Homestead Marketplace is a relatively new brand, but its roots run deep. It’s started back in 1957 when the Eden family opened Eden’s Furniture Store in Trenton. The business has grown considerably over three generations, and in the spring of 2023, the Eden family opened Homestead Marketplace. It’s an 18-acre property that offers over 165,000 square feet of national retailers, casual dining, a fully-licensed sports grill, and a one-of-a-kind 18-hole adventure golf and high ropes park. Take a look next time you’re passing Trenton on the 401. It’s hard to miss.

With any new venture comes new marketing and branding opportunities, and the folks at Homestead recognized very early on that sound would be a big part of their marketing strategy.

Normally I have to push people a bit to find out what makes their brand tick. That was not the case with Homestead. Owner Mike Eden spoke very passionately and specifically about what Homestead was all about. It still required a bit of focusing, of course, but we were eventually able to put a fairly fine point on it. It’s always refreshing to be able to work with a brand that is not only self-aware, but possesses traits that have emotional weight. The more emotional depth we’re able to establish, the better music we’re able to produce.

Homestead’s brand is all about balancing family and community with fun and adventure. This combined with their name allowed the main melody to develop pretty naturally.

It’s not only singable, but very flexible. We wanted a melody that would be inseparable from the name, but also simple enough to stand on its own without vocals. A strong melody is crucial if you want your sonic identity to be adaptable to multiple media.

But how would the qualities of family & community and fun & adventure translate into sound? This required a careful balance of texture and instrumentation. Homestead Marketplace is a sprawling area of activity, which necessitates a sense of space and excitement in the music. The percussion became the main driver here. Big drums bring the sense of scale and momentum the brand needed.

But as big and exciting as Homestead is, we still need to keep our feet on the ground. Composition and texture are key here. The music had to be grounded and accessible. We stay in major keys to keep a sense of brightness and positivity. In addition we used all acoustic instrumentation to keep the piece as grounded as possible. No synths. No electric instruments.

The piece also combines modern composition with a more traditional production sound. A lot of modern music tends to get over-cooked, resulting in a very harsh sound. We want to make sure the music brings a sense of space and momentum while staying exciting and modern. It needs to drive, but it still needs to breathe.

And let’s not forget the most powerful instrument: the human voice. This piece needed someone with a strong voice that would cut through, while still feeling warm and grounded. We auditioned many great voices, but the most suitable was the wonderful Omega Edwards.

In the end, we produced about forty variations of the theme. That may sound like a lot, but Homestead’s sonic footprint is very broad, with room to grow. Most variants were distilled from the main three-minute piece.