So much is made, especially in today's political and human climate of "The haves" and "The have nots," the rich vs poor, beliefs vs beliefs and then there are those among us who believe that kindness in any form should take precedence; Ken Freirich is one of those people.
A philanthropist, musician, songwriter, race horse enthusiast and more, Freirich has not only talked the talk but has always seemingly walked the walk. His story and efforts, built upon childhood dreams, an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to help others is one that the world, current or otherwise, should take notice of and recently, he took the time to elaborate about all of it and a new single, "I Wish."
"I retired five years ago," he quickly explained. "I'd been an entrepreneur and a corporate executive CEO my whole life. I retired five years ago after having been the CEO of a company called Health Monitor Network; it was the largest patient education and patient engagement company in the country. We were based in New Jersey in Montvale and essentially what we did was publish magazines in doctor's offices on dozens of health conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart health and we also had digital screens in the offices; we were in about 200,000 offices around the country. So, it was a big business, big operation, we were facilitating dialog between patients and their doctors, empowering patients to have information to prepare for their visits, showing inspirational stories of hope and success and how people managed their conditions, offering practical tips and it was a great business, I did that for 16 years and retired five years ago
"I've been playing the drums since I was eight and was in my first rock band at eight years old," he went on with a laugh. "That was pretty cool, I was playing with kids from the neighborhood in my room and that's when I was first exposed to songwriting too; a couple of interesting things from that very first band, one is, we played a song from The Who called, "Pinball Wizard" and it was always my dream to play with them someday and I did on October 25, 2019 at a benefit concert for Teen Cancer America and UCLA's Breast Center. The lineup was Kenny Loggins, Pink, The Foo Fighters and The Who; I closed the show and played "Pinball Wizard" fulfilling one of my childhood dreams and at the same time, I would write poems and some songs. The guitar player in the band was a bit older than me and when he was 15, he had a tragic accident; he fell off a mountain and passed away. I remember, one of the early songs I wrote was about him. The essence of that song was less about the tragedy and more about people not accepting him for who he is; he had long hair and coming to conclusions and things like that and that's how I kind of got started but for most of my career, I was busy running companies. The last company we sold twice and lots of other companies and for me; I'm gonna share a story about COVID. In the middle of COVID, I was still CEO of Health Monitor Network and I decided to write a song called, "Healthcare Workers Rock" as a tribute and testament to all of the healthcare workers out there to give them the recognition they deserved and to give them a song to rally around. That kind of got me started again, I formed a music group called Random Acts of Kindness, I started a record label called Better World Records and I released that song; actually twice. That's kind of what has gotten me started in the last five years; I had my day job so I wasn't able to pursue it full time but in my retirement, I have a variety of different activities and music is one of them. So, with a lot more time on my hands I continued my songwriting and in May of '23 I released my first mainstream single called, "Free To Roam," it was the first song I wrote in retirement and it ended up becoming a Billboard AC Top 20 hit."
Being retired and with such an interest in charity as well as a fantastic music history must allow him plenty of time to perform; or does it?
"I don't, the drums for me have always just been a hobby and a passion," he stated immediately. "I do some cameos here or there with some well-known rock stars or I have a band that I've been in and started eight or nine years ago called Medrock; we play typically once a year in New Jersey as part of The Who's charity event for Teen Cancer America. There is a golf outing every Fall and I've been the founding musical director of the golf outing. I put together an allstar band and typically my band Medrock will play and I'll bring in other allstars and rock 'n' rollers, I've been doing that for five years. So, lately, that's really the only time I've been playing out. The record label and my music is how I spend the time and that's both songwriting and executive producing and then distributing to get the music out. The thing is, the reason why I do it is purely to spread kindness in the world and make it a better place and to write and craft meaningful lyrics that hopefully will have an impact on people everywhere in the world; that's why I do it. I mean, it's a business, I invest a lot in it but the reason and the motivation behind it is not fame, it's not to be famous, it's really to produce incredible music that can help bring the world together, make it a better place and help heal the world."
Would not life be incredible if we could heal our world with something as simple and lovely as music? Ken's Random Acts Of Kindness and the development of "I Wish" is his way of getting the ball rolling.
