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

Throwback Thursday: The Gardener

When I was younger I struggled with how to make a living in music. I found intervals of success as a performing musician and composer, but with a wife and a child, the pressing needs of a family required me to supplement sporadic music-related income with various odd jobs; taxi driver, house painter, mover, 5 Star Music Masters ghost writer, etc. The usual drill would be: come home from working, often pretty exhausted, and then burn the midnight oil practicing, composing and studying music or playing a gig. This routine would work temporarily, but then, sooner or later, I’d end up resenting (hating) the job and would quit. For a while things would be okay, and I’d be happy to be back making music full-time. Then the money would run out and I’d have to take another “real” job.

Many of my friends and bandmates had decided to throw the towel in on a career in music and went back to school to get a degree in computer science or something more conducive to earning a livelihood. I resisted the drive toward this kind of “plan B” and so at age 32, there I was watering plants in department stores and offices part-time and still composing and practicing guitar whenever I could fit it in. Plant maintenance wasn't a bad job, but it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing. I was disheartened and kind of embarrassed wearing a shirt with a company logo.

I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but one day, something changed; a shift in my thinking occurred. My attitude changed and with it, my whole life. It might have had something to do with the fact that my father was an avid gardener and though I often tried to avoid helping him in the garden as a kid, some of his love of gardening and expertise with plants must have rubbed off on me. I grew intrigued by the challenge of learning about how to grow things. There was so much to learn about taking care of plants; I started checking books out of the library and reading about plant care (“Crockett’s Victory Garden,” Rodale’s series on organic gardening, “The Secret Life of Plants," etc.). As is my wont, I got obsessed with the subject.

One day, as I was caring for the plants at Bloomingdales, I remember saying to myself, “I’m not going to just quit this job. Instead, I’m going to be the very best plant tender I can be.” (Sounds kind of silly, I know.) Along with that thought came the realization that if I threw myself whole-heartedly into the job (while still continuing to practice and study music in my spare time), I’d be able to transcend the job for something better, rather than quit because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Instead, I could “pass through” the job and never have to do that kind of work for money again. In focusing on the present situation and being there completely, I experienced a feeling of certainty that, in the end, I would find a way to make a living in music. 

It took a little time, but that's exactly what happened. I had been a prisoner of my mindset and I had to recognize that fact. Instead of quitting, I had to do the very best I could with the present situation, to accept it, in order to move on and escape my self-created prison.

What happened next is another story…