Who is the former Boston folk act with the most national media exposure this year? Lori McKenna? Patty Griffin?
The answer might well be Deb Talan and Steve Tannen of the Weepies. The music of this former Bay State duo is saturating broadcast TV on the season’s most aired holiday commercials.
First, there’s the omnipresent J.C. Penney Christmas spot, which uses a Weepies song called “All That I Want.”
And the soundtrack to seven separate Old Navy spots consists entirely of different remixes of the Weepies’ “Stars,” a song from their self-produced, self-engineered CD “Say I Am You.”
“We’re even on a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the Old Navy spots,” said Tannen. “It’s on YouTube.”
The Weepies, who moved from Northampton to Topanga, Calif., three years ago, have had one heck of a year. They co-wrote five songs for the most recent Mandy Moore album, “Wild Hope.” And their song “Painting By Chagall” was one of the bright spots in the Farrelly brothers film “The Heartbreak Kid.”
Tannen feels that moving to the Los Angeles area helped the Weepies’ career, but not as much as their record label, Nettwerk, and a few powerful, well-placed fans.
“Nettwerk has a film-TV-commercial division and that’s the primary way our music has gotten out,” said Tannen. “But there were also a few fans of our music who just happened to be in a position to make things happen.”
One fan of “Say I Am You” happened to be an executive at Old Navy. In addition to “Stars,” that same 2006 album contained “Painting By Chagall,” as well as “World Spins Madly On,” which was featured on the movie soundtracks of both “Friends With Money” (with Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener) and “Because I Said So” (with Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton).
Other songs from the album have made it to TV on “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Riches” and “How I Met Your Mother.”
Talan’s distinctive sound – her voice is both small and strong, scratchy and tuneful – is one big reason the Weepies’ songs have become soundtrack catnip. Talan believes the songs’ main appeals are good melodies, emotional resonance and certain phrases that grab people.
A former Somerville resident, Talan began her career singing at Starbucks shops in Cambridge and Boston. Even before she found success with the Weepies, her song “Forgiven” was featured over the credits in the 2001 film “Lovely and Amazing.”
Tannen first saw Talan in the audience at one of his Club Passim shows in 2001. When they spoke after the show, they learned they were both obsessed with each other’s debut albums. They wrote their first song together that night. Soon after, they became a couple. Two months ago, their first child, Theo, was born.
“The TV commercials came at just the right time,” said Tannen. “Now we don’t have to get on the road and work until April.”
