The Composer-Editor Duo Making Its Mark on Commercial Creativity
Biff Butler (left), Andy Huckvale (right)
Papercut co-founder and editor Biff Butler and composer Andy Huckvale found beauty in discarded beats. From there, they forged a cross-continental creative partnership that would span global brands and agencies and see their work played in Yankee Stadium.
Their story starts as friends and bandmates. Long before Biff was an accomplished editor and Andy a successful composer, the pair were two parts of a nu metal / industrial metal band named Apartment 26. Looking back, the pair’s collaboration as part of the band paved the way for their working dynamic today.
“When we were kids, Andy was just a friend who made us laugh, and happened to be handy with a sampler; being in a band was a means to just hanging out,” recalls Biff. “Nowadays, I am well aware of how much he elevates anything I’m cutting, so there is a huge amount of gratitude that comes along with our friendship.
“We’ve both matured and evolved as artists,” he continues, “but because we’ve collaborated for so long, there is a shorthand that is invaluable. You can only achieve that with time.”
The band was formed in 1998 in Leamington Spa, England. Releasing two albums through Hollywood Records and Atlantic Records, the band was eventually disbanded in 2004, causing Andy to move home to the UK from the band’s base in the US in a quest to uncover his own “musical identity”.
“I started writing and producing my own tracks, whilst living back at my mum’s and working at Blockbuster Video to make ends meet,” he explains. “I eventually formed another band, ‘Hitchcock’ with vocalist Matt Terry. The process of making that album gave me the tools to be able to write, produce, mix and master my own tracks from start to finish.”
Meanwhile, Biff stayed in the US to scout out his own career pathway. He says, “I knew I wanted to either get into advertising or filmmaking. I thought film school would be the right path for me, but I got a job at a recording studio because it was the world I knew.
“This period was a good reckoning for my ego, going from the lead singer to the guy fetching coffee. Soon after, I heard of a place that ‘did editing’, so I took my client-service talents to West Hollywood, where I was informed, ‘This will be your film school.’”
He landed at the editing studio Rock Paper Scissors, where, surrounded by cutting rooms filled with adverts and music videos, he knew he’d found his path. While learning from peers and cultivating his own editorial voice, Biff’s musical background reared its head, as he realised that many editors treated music as an afterthought during the editing process.
Putting the pieces together in his mind, he landed on an idea that would see his old friend and bandmate become a collaborator once again. “I knew Andy was somebody who would often dispose of parts – frustratingly during the Apartment 26 days – so I told him to send me over any 30-second clips he didn’t want. Before we knew it, he was making money from discarded beats!”
“It was really great seeing Biff flourish in this new medium as an editor,” adds Andy. “He often put together films in the band days, music videos, and BTS silliness, and even back then, he had this great sense of pacing and storytelling.
“Around 2006, Biff contacted me about a commercial he was editing, which he thought needed some bespoke music. Being involved that early on in an edit was a creative playground for us to experiment with ideas. Away from the band dynamic, it was a fresh start with the innocence of discovering this new creative language together.”
While the Microsoft ‘Zune’ product that the campaign was for was short-lived, Biff and Andy’s partnership stood the test of time.
In the early days, Biff and Andy communicated via email, navigating an eight-hour time difference that worked "unusually in our favour”, says Andy. “Initially, it was all notes back and forth over email,” he adds. “Collaborating this way was smooth for us because we were already on the same wavelength, and I found it easy to interpret Biff’s thoughts in a musical way.
“I will often wake up to a flurry of notes and ideas from Biff, work through a few musical sketches, and then have them ready by the time he wakes up,” he continues. “Then there is a crossover period of a few hours where we are both on the clock, and we will either do a video call or exchange a few messages to focus in on the ideas that are working.”
Biff notes that it’s Andy’s lack of advertising background and experience releasing music under the artist name ‘Huckvale’ that makes their partnership so appealing to brands and agencies. He explains, “What makes Andy so good is that he is not from the USA and not from the ad world. He isn’t churning out the expected reflections of whatever references are provided, unless that’s what is called for. He comes at it all from left field, from his small town in the middle of England – not from Silver Lake or Brooklyn.”
