Interview: Audra Tsanos (AudraRox)

Audra Tsanos, the driving force behind the New York band AudraRox, seems to know every kids' musician in New York. In AudraRox, she's assembled her own set of talented musicians whose debut CD, 2006's I Can Do It By Myself, ran the gamut from country to slick power-pop and very kid-targeted lyrics.

Audra kindly answered a few questions about her musical upbringing and AudraRox's formation, among other things. Read on for the story behind Audra's first band name, her experience in a Music for Aardvarks cover band, and, yes, the title to their upcoming CD.

Thanks to Audra for the interview (and the accompanying photo).

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1. What are your musical memories growing up?
I was raised by fundamentalist Christians in Kansas City, Kansas - so my first musical and theatrical experiences were in the church. I sang my first solo when I was 2, did my first musical at church when I was 7 and joined the adult choir at 11. On my own I listened to bad Top 40. I won the talent show in high school my freshman year. I put together a band with the bass player from the jazz band and a sax player, played piano and sang Whitney Houston's' "Savin' All My Love for You." YUCK!

My best friend in high school, Linda Amayo, played Ella Fitzgerald for me. The only cassette tapes I owned when I went to college were The Police, The Doors, and Sade. Hats off to Joetta, my first roommate from California - she played me The Violent Femmes, The Smiths, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith. Then I dated and married a guy who had an album collection of about 1,000 and finally, I grew up musically!

I'm a late bloomer.
2. What did your parents do to encourage music around the house? Or were there other role models?
My father played piano, guitar and sang - both of my parents sang in the church choir and sang solos.
We would do the family band thing too - I would play piano and we'd break out the 3-part harmony for Christmas and church stuff. I was also very inspired and nurtured by all of my music, band, and theatre teachers!

3. How did you start your music career -- was it through Music For Aardvarks?
I got a BFA in Theatre Performance and I had a pretty busy regional musical theatre career before moving to New York. My first band was in college with my buddy Tom Price - we called ourselves Liquor & Eggs - cause we opened our fridge and that's all we had in it!! We played a couple gigs, but mostly just had fun learning all the songs we wanted to cover.

I moved to New York City to be an actress, met my husband right away and had a family. Four years and two kids later I was thinking "What am I going to do? Wait tables again?" (Which I did!) I thought a career in theatre would take too much time away from my family and a friend said, "you should teach Music for Aardvarks, you'd be great!" David Weinstone and I had really hit it off when I attended his classes with my kids and he was really supportive of my choice to teach. Teaching Music for Aardvarks ended up being my big segue in life....

4. When did you form AudraRox, and why?
I first started a band and covered Aardvark songs - parents were asking for it and David Weinstone wasn't into performing the songs live at that point. He gave me his blessing and I ran with it. Parents and kids really loved it! Everyone I worked with in the band was a parent from my classes, which I think is very cool. So after about 2 incarnations of bands - I finally gathered the core group I have now.

We called it Audra Tsanos and Her All-Star Band Perform Music for Aardvarks - rolls right off the tongue, huh? Well, my e-mail address has been "audrarocks" forever and people just started calling us Audra Rocks - I like that! The name happened organically - actually, this whole experience has happened that way, with a life of its own. Anyway, audrarocks.com was taken so we ended up
AudraRox. I had a big following and Nickelodeon had heard about me. They asked us for a demo and we didn't have any original songs to give them! So in three weeks we wrote six songs, recorded them in six hours, and gave them the demo.

5. What was it like writing your own songs, as opposed to singing someone else's?
It was really cool to hear our own sound develop - people said "it sounds like your voice." I think we always took David's music and made it our own - but when playing our originals it's soooo us. It was also just amazing that everyone - kids, parents, critics, Nickelodeon - liked our album! What a relief after all that hard work and money!

