder of BackForty Management, where he manages several international artists like Shakey Graves, Futurebirds, Langhorne Slim, and Nick Shoulders. “Those relationships feed each other,” says Bodie. “When a musician and a filmmaker get on the same page, good things happen. A film’s sound should never be an afterthought.”
In my line of work, music is so often taken for granted and not given a proper budget or consideration. But 50 percent of the experience is the music. Bodie’s expertise, creative ideation, execution, and willingness to collaborate is a great example of what makes this line of work so much fun.
Bodie is a rare dual threat in the music business. As both a music supervisor and artist manager, he can help guide clients toward choosing the best song for their project, and negotiate and license the appropriate rights for each project. “I spend most of every day scouring new music or attending concerts so that my clients don’t have to,” he says.
Bodie is currently wrapping up the licensing for a mountain biking film soundtrack for Anthill Productions and Red Bull Media and is also building the soundtrack for Matchstick Productions’ next ski film.
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