Barry Louis Polisar is simultaneously children's music best kept secret and one of the most visible (or at least audible) artist for the mainstream. A secret in that you don't necessarily hear a lot about him within the kids music world compared to other, more active artists, but at the same time, placement of "All I Want Is You" in the movie Juno and in a new Honda ad have given Polisar a reach into popular culture that exceeds just about any independent family musician.
In the interview below, Polisar talks at length about his influences, his views on the current kids music scene and his role in it, and where his creative energies are now.
What are your musical memories from childhood?
My main influences were Johnny Cash and Alvin and the Chipmunks. I have a recording on my website of me singing Cash's "Ring of Fire" when I was about seven years old and it was always a favorite song. Alvin and the Chipmunks certainly gave voice to the naughty, rebellious side of childhood back in the late fifties -- and the very first flier advertising my songs included the line "picking up where Alvin and the Chipmunks left off." I also liked the witty lyrics and humor in Roger Miller's songs which were popular in the early sixties and another favorite was the Australian singer Rolf Harris who had a hit with "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport." To this day I can sing every line of every song from his album and many of those songs would be considered wildly inappropriate now by some parents.
I've read you first started writing songs at school, but when did you seriously begin to write music for kids?
I began my career while I was in college. I was 21 years old in 1975 -- not too far removed from being a kid myself. I went to the University of Maryland and had planned on being a teacher. I had bought a guitar and was teaching myself how to play when a teacher saw me with it, and asked if I would entertain the kids at the school where she was teaching. It was at that school that I overheard another teacher yelling at her students, copied down her tirade and wrote my song "I've Got a Teacher, She's So Mean."
Because I was planning on being a teacher myself, word spread that I had written this song and the next thing I knew teachers from other schools were calling me asking me to sing that song in their schools. I ended up putting myself through college singing in the schools and after a year of concerts at schools and libraries, I had made enough to finance my first album. So even though I was still in college, I was writing and performing all the time. Sesame Street had heard about my songs -- by then I had recorded a second album -- and they called me to New York to talk about writing songs for a project they were working on; Big Bird recorded my song "I've Got A Dog and My Dog's Name is Cat."
About how many songs have you written/published, anyway?Interview: Barry Louis Polisar
Barry Louis Polisar is simultaneously children's music best kept secret and one of the most visible (or at least audible) artist for the mainstream. A secret in that you don't necessarily hear a lot about him within the kids music world compared to other, more active artists, but at the same time, placement of "All I Want Is You" in the movie Juno and in a new Honda ad have given Polisar a reach into popular culture that exceeds just about any independent family musician.
In the interview below, Polisar talks at length about his influences, his views on the current kids music scene and his role in it, and where his creative energies are now.
What are your musical memories from childhood?
My main influences were Johnny Cash and Alvin and the Chipmunks. I have a recording on my website of me singing Cash's "Ring of Fire" when I was about seven years old and it was always a favorite song. Alvin and the Chipmunks certainly gave voice to the naughty, rebellious side of childhood back in the late fifties -- and the very first flier advertising my songs included the line "picking up where Alvin and the Chipmunks left off." I also liked the witty lyrics and humor in Roger Miller's songs which were popular in the early sixties and another favorite was the Australian singer Rolf Harris who had a hit with "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport." To this day I can sing every line of every song from his album and many of those songs would be considered wildly inappropriate now by some parents.
I've read you first started writing songs at school, but when did you seriously begin to write music for kids?
I began my career while I was in college. I was 21 years old in 1975 -- not too far removed from being a kid myself. I went to the University of Maryland and had planned on being a teacher. I had bought a guitar and was teaching myself how to play when a teacher saw me with it, and asked if I would entertain the kids at the school where she was teaching. It was at that school that I overheard another teacher yelling at her students, copied down her tirade and wrote my song "I've Got a Teacher, She's So Mean."
Because I was planning on being a teacher myself, word spread that I had written this song and the next thing I knew teachers from other schools were calling me asking me to sing that song in their schools. I ended up putting myself through college singing in the schools and after a year of concerts at schools and libraries, I had made enough to finance my first album. So even though I was still in college, I was writing and performing all the time. Sesame Street had heard about my songs -- by then I had recorded a second album -- and they called me to New York to talk about writing songs for a project they were working on; Big Bird recorded my song "I've Got A Dog and My Dog's Name is Cat."
About how many songs have you written/published, anyway?