6. It sometimes seems like you can play "Six Degrees of AudraRox" with the kids' music scene, especially in New York City. How did that come about?
Did you read that article? Six Degrees of Audra? [Ed: Yeah, though I'd completely forgotten about the title. Really.] Well, I know a lot of people - I've been teaching twenty-plus classes a week for 8 1/2 years - that's thousands of families - and my clients are in film and television, fashion, magazines and newspapers, artists, musicians, doctors, teachers, restauranteurs, shop owners... see? It's put me in the center of the community. When I first started I knew that the classes were about more than music - they were about community. Everyone coming together at the same time in their life - as new parents - and sitting in the circle. When 9.11 happened we sat in the circle and cried together, when a baby with Down Syndrome finally takes her first step we all celebrate together - the starving artist and the C.E.O. - all of us together on this common ground. It's very cool.

7. How did Toxic Muffin come about, and what's it like working with your kids in the band?
Well my boys were taking their private lessons and I thought it would be motivational to play in a group. They have grown up with musicians rehearsing in the house and mommy doing gigs all the time so to them it seemed very natural. It was good karma that Tino had two friends who were at the same skill level and were really into doing it.

Jordan Shapiro from AudraRox & Astrograss does a School of Rock with them once a week and helps them creatively. I do the business side for them, booking the gigs and stuff. I try to stay out of the creative side so they can have their own voice. They listen to Jordan better than they would mommy.

I've got to say they love performing - we aren't pushing them. People ask them to play and we do it if we can. We're not out there looking for gigs or press - anything that they have done has come to them. We aren't looking to have them "working" - they are 9 & 11 years old and have lots of things they are interested in. Music is just one of them. But I love that it is!

8. What's next for you and AudraRox?
Well, we have a bunch of songs for our next album and Marty Beller from They Might Be Giants is producing it. We have some great songs so I'm looking forward to getting into the studio. Probably this winter we'll record and we'll try to have a new CD for spring 2008.

I'll reveal the working title to you (drum-roll....) "You're a Rock Star Too" - Jennifer Milich who wrote "Don't Wake the Baby" from our first CD has written an equally beautiful song that will be the title track.

And an amazing writer, AJ Jacobs, is working on an AudraRox TV pilot with BusBoy Productions. So I'm very excited and hopeful for that project! (Fingers crossed!)

Other than that we are playing a ton of concerts and next week I start teaching 22 classes a week again and do a few birthday parties here and there. Busy, busy, busy...

Photo courtesy Audra Tsanos.

Interview: Ella Jenkins

Ella Jenkins is a legend.

There are rising stars, stars, and superstars in the kids' music world, but Ella Jenkins is a flat-out legend, even though she might demur at the use of such a word.

Three weeks ago, just after her birthday, I talked with her about her start in the field of kids' music, her approach, and her long career recording for Folkways Recordings (now Smithsonian Folkways). Read on for her thoughts on all those things, plus find out one of her nicknames, how she chose the ukelele as an instrument, and be amazed by exactly how many languages she can use in one conversation.

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Zooglobble: The first thing I wanted to say is Happy Belated Birthday.

Ella Jenkins: Oh, thank you! I feel honored. I never tire of people saying it.

So you had a concert on Monday?

Yes. One of the branch libraries were celebrating their tenth anniversary. The person who had introduced me to that library, his name is Scott Draw. I had worked with him at another library, and he knew my birthday was on August 6th and he said, "That's when we're having our anniversary party, it would be nice if we could coordinate it. The Friends of the Library said they'd be happy to engage you if you could do a mini-concert."

And everybody sang Happy Birthday to you, I hope?

Oh, yes, they did that. We were trying to save it for the end, but somebody jumped the gun, I think [Laughs].

This is the fiftieth anniversary of your first album's release on Smithsonian Folkways [in 1957]...

I went to New York City in 1956 and met Moses Asch, who had faith in me and felt there was a possibility [of releasing an album]. He said, send me some material. I had actually brought him a demo disk with about four different songs. He said, you can probably do a recording, but you need to expand a bit, add a little instrumentation, and maybe we can do an album with you. But in the meantime, let's sign a contract, which let me know he was really serious.

That was in 1956, but in 1957 is when he released the album. It was a 10-inch [LP] and it was called Call and Response: Rhythmic Group Singing. That was my focus on how I would teach music, the call and response approach.