"I Wish" is a song that had an interesting beginning. I was in the middle of finishing a song that I wrote and haven't released yet called, "Peace For A Day" and I had this idea for a bridge and "I Wish" was the bridge and I was like, wait a minute, I think there is a song here and I think I can keep it simple. I started thinking about "Imagine" from John Lennon and that inspired me and what inspired me about it was the kind of simple yet powerful lyrics and that was what I attempted to do with "I Wish." We released it last Fall and I was very, very excited about the song and I'm not gonna tell you where we're going in the future with that song because we're gonna be releasing it. We released it on October 29 and actually had the San Diego Children's Choir perform it live at the Breeders' Cup in front of 50,000 people. I also deal in race horses and I've had some really great success in that but I have a philanthropic partnership and I've worked with them before. We wanted to partner with a local group and I just felt that the powerful lyrics of "I Wish" could transcend really well through the voices of children and so, I pulled them in and it worked out miraculously well. The audience was just kind of blown away, people were in tears, I had hundreds of people come up to me; loved the lyrics, loved the song, loved the kids and it was a smashing success."
"The thing about "I Wish" is that it's really kind of a song for the world and I encourage you and anyone else, your readers and listeners to take a look at the lyrics because they are really powerful and really meaningful. They talk about people belonging and accepting them for who they are; they are wishes of the world. I used really kind of big energy elements on this of the sun and the moon to kind of convey the essence and kind of help move people toward accepting others and being kind; the whole song is about spreading kindness. This is really a powerful song, simple lyrics like I mentioned I was inspired by but very powerful. The plan is; the performance of the San Diego Children's Choir went so well that I got inspired to create a global kindness initiative and I'm now actually going to be launching multiple versions of the song with children's choirs around the world. So, the next version, we just recorded in Uganda, Africa and that's coming out on February 27 with the African Children's Choir and it's just incredible, they just did a brilliant, brilliant job. After that we have a version with the National Choir on the island of Anguilla and the Anguilla Music Academy and then following that it will be the San Diego Children's Choir that we just recorded in January and then it will be going all around the world to all of the different continents. In doing so, all but creating a kindness initiative to allow the children to learn how to spread kindness and I couldn't be more excited about that."
"The track that's released now, there are no choirs, I used a studio singer. There is a female studio singer and the model I have for Random Acts Of Kindness; one of the reasons I call it Random Acts Of Kindness is because I believe in Random Acts Of Kindness, I do them every week and a second is, I like to have the freedom and flexibility to work with different singers, musicians, producers for each song. So, it's not like there's one band that kind of tours and that's why for the songs I use different singers and vocalists. There is a beautiful voice on this song, it's angelic, it's atmospheric, it's beautiful when you hear it. The Children's Choir Initiative is just something that came about after I had the San Diego Children's Choir perform it live for the very first time and it turned out to be amazing."
Freirich doesn't stop at writing music, his recent donation to buy musical instruments for kids is one that would warm even the coldest of hearts.
"I spend a lot of time on music, a lot of time on philanthropy, I'm involved with a lot of different organizations, I did something recently with Hackensack where I made a donation to the Children's Hospital to purchase musical instruments and supplies for the kids. I'm actually going back next week with some rock 'n' roll friends and we're gonna visit with the kids who were mostly too sick to take advantage of all of the people who came during the holidays and just spread some music and rock 'n' roll and show them that music can heal and provide hope and that's what we're gonna do next week."
There are those who think small and others who've no limits; Freirich definitely thinks very large.
"Right now, we're focusing on the African Children's Choir launch followed by those others and then we're gonna work our way around the world. I have other unreleased music that we're probably gonna start to release as well; again with the hope of inspiring people through meaningful lyrics and spreading kindness. We'll also seek partnerships, if there are other known musicians who want to cover our tunes, we are absolutely willing to partner with them and we are also willing to partner with non-profit organizations to help them. Sometimes they'll have a musician who is affiliated with them and if they want to do a song or cover it, we are more than happy to discuss that; we couldn't be more excited about the future of Random Acts Of Kindness and Better World Records and of course the music. I'm writing some more music as we speak but I do have the four other songs that are ready to go as we determine the release schedule for them. Again, I don't do this to make money and all if any profits will be donated to charities and part of that is me being a philanthropist and I support charities all around the world."
To delve into Random Acts Of Kindness, please visit https://www.randomactsofkindnessmusic.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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