Interview: Michael Rachap (Readeez)

Although there's been an explosion of new kids music available to folks here in the last decade or so, there hasn't necessarily been an explosion of new kids music concepts. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing -- there's a reason why folks have been singing certain songs for a century or more. The concept that kids (and their parents) sometimes might like to listen to songs with the same production values and musical variety as the music their parents listen to but with more kid-appropriate themes is huge, and one that a lot of folks have now internalized. But beyond that, not so much. Michael Rachap's Readeez project, however, is a new kids music idea -- it applies that big concept above (kids music with the music-nutritional value of music for adults) to a visual idea of displaying words in time with music, far more so than any other video that displays words for the young viewer. Rachap sat down recently and answered a few questions about his life in (and out of) advertising, how he puts his videos together, new Readeez-related projects, and the secret value of kicking a piano bench during lessons. Zooglobble: What are your earliest musical memories? Michael Rachap: 1) My dad's stereo, which I recall being about the size of a Hummer. I was, and still am, fascinated with music-making technology. 2) My dad's record collection, an eclectic set featuring lasting influences like the Beatles' "Red" and "Blue" LPs, Elton John's early catalogue, Dylan, Jackson Browne, The Band, and enough non-rock offerings to keep my ears open-minded. 3) The family's Baldwin Acrosonic upright, which I began playing at around age four. I also remember taking piano lessons as a small boy, and the way my first teacher (the stern but compassionate Emily Reichert) would fiercely kick the bench we were sitting on to drive home the rhythm while I was playing. Intimidating but effective. What drew you to your first career, advertising? What drew you away? My first job out of college was as a marketing drone at a giant software company. That took about a year to lose its charm. When I learned that there was this occupation called "copywriter" where you got to come up with cool ideas and draw a regular paycheck, I made a goofy two-minute "Video Résumé" and sent it around to the top ten agencies in the DC area. One of the creative directors I targeted actually liked the thing and hired me. In retrospect, that video was the progenitor of Readeez—a full decade and a half before I started making them for kids. I knew I wanted to leave advertising when I began to notice that the non-monetary rewards were, at least for me, pretty sparse. At its worst it was starting to feel like I was lying for a living. When I write Readeez I'm saying things that are very close to me, truths I want to express. Which I find very fulfilling. Was there a particular "Eureka!" moment for you in coming up with the idea for Readeez?

Interview: Dean Jones (Dog on Fleas)

Dean Jones is a busy man. Member of the great and earthy kids band Dog On Fleas, he's also got a solo career in his own right (witness the excellent lullaby disk Napper's Delight), produces others' disks (the upcoming album from Uncle Rock), and sometimes plays with the Felice Brothers. (He also sometimes plays "John Lemon" to his son's Paul McCartney -- see picture to left.) In spite of Jones' many obligations, he still had time to answer a few questions about his musical background, what it was like to record his new album Rock Paper Scissors with the Felice Brothers, and his favorite instruments. Zooglobble: What are your earliest musical memories? What are your memories of learning to play and sing music? Dean Jones: I come from a pretty musical family. There was always someone playing the piano, and I remember fighting for my chance to make some noise on it. My Mom used to sing to me when I was little, and sometimes now I hear some random song and a memory floods back to me of her singing it to me. My brother (11 years older) was my biggest musical influence. He played a lot of boogie woogie on the piano, as well as the Beatles, the Band, and that kind of thing. I used to hide in the closet when he got home from school and listen to him play. We listened to a lot of great music around the house too, from the Esso Trinidad Steel Band to Bach to Ella Fitzgerald. My brother took me to see Ella and she kissed me on the cheek! When did you decide to become a musician?

Interview: Roland Stringer (The Secret Mountain)

Founded in 200, The Secret Mountain initially focused solely on music CDs for children in Canada and France. It started released book/CD cominbations in 2003; in 2005, it started releasing titles in the U.S. market. Over that time, though they've covered a broad range of musical artists, from longtime Canadian artists to Trout Fishing in America to a collection of Jewish lullabies from around the world, one theme that runs throughout their collections are an attention to detail and quality in their product. I recently talked with The Secret Mountain's founder, Roland Stringer, about the genesis of his company, how the book/CD combinations come about, and more about the company's latest release, Sunday in Kyoto. Zooglobble: What were your earliest musical memories? Roland Stringer: I was born in 1960, so I was part of that whole wave that grew up on the Beatles. I had that cliched scene of my sisters going crazy because they were watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. I grew up in a small French-speaking town in Western Canada, so I heard a lot of traditional French music on the radio. As I grew up, in pre-teen years and beyond, I listened to Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel -- these North American artists. What led to the founding of The Secret Mountain? By the end of the '80s, I was doing artist management, music publishing, touring, a lot of everything. By chance, one of the artists I was working with did their first children's record in 1990. It was a project for freinds and family, but it went over well. So I produced kids records through the '90s. In 2000, though, vinyl was gone, and the CD is a piece of plastic. I though it'd be nice to give the kids something more imaginative, involving storytelling, pictures, drawings, with music from around the world. I was wanting to work with illustrators on one end, storytellers on the other, and they really were doing the same thing. I was just coming up with the package. You know, I was always interested in looking at the vinyl -- I remember studying those album covers from the Who or Genesis. How do you decide on the music?