How did you settle on call and response as the primary way you wanted to teach music and lead and sing music?
When I used to go to camp, listen to music, or go to vaudeville, I used to hear people like Cab Calloway and Danny Kaye. Many times, the way they used to have the audience join in was like that.

Before then, I used to listen to some early Folkways records. It was back when they had listening booths, where you bought the record and listened to it there, and I would go around the world in that booth. I would listen to a lot of songs from India and Africa, and lot of that was call and response.

And then I was thinking of the music here in my own community -- I grew up on the South Side of Chicago -- and the black churches. Whether you went into them or not, the churches would have speakers out there focused into the street, and there was always this communication between the choral leader or the pastor chanting out and the congregation with a response. When you listen to gospel or spiritual music, you get a lot of that.

So when I went to camp -- I was a camp counselor -- that's how I used to lead songs with the children. And if they wanted to learn real fast, whatever they heard, they would repeat. And if they really learned, they could lead it themselves, or get a different response.

I particularly liked the way Cab Calloway did it with his "Hei-di-ho," so I wrote a song so children of today would know who he is and was, and it went, "I know a man, and the man that I know / They call him the king of the hei-di-ho" and then the children sing "hei-di-hei-di-ho." It's very freestyle, which means you can change it all the time.

One of the things I noticed in listening to a number of your CDs is that you have recorded with a number of different children's groups. You haven't picked a certain preschool and just recorded with them. I'm wondering how you go about picking which school or preschool you're interested in making a recording with.

First of all, I'm always interested in when there is a wide variety of backgrounds and children have many different kinds of experiences. They don't have to be rich children or poor children. I might go somewhere and hear a group of children singing. I'll say, "Oh, I'd like to visit your school." There's a language academy in the community I live in, and the children, from the age of 5, they select a language they use for about seven years. So I thought these children would work because I try to employ a lot of different cultures.

I don't like to have too many polished groups. I like a group that's just in training, or just sing naturally, that's my best bet. So I just choose children that are pretty ordinary.

That comes out in the CDs. The kids are having fun...

They don't have to feel threatened, they don't have to feel like they have to compete. They don't have to feel like they have the best voice ever.

They're having fun. You're having fun singing to them and with them...

At the same time, they're learning a lot. They're learning cooperative skills. Working together. Learning about other children's backgrounds and sharing their own backgrounds. Some children don't have the same sense of rhythm, but they can express themselves. Nobody's going to get punished. If you have one beat that's not what everybody else is doing, maybe we can follow what this child is doing. So when we finish, it's something we've all collaborated on.

You'd mentioned the La Salle Academy, who sang with you on Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins... how did you come up with what songs you wanted to record?

I had certain ones, but the children had the opportunity to introduce songs, like the calypso song. Sharing Cultures... if you look at many of my albums over the year, almost all of them have some way of sharing cultures.

Yeah, you could probably subtitle all of your albums Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins...

I always try, because I'm always writing new material, and if you add new voices, you're going to get new approaches. There was one child who was studying the piano with Erwin Helfer, a blues piano who teaches kids and adults... [Helfer played on the CD.] We were exploring a lot.

The studio is my least favorite place to record, but that's about the only place you can do it. Sometimes you'll feel freer if you're in a classroom or outside or in a church. I don't enjoy going over and over it again, so sometimes there'll be a few mistakes here and there. It's kinda loose.

To shift topics a little bit, I recently bought a ukelele...

What kind? A baritone?

A soprano. Easier for the kids to use.

In Hawaii, a lot of people use them.

Now the big one you use, is that a baritone?

Yes. It's tuned like the first four strings of the guitar.

And how did you settle on the ukelele?

Well, I used to sing a cappella, and then I started beating on a tambourine, and from there a Chinese drum, and then a conga drum. I would always accompany myself on percussion. Then a friend of mine said, "Ella, you know, you would probably write more melodious songs and sing more melodious songs if you had a stringed instrument, like a guitar." I said, I don't have the time to learn the guitar. Well, this man played string bass, upright bass, guitar, banjo. He said, "I also have a baritone ukelele. It only has four strings. If you can just get the chord relationships, it'll be easy. Start out with the major chords." So I decided to see what I could do. When I finally began to understand the chord relationships, I was very excited. I was able to do more melodious songs. All of a sudden, I tapped on the minor chord. I loved the minor chords -- they used to call me "A-Minor Ella."

