Philly music all stars team up for Wawa Hoagiefest song
That song you hear in Wawa’s Hoagiefest ads? It was produced and performed by Eliza Hardy Jones, Eric Slick, and Pat Finnerty. Here’s how it all came together.
Eric Slick, Eliza Hardy Jones, and Pat Finnerty
If you live in the Philly area, you know Wawa’s annual Hoagiefest is underway. Sure you can get excited about the meal deals, Hoagiefest branded chip bags, and more. But you’re an WXPN fan and we’re here to tell you to be exctied about the music in this year’s ads.
The music you here in the ads this go around are all courtesy of three Philly-area artists: Eliza Hardy Jones of The War on Drugs, Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, and Pat Finnerty.
It came together thanks to the commercials producer knowing one of Jones’s cousins.
”They were looking to have a woman to sing it, and I’m a woman who sings,” Jones said.
Wawa’s people got in touch with Jones to see if she’d produce the music, with the goal of injecting a new style into the campaign’s tunes.
She agreed, but knew she needed to assemble a crack team to do right by the ubiquitous regional convenience chain that everyone in the area has some connection to.
“ In order to sort of fill that out with a full band, because I am a deeply Philadelphia person with incredible Philly loyalty — born and raised— and I love Philly and I love Wawa, I thought, ‘who are the other musicians who would just be absolutely tickled to be part of Hoagiefest?'”
Finnerty and Slick immediately came to mind.
”I’m not even sure the folks at Wawa know that it’s them on the project, even though those are enormous, famous Philadelphia musicians,” she said. “But they’re my friends, and I thought that they would get a kick out of it.”
“ I think, obviously as a Philadelphian, Wawa carries so much cultural significance and weight,” Slick said. “When Eliza texted me about this, I just sort of dropped everything I was doing.”
Both Slick and Jones grew up with Wawa. Slick frequented a Fairmount Wawa with his family after baseball games as a boy, and Jones said she ate her fair share of Wawa hoagies as a youth, but dietary restrictions preclude her from enjoying Shortis like she did back in the day. Nowadays, she’s grabbing Peanut Chews and coffee to go on her Wawa runs.
The three recorded separately, Jones and Finnerty in Philly and Slick in Nashville, which he calls home now.
Within a day of reaching out to Slick and Finnerty, Jones had the drums and guitar tracks from the two and laid down her vocals over them. Jones noted she recorded her nieces and nephews doing hand claps for the song while down the shore in Cape May.
Slick mixed the track and rounded it out with a Roland JUNO synthesizer.
The song came together quickly, and after a few rounds of notes Jones turned the product over to Wawa in early June (Hoagiefest began June 22).
”I’m grateful to the guys for having such pro setups where we could get it done in a very quick manner,” Jones said
“They loved it,” Slick said of Wawa’s team.
So now when you hear the Hoagiefest ad, you know you’re listening to three local musicians who love Philadelphia and the institution that is Wawa.
It should be noted, none of them were offered free Wawa for life. But Slick said if he were presented that option or financial compensation, he may go with free Wawa.
“I think I would, because I travel a lot, and Wawa is expanding,” he said. ”Wawa’s opening a ton of stores in Tennessee, including like three in Nashville alone. So it just feels like kismet.”
”I love how wonderful and beautiful it is, and I’m happy to be a Philly girl,” Jones said.