Interview: Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies)

TylerStewart2.jpgTyler Stewart was the last of the founding members of the rock group Barenaked Ladies, which means he's only been with the band for 18 of its 20 years of existence. He's been the band's drummer ever since. Stewart chatted by phone last week about what his kids listen to (Neil Young and High School Musical, just to begin with); his views on the relative merits of Barney, Sesame Street, and Beethoven; the genesis of their first kids' CD Snacktime; and what's to come for the band. (Photo courtesy Wikipedia.) Zooglobble: I'm going to start the with the question I always ask whenever I interview someone and that is -- what were your musical influences growing up? Tyler Stewart: Well, my parents are pretty young so they were into popular and good music. My dad was a big fan of British rock bands like the Who, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones, and my mom was really into Motown music and soul. There was always good music playing in my house. Specifically, what do you listen to with your kids? Well, my kids, their dad's a musician, so it's a pretty varied catalog, and my wife, too, has pretty good taste in music. My iPod has 14,000 songs on it, they run the whole gamut. Recently my daughter Millie was saying, "Gawd, I'm so tired of this old people's music -- I don't want to hear any more Neil Young." My daughter's nine. "I like Neil Young, but not all the time." Yeah, I'm guilty of that. Right now they're heavily into High School Musical. High School Musical 1 and 2 is like the Grease of today. Both my daughters really like Alison Krauss and her fiddle music. Of course they love the Beatles, the universal music of all time. And we really love to listen to They Might Be Giants, their three kids' albums, together. They know every word, and they love 'em. Do they listen to the Alison Krauss-Robert Plant CD? You know, I haven't gotten that one yet. I can't believe I haven't... They like the live record she did, the 2-CD one she put out 4 years ago -- they really like that one a lot. My kids, they run the gamut, they like all kinds of different music. That's sort of my goal. When I got them iPods, I filled them with all kinds of varied different kinds of music so that nothing seems surprising. I don't want them to have any musical prejudices or fears at that age. So that when they want to listen to Hilary Duff, OK, we'll put on Hilary Duff... But that's their own choice, and they've listened to everything else...

Happy Cinco de Barenaked Ladies ("7 8 9")

... or is that Barenaked de Mayo? Anyway, in honor of tomorrow's release of Barenaked Ladies' first CD for kids, Snacktime, I've got a bunch of BNL/Snacktime stuff to post today. First off, is the video for "7 8 9," the album's leadoff track... This has been out for a while, but you can't go wrong with animated numbers. 'Tis the season of animated numbers, I think.

Barenaked Ladies Are Not Just Peckish, But Bookish As Well

For those of you who were kinda taken by the cover art for Snacktime, Barenaked Ladies' first kids' album (due out May 6), well, now you can get a whole bunch more of that. Instead of just preordering the CD alone, you can preorder the CD and an accompanying book. Yes, you can also get a book featuring a collection of stories based upon the album, with illustrations from bandmember Kevin Hearn (who also did the album cover). I'll have a review of the album soon enough, but I think longtime readers of the website will probably find the preorder price ($10 for the CD alone, $15 for the book/CD combo, both shipped) tempting. But in case you need to hear more...

Barenaked Ladies Love Their Fans, Hate Quebec and Rhode Island

I don't typically mention contests from bands here (though I'm going to do so a couple times here in the next few days), but I was amused by this, the rules and regulations for a recently-launched contest the Barenaked Ladies are running to promote their upcoming kids' music CD Snacktime. The assignment is -- draw the band. "Barenaked Ladies just want to see the most creative cartoon of them," they say, and the winner will receive a BNL hoodie, t-shirt, and personally autographed copy of Snacktime. Yeah, yeah, cute, whatever, but the rules, goodness, those are long, though the band probably does have a few more fans than the bands typically releasing albums in the genre. They're capped by the final statement -- "The contest is open to legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec and Rhode Island)." The pure randomness of the statement (which I'm sure is backed by very sound legal reasoning amused me. Anyone from Quebec or Rhode Island care to share why they might be prohibited from entering said contest?

New Music: Barenaked Ladies' "Pollywog in a Bog" (On Cruise Ship)

Not wanting to wait to hear music from the Barenaked Ladies' May album-length foray into kids' music, Snacktime? Well, then, get yourself to a cruise ship! (Huh?) The band hosted their "Ships & Dip III" Caribbean cruise in late January (hmmm, wonder how much interest there would be in a Zooglobble cruise?). The Brothers Creeggan, a BNL side project featuring BNL bassist Jim Creeggan and former member Andy Creeggan, played a show which included Jim's "Pollywog in a Bog," from the upcoming album. It's a mid-tempo reggae tune and here, at least, also features a mid-song dancehall rap. So who's with me on Zooglobble cruise idea? How about renting a paddle boat?