All I do is just strum. I just use this to enable me to get my song across. Sometimes there's one chord, sometimes two, sometimes three, I think "I'll Sing a Song, You'll Sing a Song" might have four or five. So many people have difficulties sometimes and ask me, "What chord were you using?" at a concert. One day maybe I'll do an album actually singing chords.

I've got some musical background, but the ukelele is pretty easy to learn...

Yeah, of course, if you're going to be singing and playing, you've got to coordinate that. If you just want to play the ukelele and that's it, that's fine. But if you want to sing... that's another thing.

I've been to Hawaii conducting workshops and I'll say, "Would anyone like to share any ideas?" And they'll play the soprano and be very, very good. In fact Arthur Godfrey was one of those. You're probably too young to remember him, but he played baritone and would play with symphony orchestras.

Getting back to the subject of sharing cultures... you did that from the get-go, on your first album. Did you view music as means to an end of sharing cultures, or was sharing cultures the hook you used to get kids interested in music, or was it just a lucky byproduct that here were two aspects of your life you were very interested in and they happened to dovetail nicely?

You know, when I grew up, I went to an all-black grade school and an all-black high school. Spanish was my first so-called "foreign" language beyond English. But I became interested when I met someone whose family was from Mexico and so I wanted to know more about not just the language but the people. And from there I wanted to know about the dances and hear more music.

When I got out of high school, I worked for a while and then when I went to junior college, that's when I really met students from different backgrounds. I joined a club called YOMP -- Youth on Minority Problems. So every time I would meet people from different background in schools... I met a lot of Jewish kids. When I would go to their house, they would have a different kind of food. Some of them weren't even speaking Hebrew, they were speaking Yiddish.

My background, we used to do a lot of chanting. You know, they have rap today. It was kind of like rap but there were a lot chants and songs that I could share with people at my school.

I then had to focus on what did I want to do with my life... When I was working part-time, I was working at the metallurgical laboratory at the University of Chicago. That's where I met a young woman named Ida Patinkin. She's related to the famous Patinkin family. I was delivering classified mail -- they were working on the bomb, I didn't know that -- all these famous names. Ida said, "You should be in college." I said, well, I can't afford it, I've got to help out at home, and she said that junior college is free, all you have to do is pay for your textbooks. So I said I'll talk to my mother. I talked to my mother and she said if you think you can work part-time and go to school, you can try it.

Going there was a shift, 'cause I knew I was no longer in high school. People spoke differently and I felt more grown up, so I became very, very keen on cultures of other people. So I thought I would like to be somewhere that I can really learn more. I had never traveled abroad -- I had never even flown.

I was always curious. I liked the Spanish, I liked the Puerto Rican culture, and then I was interested in Cuban [culture], so I thought Spanish was good. Then I wanted to find out more about Africa, that should be something related to my background, too. I thought, maybe one day I'll get a chance to go to a lot of these places. But now I've been to East Africa, just last February I went to Egypt...

When I was learning more, then I transferred it to children or if I had workshops for adults, I would share that with adults. Sometimes when I was conducting workshops (for adults who were either teachers in elementary schools or high school) with people taking their knowledge to their students, I thought just being able to know how to say "Hello" and "Goodbye" and "Thank you" in another language, that's an inroad into another language.

And another way that I helped children is by counting from 1 to 10 in a lot of different languages, showing the similarities and differences, like Spanish and Italian are very similar. Working and volunteering in agencies where there are a variety of backgrounds of children, this was one way I could present my culture but learn a great deal about them. So what I do is just gather a lot of this together, and this is how I write songs.

I've been to China a couple times, and when some of the little children came, they would clap their hands very quietly, so I came up with a song: "In the People's Republic of China / little children clap their hands / To welcome all the visitors / From many different lands." And in between you clap your hands. So when I travel, I carry my background growing up on the South Side of Chicago, and then I bring back, not only regular bags, but cultural baggage as well. More stories to share...

