Rick Reifenstein

Christmas has come and gone at Roundstone Cottage. The kids got what they wanted as well as some things they didn't expect but enjoy. I performed Pachebels Canon in D and Silent Night Christmas Eve. I always wanted to play the Canon in D, but never had a reason to learn it. I was asked this year to play with a choir who was going to sing an arrangement of Away in the Manger over top of my playing the Canon. I don't play live much anymore since concentrating on production music; so I was a little nervous. The performance went off without issue and the evening was very enjoyable. In other music news: I have music in Action Bronson Watches Ancient Aliens. If you've never seen this show, it's....different. It's on the VICE Channel so you'd have to expect different. The Episode is "Aliens and the Creation of Man". I have new cues to put into my Jingle Punks catalog this week. At least one big orchestral action piece. There are a few new electronic piec

One of the coolest things about writing music for TV & Film is not only seeing what shows my music is in, but in what countries the shows end up airing in. Sometimes when I stop and think about it; it's really exciting to think about my music being heard in all the different countries. November marked the first time my music was heard in Hong Kong and Malaysia as part of "Going Deep With David Rees". Hello Malaysia & Hong Kong!! In November I saw continued airing of shows in the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil. Pretty cool. Some of you may know that I also work as a technologist. As a technologist I often research new technologies and am tasked with figuring out how that technology might be used in the real world. Lately I have been thinking about augmented reality and how it could be used in music composition. What I am excited about is the potential for VST's (virtual instruments) to become augmented reality objects in a Hololens or something similar. I

I've been thinking about my brand lately. A colleague of mine who works in marketing is always talking about how important it is to know your "brand". If you don't have a good understanding of your brand then it's very difficult to create a way to market yourself. So what is my brand? During my 20 plus years as a musician and composer I've written and played all kinds of different genres. Rock, Space Rock, Industrial Electronic, Ambient Electronic, Rockabilly, and Orchestral for all kinds of situations. Bands and stage productions; small independent films, and major TV shows. During all that time I never gave a thought to branding. I just wrote what ever style I thought was necessary. However since 2010, I've been fortunate to be represented by one of the best production music companies around, Jingle Punks. Since then I've been able get some great placements. Now I have data to look on and determine which styles have been getting the most work. S

I'm looking forward to a long weekend with family. My in-laws should be arriving today. The weather seems like it will be nice for much if the weekend; however the Fourth looks like we might have thunderstorms all day. The studio has been quiet lately. I'm in the middle of my annual "re-tooling" period where I re-evaluate plugins and sounds before heading into a heavy writing and recording period. I've also been redoing my guitar setup in the studio. I've been getting pressure from friends lately to get out and play live again. I'm such a studio rat, and I haven't played live in 12 years; I don't know if I'd enjoy it anymore. Will see...