Location: Loegumkloster, State of Denmark, Denmark
Member since: March 11, 2010
Tracks in portfolio: 107 (click to hear all tracks)
Track We Like:
The Interview:
1. High profile projects or clients you have worked for?
Constantly delivering new music to several production music libraries all over the world,
and since I’ve only been doing this for some years after being a professional screenwriter
for nearly 20 and produced for over 100 mill, won awards, made box office hits, top-rated
tv-series, books and a play, I’m also now getting into scoring for films and documentaries.
But my main interest will always be composing what I hear in my head; a dream I’ve had
since I was very young, but at that time didn’t have the computer technology and orchestral
sample libraries at hand that I have to day – now only the sky is the limit. And I want to see –
or hear – how it looks/sounds up there!
2. Primary instrument?
Keyboard.
3. Favorite music-making piece of gear or software you currently use?
Project Sam Symphobia & True Strike 1, Heavyocity’s Evolve, Native Instruments Kontakt 4, Logic pro 9, VSL Vienna Suite,
VLS Ensemble Pro and VSL Instrument Pro.
4. Piece of gear or software you wish you owned?
Project Sam Symphobia 2
5. Film score or song you admire? Why?
“Planet of The Apes” by Danny Elfman – because it’s original and surprising, very dynamic and a
fine hybrid of many different genres and types of orchestras – rock band and symphonic orchestra –
and most importantly the score really supports the story and mood of the film perfectly. I also try
with my music – Virtual Orchestra Music – to Unit genres with global passion – bridging modern
and classical music, East and West, Earth and Heaven with a progressive rock sensibility…
6. Music education background?
I’m Autodidact. Started out playing drums in a rock band when I was 17. Our band once warmed up for
Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and his band back then called NICE – it was at a party in a high school
– and I had forgotten my drums sticks and asked the drummer of Nice if I could borrow a pair of his – but no way
he said – and I had to quickly run down into the High School cellar to the work shop and improvise – but there
was only big wide pieces of wood that I didn’t have neither the time or skills to make into a pair of drum sticks –
so I had to quickly pick a pair of very thin flower sticks and that night I really had to beat the drums hard to be heard…
7. Memorable “Aha!” moment during your musical education?
When I found out that I could compose what I heard in my head without being able to really play the keyboard.
8. Most embarrassing music-related moment?
None yet. And I really don’t think any moment in connection with music can or ought to be embarrassing.
If you fear embarrassment, you will probably inhibit your creativity.
9. If you had a time machine and could record or perform once with any artist, who would it be?
I would love to have Aaron Copland playing one of my best compositions on his grand piano and telling
me how to improve it.
10. Moment you first knew you would be a musician?
I can’t recall – but it was pretty early in my life and probably after i heard my first piece of rock music
– but it wasn’t because of Beatles – I always liked Jimi Hendrix better, then it was Emerson Lake and
Palmer, Yes, Genesis and at the same time I went through most of the contemporary classical composer
and quickly became a big fan of Aaron Copland, that I today consider as one of my biggest inspirational
sources.
11. Advice you would give to a younger family member interested in a music career?
You really have to have a burning need and desire to make music the most important thing in your life.
You shouldn’t be able to live without having to do with music every day no matter what. It’s a way of
life, a way of breathing – not a job. It can also be that, but you shouldn’t count on it.
12. Five songs or albums you’d take with you to a desert island?
Most of Aaron Copland’s music (and the best of my own).
13. If you could master another instrument, what would it be?
The piano…I know I wrote that my primary instrument is the “keyboard”, but I’m really not very
good at playing the keyboard – I would like to be, but I don’t have the time and patience (yet) to
exercise and develop this fine skill…and my primary passion is not playing but composing, and some
how I manage to compose the music I want without being able to really play it…so I think it will be
like that until the day, I can’t play/compose the things I hear in my head…
14. Favorite time of day to work in your studio?
All day (and sometimes night). But it’s not good not to get a good nights sleep. Your brain needs it.
And your music needs your brain.
15. Any studio collaboration you experienced that stands out in your mind? Why?
I’m always working alone and prefer it that way. You also need to be able to play an instrument
I think to be able to fully collaborate…
Big thanks to Bjarne O. for contributing tracks that help make MusicRevolution the Production Music Marketplace.
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Mike Bielenberg is a professional musician and co-founder of http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace where media producers and business owners can license high-quality, affordable music from a online community of musicians.