I travel around the world and take children along with me. Some of them are fortunate to have traveled before, others not. But you don't minimize it if a child has only been in their own neighborhood. There might be something distinctive of theirs -- the church the child goes to, some children go to private schools. I try to make use of wherever people are, whoever they are.

Sometimes I learn a lot about Africa by riding in taxi cabs. I think I put that on Sharing Cultures about getting in a taxi cab and the man said I'm from West Africa and specifies he's from Nigeria. So I said do you speak Howsa? "No." Yorubalena? "No." What do you speak? "I speak Ebo." That gave me another language, so I said, "How do you say 'How are you?' in Ebo?" And he said, "Que doo." It's very much like Chinese, they go up the scale and say "Chow ma?" But then I found somebody else who spoke Ebo and when I said "Que doo," he said "Azuma," and that was the answer, fine. I try to get pronunciations with sound and then I write out phonetics for the children.

Children love to explore, they like adventure, that's why I choose songs that have a different way of living, so that children can go along with me. Like going on safari, people say go slowly, "Pole Pole" -- they like saying that. Even 3- and 4-year-olds now are great imitators. You imitiate for so long and then you start creating, and that's what I try to stimulate.

You mentioned the dialogue with the cab driver -- how many languages do you know in which you know a couple phrases?

I think on this album (Sharing Cultures), I thanked all the people who were responsible for the album -- the children, the engineers, photographers -- I think I chose about 30 languages and then gave them a bonus language, [I said] "Anksthay." You know what that is?

No...

It's Pig Latin. [Laughs] Just being able to say "thank you"... in Japanese, "Arigatoo gozaiimas" is a big thing.

Or around here where I live there's a senior center where many Russian people live. I say "Good morning," "good afternoon," and "good evening." And if you say the wrong thing, they'll tell you... When I toured India, our guide was Hindu and also a vegetarian, so I ate what he ate and every day he'd say "Namaste" to us and clap his hands together. When you do this often enough, it becomes very, very natural...

I was doing a program on Monday and... we'd let the children come up and count from 1 to 10 in whatever language they wanted to. We'd let the child be the leader and do call and response. When they were done, I'd say thank you in their language. This little boy came up, he didn't speak Hindi, he spoke Urdu. When he was done, I said "shukriya," which is very similar to Arabic, which is "shukra." They were very happy and the mother was happy they could share. Other children are glad that they can count in another language, which is very important because even if they haven't traveled there, they can count.

Oh, yeah. My daughter is very excited that she can count to ten in Spanish.

How old is she?

I have a six-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.

Oh, that's very nice. Those are my kind of people.

Every now and then she'll be somewhere and say "I can count to ten in Spanish," and then count to ten in Spanish.

And they're proud of it. Children like to explore numbers and colors. They like adventure... I'm doing a program in Yakima, Washington in October. I'll do a keynote presentation and then two other little workshops. One is exploring number concepts and the other is call and response. I try to do a lot of these call and responses as questions and answers so that you remember what the answer is -- "What's the matter with the team? The team's all right. What's the matter with the team? The team's all right. Who said so? Everybody. Who said so? Everybody. Who's everybody? Children. Who's everybody? Children. Yay, team." You go through it two or three times. And then pretty soon, when you say, "What's the matter with the team?," they'll all say, "The team's all right." I tell them that when I was in high school I used to go to football games and basketball games and all the track meets, and they'd always have cheerleaders. I'd give them the cheerleading chants.

I'm sure the kids learn it more than if you're saying a word and they're merely repeating it. It keeps it fresher for the kids and for you because don't have to say the same thing every time and they're not saying the same thing every time. You're doing it in such a way that they're picking up the pattern.

Children nowadays are pretty sophisticated. They've heard about people in space, they know about people going to the moon -- I can never get used to that because the moon seems like it should be so mysterious and now it's hard to believe somebody can actually walk around on that moon up there.

Do you think kids sing more or less than they used to? It seems to me perhaps that there are fewer opportunities for structured singing --

Children go to day care, children's camp in the summertime... if you have some family where's there music in the house, you'll find singing. Some people [think] if you cut out music in the schools, you'll have less. But children like popular music today, and you'll find children singing with the current rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues...