Interview: Dave Poche (Imagination Movers)

Ever since the Louisiana band Imagination Movers has had their own show on Disney (the favorite show of the Official Nephew of Zooglobble, I might add), the visibility of the high-energy jumpsuited band has grown exponentially. While up to now they've been producing the series in Louisiana, this fall they're embarking on their first national tour, helping to solve idea emergencies in a city near you. We had the chance to catch up with red-hatted bassist Dave Poche as he was getting breakfast while on tour in Paducah, Kentucky. We talked about his musical influences, the genesis of the band, the status of lunches with his wife during filming of the TV show, and the one bad thing about being on tour. Zooglobble: What were your early musical memories growing up? Dave Poche: When I was very young, I had a Credence Clearwater Revival cassette, and of course a Beatles tape -- that was the first of my own music. I also liked Schoolhouse Rock. And I was really part of the early MTV generation. As for when I was older... Rich had been involved in music for a long time and Scott sang in college. But I only had picked up the bass when I was 20 or 21. And when we formed the band, we needed somebody to play bass, so I started again. This project sparked a lot of creativity. My father was in the LSU marching band, so I guess it just took thirty years to tap into [that creativity]. What was the spark for starting the Movers?

Interview: Laurie Berkner

Photo credit: Michelle Pedone Laurie Berkner needs no introduction. In spite of this fact, I'll provide one anyway. Over the course of five albums and more than a decade, Berkner has become quite possibly the biggest kids music superstar, at least among the preschool set. Although there have been a number of other folks who have been making great music as well over the past decade, I think it's Berkner's appearances on Noggin's Jack's Big Music Show that served as the tipping point, the catalyst for finally making the genre resurgent. Berkner talked to me while riding in a cab to her New York City offices. Read on for details of her first singing experiences, what it's like to give up (some) control in the studio, and how hard it is to not lose sight of those singing experience amidst all the other business aspects of life as a musician. Zooglobble: What were your strongest musical memories growing up? Laurie Berkner: Well, the first memory was being 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years old, and my parents made me stay in my room until a certain hour in the morning. I had a Fisher-Price record player, and I had a "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music. Our bedrooms must have been on opposite ends of the apartment, because I would march around the room and sing loudly. The first time I sang in a group I was about 7, and it was my first chorus practice. We sang the schools' theme, "A whale of a school." It was the most incredible feeling to me... I listened to a lot of Broadway music, and then being in college, I listened to Joni Mitchell. When did you know you wanted to be a musician? I graduated from college as a psychology major, with an art history minor. Coming home, I wasn't sure what I'd do. My dad said, "I thought you'd be a musician." And I said, "Who would pay me?" So my parents said they would pay for an apartment for 1 year, and pretty quickly, I got a job as a preschool music specialist.

Interview: John Linnell (They Might Be Giants)

A couple years ago, I interviewed John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants about their Here Comes the 123s CD/DVD set. Now with the impending release of the follow-up to that Grammy-winning album, Here Comes Science, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Flansburgh's partner, John Linnell. In our chat we talked about his earliest musical influences, writing songs that aren't silly dance songs, and the role of science advisors... Zooglobble: What are your childhood musical memories? John Linnell: There were a couple specific records -- first, Songs of the Pogo, it had lyrics by Walt Kelly, who wrote the comic strip and worked with a songwriter on the record. It came out in the '50s, before I was born. It was a followup to a songbook Kelly wrote. It had some crazy, non-sensical wordplay. Sounds like you... Yeah... it was an important record in my childhood. Then there was the LP of the soundtrack to Dumbo. I remember "Pink Elephants on Parade" -- it was a march with a menacing quality. When I was 8 or 9, there was a Banana Splits record I liked. It wasn't quite as acid-touched as HR Pufnstuff, say -- it was the inferior followup. All those guys now acknowledge the influence of drugs on kids' TV... How did you pick the topics for Here Comes Science? We attempted to represent all the sciences. There was no way to cover all of them, but we tried to make it representative of the sciences -- earth, biology, physics, chemistry, paleotonology, applied sciences. We could make a couple more volumes and not run out of general topics. There was a whole series of Singing Science records, after all, that featured Tom Glazer. Was it harder to write songs where you have to convey scientific truth rather than emotional truth (or a silly dance song)? The previous recordings weren't that difficult -- there couldn't be anything simpler than alphabet. We could pour our efforts in being emotionally engaging. There already was an alphabet song... Yeah... but with Science, it was a lot harder to write factually accurate songs. We hired a guy from the New York Hall of Science to check what we did. We didn't need to hire anyone on the [Here Come the] ABCs and [Here Come the] 123s albums.

Were the videos made an even earlier component of the process as a result? No, we pretty much applied the same process. We wrote the songs, then handed them over to the visual folks. We had to oversee the videos more. The science advisor looked at the visuals, which was somewhat grueling. Sometimes we re-storyboarded them to make the information more clear. But the creative animators could still express themselves. In fact, the visuals were even more packed -- the video for "Meet the Elements" crammed all this information into the video that wasn't even in the song. A major theme of the album seems to be trying to convey the idea of science as much as or more so than facts... We didn't talk much about themes when we were writing songs -- we just presented the information. But a little way through writing the songs, we realized we had some songs about science as a way of thinking, which is a topic that is both important and challenging for kids. The way I'm saying it here puts kids asleep right away. But hopefully they'll pick it up on the album. Like on "Science is Real" -- there are ways of ferreting out truth. It's the difference between science and myth. Hopefully kids are interested in that idea. What's the next kids' album going to be? I can answer that in two words: no idea. This album opens us up to a broad range of possibilities -- we've been unleashed from simpler topics. After ABCs, the Disney producers said that the obvious next step was the 123s. But here on out? We could certainly tackle subjects for older kids now -- history, or how society works. It'll be fun. What else is next? We have a book coming out called Go!, which is based on a PBS song we did. It's a nicely illustrated version. And another adult CD is still in the works... Photo credit: Autumn DeWilde