ORIGINAL MUSIC PLACEMENT: "HOTEL RULES", NET 5

An original musical composition that I co-wrote with Dan Luedke recently placed on the Dutch reality show “Hotel Rules”, broadcast on the Net 5 network. According to the show’s web page (via Google Translate), the premise of the show is that “couples with a bed & breakfast remodel each other's company… Hotel Rules is a spin-off from House Rules NL. In this program too, the couples do not know each other and remodel each other's property on the basis of a few 'hotel rules'... In each episode, four couples deal with the bed and breakfast of the other couple… A professional jury assesses the results. Ultimately, the best couple wins 25,000 euros.”

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Production music by Mike Hallenbeck

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2019: YEAR IN REVIEW

As the year draws to a close, I’m grateful to all the collaborators I’ve had the good fortune of working with this year. So many great experiences have come our way. Here are but a few of them!

CORPORATE VIDEO

I had the opportunity to edit voiceover by LeVar Burton on some videos for the Be The Match charity’s annual gala, scrub dialog of an interview with the Senior Director of Education for the World Bank on some educational materials about qualitative research for the University of Minnesota, plus edit and mix audio on promotional pieces for Made to Impact, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, The DC Group, and plenty more.

CUSTOM MUSIC

Many placements of my music on TV this year, both solo compositions and co-writes with my friend Dan Luedke— mostly on European shows like “When TV Stars Go Horribly Wrong” (UK), “Build Your Dream: A New Life in a French Castle” in the Netherlands and a German cooking show called “Die Küchenschlacht” (The Kitchen Battle), but also in the U.S. on Amy Poehler’s NBC show “Making It”.

I also wrote an original score for J.D. O’Brien’s short documentary “Uganda Gold”, created some music for Skewed Visions’ experimental performance installation “Birds of the Future” (more on that later), and scored Felipe Mafasoli’s post-apocalypic film “Nowhere Left To Run” as well as a medical video about T cells.

FILM / ANIMATION

The 2019 Minneapolis- St Paul International Film Festival featured two shorts I had the pleasure of working on: the horror film “Dual” by Justin Staggs (sound edit, Foley and mix) and the experimental animation “Beebox” by Cable Hardin (FX edit, custom music, and mix). “Dual” also premiered online in 2019, as did Andrew Hunt’s comedy horror short “Clean Cut”, which features my original music, sound edit, and mix.

This year’s Twin Cities Film Festival also offered a fair amount of my work. Wayne Johnson’s feature film “Into the Void”, featuring an original score by yours tuly, premiered there. I also engineered and edited ADR, created Foley and cut some FX for Barry Andersson’s “Soviet Sleep Experiment”, a feature that included Chris Kattan among its cast and premiered at TCFF as well.

PERFORMING ARTS

I don’t do much work for the theater these days, but when Charles Cambpell called, I was coaxed from retirement like a gunfighter summoned to take out one last man. Charles and I had been a mutual admiration society for some years, and it was finally the right time for me to collaborate with his company Skewed Visions on “Birds of the Future”— your garden variety post-apocalyptic performance installation about two bird people looking for a better life.

There was a whole lot of great talent assembled for this show— we were truly birds of a feather. Now that I’ve gotten my hands on the video footage, I’m looking forward to putting together some clips to share. Sleep in fear!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM JUNIOR BIRDMAN AUDIO!

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ORIGINAL MUSIC ON NBC'S "MAKING IT"

I’m happy to report that a piece of music I composed appears in a recent episode of the NBC show “Making It”, co-hosted by executive producer Amy Poehler.

On this episode, “Wreathy Street”, the contestants compete to craft-- as the title suggests-- decorative wreaths. I think it was clear that it would be unacceptable to exclude music by yours truly, the crown prince of decorative wreath craft.

You can watch the episode here— my track comes up at about 15:51, during the judging of Rebecca’s spring wreath.