These days, Cape Breton’s Breagh Isabel syncs more than she swims.
The former Port Cities band member has enjoyed a rather consistent success rate placing songs in hit U.S. TV programs like Grey’s Anatomy, FBI, and Batwoman, and ad campaigns for Kia Motors, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission (NSLC), and the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), among others. And that’s aside from a burgeoning career as a solo artist.
Select the image to play the YouTube video of the Classified song (featuring Isabel Breagh) “Good News”
“The sync world is really its own thing, and it’s something I just sort of stumbled into,” Isabel recently told Words And Music from Los Angeles, where she was participating in the first of two songwriting camps exclusively devoted to – what else? – syncs.
“It’s a specific type of writing,” she says. “You really have to keep in mind what could be happening on-screen. When you’re writing a song for film and TV, you’re thinking about the message and how to get it across, but you’re also thinking, how do I keep it broad and applicable, so that it could work for multiple usages?”
“Good News” is a case in point: the song, co-written by Isabel, Classified (aka Luke Boyd), and Owen Lee, and produced by Boyd, has so far been utilized in NSLC and CAA campaigns, as well as being a certified Gold hit on its own for the Enfield, Nova Scotia-based rapper.
As for Breagh Isabel, she was first introduced to the sync world back in 2019, during a production internship in Nashville with writer/producer Paige Blue. “Paige works pretty frequently in film, TV, and ads, so while I was shadowing her, I started to dip my toes into that world, just to see how it works,” says Isabel. “Then, in 2020, I was back in Canada; the pandemic hit, and I was invited to an online Zoom writing camp through Rose Cousins, an amazing songwriter.
“She invited me to a sync-writing camp that was put on by my now-publisher, Concord Music – and it was attended by music supervisors, whom we got to work with closely. That was really the first time I saw that side of things.”
At her second camp, she teamed up with writers Hannah “Hunnah” Wondmeneh and Peter Groenwald to compose “See The Sun.” Produced, mixed, and mastered by Isabel at her home studio in Halifax, the sync – her very first – ended up on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, although the songwriter confesses she wasn’t sure the tune had made the program when she watched it.
Select the image to play the YouTube video of the song “See The Sun,” co-written by Isabel Breagh
“Things move so quickly in film and TV that a song might get cut at the last minute, and you might not know if it’s going to be on the show until a few days before,” Isabel says. “So, I didn’t actually know until that night when we turned on the TV. The episode was airing and I wasn’t hearing the song. I was feeling a bit sad. But the final scene of the show featured this big, dramatic surgery, and a huge montage. They played the full three-and-a-half minutes of ‘See The Sun’ to close the episode. That was really, really exciting!”
Since then, she’s landed another Grey’s number – “It’s All Good” – on a 2024 episode, as well as “Coming For You” on CBS-TV’s FBI (billed under ADONA and Sea Saint, an Isabel side project); “You Better Watch Out”(written with MOONz) on Netflix’s Selling Sunset: Orange County; “Snow Snow Snow” (identified as Izzy Harlow, a second sync side project, co-authored with Peter Groenwald) on Netflix’s Virgin River; and “SOS” for both Batwoman on The CW, and a Chicago Fire promo on NBC.
Even her current single, “Imposter,” has landed in the feature film Lakeview, directed by Halifax filmmaker Tara Thorne. “I wrote ‘Imposter’ in 2020 on Zoom with two of my all-time favourites – Connor Seidel and Ali ‘Willa’ Milner,” says Isabel. “I was at my home studio in Halifax, Willa was in Toronto, and Connor was in Montreal. We conversed about imposter syndrome, and how each of us had felt it at various times in our lives. The second verse is inspired by a quote from Maya Angelou, talking about how even she had felt it.”
Isabel, whose collaborators also include Donovan Woods and Ria Mae, says writing songs with others is her preferred method. “I really enjoy putting my head together with someone else and seeing what we come up with,” she admits. “I think that’s what I love about co-writing and collaborating: you’re not doing the same thing every day. You’re constantly working in completely different styles, and approaching melodies and lyrics from a different lens. I think if I worked in the same genre or style five days a week, it might get a little boring. But when you’re switching out the team, it keeps things fresh in a really fun way, for which I’m grateful.”