But it sounds like you don't think kids are singing less than they used to...

No... before the program started on Monday, I had my harmonica and while these children were sitting on the floor, I went along and was playing. I said, when you guess one, I'll move on to the next song. I started playing "London Bridge," and they were eager to see if they could recognize the songs, so they immediately started listening to the harmonica. I played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Mary Had A Little Lamb," all of them, and when I was done, I said "Test is done" and they said, "OK, give us something more difficult." If I sing this [doo-doo-doos "This Old Man"], most of the children, whatever age, they know that's "This Old Man."

Are there musical ideas you pick from other musicians or other music you hear, or is it mostly folk-based...

I like to go and hear other people entertain. I enjoy what they do and how they do it. I'm not a copier. It's like when rock-and-roll became popular, and people said let's record some rock-and-roll for children... I like what other people do. I love to go and hear all kinds of material -- jazz, rock-and-roll, those I care for more, I will attend more. I appreciate what the people are creating are doing. I like to hear real cabaret people, real sophisticated. As for incorporating, I like Latin music and I try to, not imitate, but capture some of the spirit of the Afro-Cuban music, but copying, no...

A lot of people use my approach because they're doing a lot of teaching, but I tell them you don't have to copy, because when you share your songs, the children are going to relate to you and your personality.

I remember reading one of your past interviews where you said Moses Asch never came to you and said, well, can you record a kids' rock-and-roll record... I can't picture what an Ella Jenkins rock-and-roll record would sound like. Your records are very much you -- just talking for three-quarters of an hour, you're no different in person, so to speak, than you are on your records.

There's a lot of good talent around, and if you have something to offer and share, then share it the best way you can... But I don't like people playing too loudly for children or sing songs that are in bad taste. That's why it's very important when you're sharing a program -- I don't politick on stage. I have my own feelings about things, but I try to encourage children to have respect for themselves, respect for others and to understand there are other people besides themselves... [I say] I'm not the only one who makes up this show, all of us -- audience, light, sound -- are a part.

One last question. I'm wondering if you are working in any way on a new CD or DVD.

Every day I'm writing something. Sometimes I have random thoughts and I think I would really like to put those down I might either speak them myself or have a variety of voices... but there are some things I've needed to say and have wanted to say for awhile.

One of the focuses I've had lately is people overusing their cell phones when they're pushing those little strollers down the street. A song from the child's vantage point: "I'm sitting in my stroller / And I feel so all alone / 'Cause Mom used to talk to me / And now all she does is talk to the cell phone."

Ella, you've been more than generous with your time with me and I wanted to say thank you very much. It's been a privilege talking with you.

As they say in Spanish, "Du el mente."

Gracias. Guten Tag, as they would say in German.

"Guten Tag!" Your German is good. Bye-bye.

Photos courtesy of Adventures in Rhythm

Interview: Lloyd Miller (Ulysses Dee of the Deedle Deedle Dees)

Lloyd Miller is the chief songwriter and ringleader (Ulysses Dee) of the New York City-based band The Deedle Deedle Dees. On their excellent latest album, Freedom in a Box (review), they mix very punk songs like "Obedience School" with hook-y history songs like "Henry Box Brown." Somehow, it all works.

Lloyd recently answered some questions about his musical history and history in general. Read on for his views on saving social studies from sucking, playing the double bass, Satchel Paige, and Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." (And thanks to Lloyd for the time.)

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What are your earliest memories of listening to music? Playing music?
As a kid, music was usually something I did at church or school and I have mostly negative memories of it. Probably because "music" to me meant sitting in your folding chair and singing the same songs every week in unison. I can remember very vividly sitting on the concrete steps outside this portable where I had music class for many years -- I was sent out there on a regular basis because I misbehaved in some way, I can't remember how.

The only school song I remember enjoying went "Old Roger is dead and laid in his grave, laid in his grave, laid in his grave / Old Roger is dead and laid in his grave / Hee Ha! Laid in his grave." There were a few verses, each with a related motion. In my favorite verse, Roger jumps up and gives "a fright" to an old woman who is picking apples from the tree that grows over him. I've tried to do this song at my sing-a-longs in Brooklyn but no one seems to know it.

