Introducing the Kusiak Music Library

If you follow Kusiak Music on any social media platforms, you may have seen some fun short videos in the past few months and wondered what they were all about. These were created using tracks from our Kusiak Music Library albums with some sample video clips to give you a sense of each album.

Kusiak Music Library is a newly-public boutique production music library featuring music composed by John Kusiak and several collaborators, including P. Andrew Willis, Kenny Kusiak, Billy Novick, Robert Van, Rob Jaret, and Caleb Sampson. Recently, music from the library has been used in Netflix's Tiger King, NPR's This American Life, and PBS' Poetry In America series, among others. Current projects in progress include Eric Stange’s Pony Boys and the third season of Poetry in America, which we are looking forward to sharing with you all.

Filmmakers, editors, music supervisors—do you have a film, TV series, commercial, or podcast in production that needs a score? We’d love to work with you and can customize existing tracks to suit your needs. Browse all albums—over 1,500 tracks—on the Kusiak Music Library website or get in touch directly if you’d like help with a search from one of our librarians.

To catch up on album videos you may have missed, hop on over to your favorite channel:

• The new KML Instagram feed

• The new KML Twitter feed

• John Kusiak’s YouTube Channel

• Kusiak Music’s Facebook Page

Scoring Woodstock & Returning to the Tribeca Film Festival

Whenever I would tell someone that Andrew Willis and I were working on a score for the new Woodstock documentary for American Experience, there would be quizzical looks and questions. “Wasn’t Woodstock all about music? Why would you need to write music for that?” Yes, of course, there are hours of music that came from the event, but that movie has already been made.

PBS and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE announced the new two-hour documentary Woodstock, scheduled to premiere on PBS in 2019 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the historic three-day concert that defined a generation. Read the full article here.

The original Woodstock movie came out in 1970 and was all about the music. This new film is different. It’s a retrospective documentary about how the whole thing came about. It’s about the organizers who had the original idea and the incredible difficulties they encountered in trying to make it happen.

It is also about the concert-goers; their lives, what brought them there, the troubles they endured in the mud and rain, and all the amazing experiences they had.

Naturally, there are songs from the actual performances in the film as well as music that was popular at the time. However, our score supports the stories that are told about the people who came together for the event of a lifetime.

We mostly used guitars, bass, mandolin and drums to create music that integrates with the music of the era: we aimed to play those instruments in a way that is modern and yet evokes the sounds of the ‘60s.

Barak Goodman, director (on the left) with composer John Kusiak. Photo by Laura Barrett.

A few weeks ago I attended the Woodstock Tribeca Film Festival premiere screening in New York City with Kenny Kusiak (who also contributed to the score). It was one of the “Spotlight” films and was standing room only.

Barak Goodman, who has some of the best American Experience films under his belt, directed the movie.

“Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation” will be released in theaters by PBS Films on May 24 in New York, and June 7 in LA.

It will be aired on PBS in August.

Turn on, tune in, and listen!

Poetry In America Series Begins April 7 (PBS)

The Poetry in America series airs on Saturday nights at 7:30pm on PBS World starting April 7.

This twelve-episode project featured several Kusiak Music composers, with contributions from P. Andrew Willis, Kenny Kusiak, and John Kusiak). 

"The Poetry in America series is on TV at last! Twelve half hour episodes, each one digging deep into one poem in an entertaining and digestible way. There’s Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Pinsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nas and others. Studded with stars who talk movingly about poems they love –- Joe Biden, Shaquille O’Neal, Herbie Hancock, Regina Spektor, Bono, Cynthia Nixon, Bill Clinton, David Brooks, even John McCain!"
 -- Peter Rhodes (series editor)