St. Louisan pens title track for locally filmed "Up In The Air"

KSDK -- The George Clooney vehicle "Up in the Air," which was shot in St. Louis earlier this year, hits movie theaters later this month. And while you're busy pointing out familiar sites in the film, you might also want to pay close attention to the music. A St. Louisan penned the title track to the film.

After 15 years of solid work in advertising, last November Kevin Renick found himself without a job and looking to reinvent himself.

"Well, I started doing music to sort of vent my emotion and started a little trio with my friends, Ned and Kathy, last fall, and then my mom fell earlier this year and died and when that happened, that was sort of transformative moment in my life," Renick said.

It was a moment Renick felt had been a long time coming.

"I grew up with The Beatles and The Monkeys, people like Neil Young, CSN and Y, Simon and Garfunkel," said Renick. "I always loved music."

He remembers writing his first song at age 10 in an attempt to woo the little girl next door.

"I don't even know where it came from, but it was just absorbing all the melodic pop music of the time, but the real big turning point was Neil Young," Renick said. "I just really got into his music in high school and he was a huge, huge influence on me."

Over the years, like so many hobbies people are passionate about, Renick's love for music took a backseat to life. While on the surface devastating, being laid off carried one upside for Renick: it afforded him the time to tinker with his music and a song he'd penned a couple of years earlier, a song titled "Up In The Air."

"It was a song that I wrote about feeling uncertain in my life," he said. "I just had all this uncertainty and didn't know where to go and I liked the metaphor of being up in the air."

When Renick learned a movie by the same name was set to be filmed in St. Louis, he did something completely out of character. He approached the film's director, Jason Reitman, after a college film lecture at Webster University.

"I took my little cassette with me, after staying up for hours one night doing a couple of takes of it, and after the lecture I said, 'Jason, I wrote a song called 'Up In The Air' and I just wondered if you would be kind enough to give it a listen sometime and see what you think?'" Renick said.

Renick admits he left feeling foolish and thought nothing would come of it.

"I'm still just like shaking my head, I have people teasing me, 'You send him a cassette man, why not a wax cylinder?'" he joked.

Imagine Renick's surprise six months later, when he was contacted by the movie's music director.

"I saw the subject line in my e-mail 'UITA' and I thought, 'What was that?' And I clicked on it and it was 'Up In The Air' and I thought, 'oh my gosh.'"

Apparently, Renick's primitive cassette recording had not only struck a cord, but echoed the film's theme.

"Evidentially, it's not just about the culture of downsizing and the uncertainty in America, but trying to reconnect after things change in your life, things are going in a certain way and then all of a sudden they're up in the air," Renick said. "So that's what happened to his character and that's sort of the theme in my life really."

It's a twist of fate that has provided Renick plenty of musical motivation. And while he still hasn't landed a full-time job, Renick found the courage to step out of his comfort zone and suggest others do the same.

"Because if you don't then you are just going to have the predictable possibilities," Renick said. "But if you kind if push things, barge up to Jason Reitman after a lecture and say, 'Hey, I've got a cassette; here's a song.' You might possibly have something happen. That's what I would say to people, take chances."

Renick's song will play over the movie's closing credits. Unfortunately, due to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the song is disqualified from Oscar contention. It will, however, be included in the film's soundtrack. Renick will be signing copies December 1 and December 7 at 7 p.m. at Vintage Vinyl in University City.