Filmmaker Byron Atienza on the Paul McCartney project that changed his life

Ad Age is marking Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor JJ Augustavo turns the spotlight to Byron Atienza, a filmmaker, executive creative director and founder of A Bunch of Savages, a collective championing Filipino-American creatives. Here, Atienza writes about working with a legend: Paul McCartney.

Imagine this: We find ourselves in the year of our Lord 2018, and I, a director and creative producer for Spotify Studios, am hustling harder than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. My days are chock-full of content creation for Spotify’s flagship playlists such as RapCaviar, Rock This and Viva Latino, producing short-form music-discovery documentaries that captivate and thrill. I’m talking about being in trap houses in Atlanta, dance floors in Colombia and lighting things on fire for b-roll in the U.K.—all for the sake of art and discovering why we should give a damn about the artists we were featuring.

But there are times when the universe seems to conspire against us, and even our best-laid plans fall apart. Artists cancel last-minute or get caught up in other engagements, like hobnobbing with models at Parisian fashion shows, leaving our production budgets in shambles. It’s enough to make one scream, and I was reaching the boiling point. That’s when the old saying “A closed mouth doesn’t get fed” echoed in my mind. I knew that success belongs to those who dare to ask for it, so I asked my head of content, Jesse Burton, if there were any other projects in the pipeline I could helm.

He replied with the biggest understatement of the year: “You wouldn’t be interested in directing Paul McCartney, would you?”

Interested? Are you kidding me?! Let me tell you, my parents learned how to speak English from listening to Beatles records in the Philippines! My childhood was filled with Beatles music playing in my house, filling our car rides around town in our Toyota Previa, and at family gatherings when my tipsy uncles would teach us Beatles songs on guitar to perform. And now I had the chance to work with the legendary Macca himself? I was stoked!

I have to admit, my heart was pounding like a jackhammer when I heard the words “Paul McCartney” uttered from Jesse’s mouth. The mere thought of working with the legend himself was enough to make my palms sweat and my knees weak. But I wasn’t about to let my nerves get the best of me. No, sir. I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I was determined to make the most of it.

So, with a quick intake of breath, I replied with an enthusiastic “Hell yeah!” I didn’t need any more convincing—the chance to work with the man who had given the world such timeless classics as “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” was simply too good to pass up.

And what a gig it turned out to be. A secret show at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, in none other than Studio Two, where the Beatles recorded the lion’s share of their work. McCartney would serenade us with songs from the Beatles, Wings and his solo projects, regaling us with tales from his Studio Two days. It was an intimate show for family, close friends and a handful of die-hard fans, something Spotify had never done before. And there I was, directing the whole shebang like a madman—seven cameras, three multimedia formats and a heart full of adrenaline.

But it wasn’t just the gig itself that made it so pivotal in my career. No, it was the people I met along the way. People like Amber Grimes, running artist relations at Spotify, who would go on to become a dear friend and colleague. She was in the room with McCartney’s immediate family, including his wife Nancy, his kids Stella and James, along with some of McCartney’s friends: Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp and even J.J. Abrams, who left his “Star Wars” set to come and revel! Through the director’s monitors, I noticed Amber grooving with Johnny, and I knew I had to get a two-shot of them. After the gig, I texted her the screenshot, and she replied that I had just become her best man for her future wedding. Ha!

That directing gig was pivotal in my career, not only because I was working with a luminary like Paul McCartney, but because it led to more work with him down the line.

Fast-forward to a year later, and I get a call from Amber offering me a job to join Capitol Records to help oversee their creative teams. I mean, come on—a Filipino-American music executive is rare air, and there are only a few of us. Now I get to work with a record label that has housed some of the greatest musicians of all time. Am I dreaming?

And that’s not even the best part. I got to work with Paul McCartney again, leading the creative charge on the marketing initiatives for his album “McCartney III.” We ended up winning a Clio Award for the great stuff we were doing on the campaign, and I even creative-directed a music video where we digitally de-aged him to look like he stepped straight out of Beatlemania. But the opportunities didn’t stop there.

Since then, I’ve founded a collective called A Bunch of Savages, where we champion Filipino-American talent and create space for underrepresented voices in the arts and entertainment industry. And just recently, I creative-directed a project for the Notorious B.I.G. estate on Meta’s Oculus that was nominated for a Webby Award. 

All because I had the guts to ask for more when things weren’t going my way.

Looking back, it’s incredible to see how one project led to so many pivotal moments in my life. It’s a testament to the power of saying yes to opportunities and being open to the unexpected. Fortune favors the bold, and in my case, the boldness paid off.