January 11, 2010

APL engineer scores with song in ‘The Blind Side’

About a third of the way through the new hit movie The Blind Side, about Baltimore Ravens rookie lineman Michael Oher, some APL staffers might be hearing a familiar voice. The hip-hop song playing when Oher returns to the rough neighborhood where he grew up is by Ashley Llorens, an engineer in APL’s National Security and Technology Department.

Llorens, who performs as SoulStice, has four CDs under his belt and performs music internationally, but “That Thang” is his first song for a movie soundtrack. His agent was contacted by Warner Brothers Pictures representatives who wanted a song for the scene, and Llorens and producer Mighty Wyte, with whom he’s worked before, collaborated long-distance to put the song together in just two days.

“It plays in the background behind the scene for over a minute—longer than I’d originally expected,” Llorens says. “Seeing my name in the credits was almost as cool as hearing the song.”