Andy feels that there’s a "symbiotic" nature to their collaboration which is also attractive to clients, who experience a more intertwined, holistic approach as the edit and music come together in tandem. “If I need Biff to remove a frame here or if he needs me to add an extra beat there, we can accommodate each other,” he says.
“Having this constant back and forth of ideas harks back to that band dynamic, where you’re making decisions on the fly in the room, and it’s very organic. Whereas the industry-standard process is to lock an edit and then get a bunch of music demos and see what sticks. I think it’s a bit antiquated, and it would be nice to see more editor-composer partnerships in the future.”
Sharing a similar sentiment, Biff is resolute in his view that the way many agencies handle sourcing music is “pretty ridiculous”, as he emphasises that faceless collaboration with producers and contractors does not enable creativity to thrive. “Music is treated as a very disposable resource,” he adds. “When Andy and I get together, we can often explore multiple threads at once, delve deeper into them, and allow them to develop into something far more unique and new.”
NFL - 'Champion'
The proof of their partnership is highlighted in the strength of the output. Spanning campaigns like the aforementioned early Microsoft project, to more recent campaigns such as the NFL’s 2026 ‘Champion’ Super Bowl spot, and work with Dick’s Sporting Goods, Biff says, “I know for a fact that a project suffers when he and I aren’t together. I get tired of having to convince people of this, but it’s true.
“And having done this for as long as I have, while it’s still cool to meet new people, nothing brings greater joy than seeing a project in the wild that we have done, and the larger that ‘we’ is, the better. This means creatives, producers, and directors with whom I’ve become friends, and it very much means Andy and I. It’s like we’ve broken into the fortress and are having a creative influence on some of the world’s biggest campaigns.”
For Biff, a personal highlight was learning that legendary baseball player Derek Jeter’s retirement ad – which Andy had created the music for – was played in a major MLB stadium. “My first thought was how his piano and beats were played in Yankee Stadium. It’s nuts, and it brings me so much joy,” he exclaims.
Brand Jordan - 'RE2PECT' for Derek Jeter's retirement
Meanwhile, Andy points to ‘Focus / Explode’ for Dick’s Sporting Goods as a shining example of the pair’s collaboration and trust in one another. After working on the brief over email for a few hours, Andy’s working day drew to a close, and he sent the splits to Biff to continue working on.
“The following morning, Biff sent me his reinterpretation of the music using these splits,” he explains. “I was initially horrified by what he had done to my track! One bit was over here and then another bit was layered over itself, a Frankenstein mix of the parts I had sent him.”
While he notes that he “never would have done that” as a musician, Biff’s influence helped to elevate the music and allow it to shine once it was combined with the visuals.
Agreeing that the spot is the “purest example” of the duo’s collaboration, Biff also celebrates the Derek Jeter spot as an example of work that shone thanks to their creative influence. “Andy and I were both so far from what the agency had requested,” he explains. “But I really believed in what he brought to the table, something more reverent than tough, and I’m sure I ruffled some feathers by not backing down from it. All I feel I can bring to the table is my instinct, and I’m glad to have remained true to it on that one.”
Dick's Sporting Goods - 'Focus / Explode'
From buddies to bandmates and now colleagues, friendship has been a throughline throughout Biff and Andy’s years of collaboration. Hinting that new Apartment 26 material could be on the horizon, Andy is intrigued to see how their experience working as colleagues will affect their songwriting capabilities.
“As the Knicks just showed, the power of friendship kinda beats all,” says Biff. “I’m a fan of Andy’s music, but also of him as a person, so sharing in success is rooted in a very deep place.
“[It’s] Maybe not surprising, but I believe the connection between editor and composer is essentially important,” he continues.
“This collaboration is comparable to that of the director and cinematographer, and a project genuinely benefits from that duo being looped in from the get-go.”