Other music that made an impression was of the mass-produced variety. At some point I got the Disco Duck album and that was very important. That Davy Crockett song was the only song I sang for a period of months in early elementary school. And, oh man, "The Gambler." At about age seven, I asked this guy with a guitar at a restaurant to play it and he did and it was the most amazing thing. I listened to this song recently and was quite bored.

As far as playing music goes, most of my early history took place in the back row (I was tall) of some huge group singing some badly-written Bible song. It wasn't until junior high that I discovered -- simultaneously -- the mirror and David Lee Roth and began performing lip-sync concerts that eventually led to me joining a real band with other human beings. Naturally this first band was a heavy metal cover band and I was the lead singer. Sweet Emotion was our name and we played the first of our two gigs at a church dance.

What are the advantages (and disadvantages) of being a double bass musician?
Advantages: Playing the double bass gives me a dancing partner onstage. It also allows me to feel the notes I'm playing: if I play a C and I'm supposed to be playing a D, I feel that wrong note vibrating all the way from my chest on down to my legs. It's a much more reliable way to stay locked in with the rest of the band than relying on the whims of whatever PA system we happen to be using.
Disadvantages: Transporting the thing is the biggest disadvantage. Right now we're trying to figure out how to play several shows out of town that pay very little money. Ideally we'd like to take one car to save on gas and tolls, but this is impossible with the big bass. So I'll be playing electric for these gigs. I also had to play electric on all the really loud songs on Freedom in a Box because the upright was getting drowned out. We recorded all the basic tracks live, all of us playing at the same time in one room, and while the electric guitar's amp got put in the bathroom to keep it from bleeding into the mics of all the other instruments too much, the upright just sounds best played acoustic, no amp. But it was worth it: there's no replacement for everyone playing their parts together as a band, it just can't be faked.

How did the Deedle Deedle Dees form?
In the spring of 2003, I helped my wife's second-grade class write and perform an original musical based on the Epic of Gilgamesh. This was far more fun than anything I'd ever done as an "adult musician," playing in bars and nightclubs.

The following summer, I went to a funeral in Florida of the father of my best friend, a guy with whom I've written and recorded at least 100 songs. We were hanging out with his niece and nephew and some other relatives at his house after the services and they asked us to play some music. We played a few songs from the Gilgamesh play, a few of our originals that didn't contain abstract discussions of relationships or lyrics stolen from the subjects of Bill Moyers specials, and then we played the Gilgamesh songs again. And again and again until the kids had to leave and couldn't demand them anymore. When I got back to Brooklyn, I immediately set to work recording the Gilgamesh songs, as I'd promised the kids I would, and when I was finished, I was all excited. I decided to write a whole separate album of songs just so those kids in Florida would have something good to listen to. Of course, I couldn't stop at just writing and recording -- whenever I have a bad idea I book a venue then call up my musician friends and inform them of the details of the gig they'll be playing in the near future. This time, however, the bad idea was a kids band called the Deedle Deedle Dees and everyone involved wanted to keep doing it.

What inspired you to take historical personages as characters? What inspired you to take your particular (Ulysses Dee) character?
I've always spent a good deal of my free time reading history books. Social studies class, like music class, was generally a painful experience, but at home, I read as much about American history, especially the wars, as I possibly could. When I first began thinking about what to writing kids songs, this was the first thing that came to mind. Although I'd been teaching kids for some time, I didn't have a kid of my own at the time so I just thought, hmmm, what did I like as a kid? War! Baseball! Pirates!

In addition, during the first six months of the band someone gave me a copy of James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me. Loewen examines a few of the most-used American history textbooks, spotlighting some of the most egregious omissions or downright falsifications, but also explaining the process that makes these books so devoid of juicy stories, controversial topics, and the results of recent scholarship on issues. After reading this book I was convinced that I had a mission to save social studies from sucking -- over my many years of teaching and tutoring I've heard so many kids say that history or social studies is the most boring class, the one they hate the most, etc. and this just makes me so sad.

Our historical names: As a late bloomer myself, I really identify with Grant. Before I started the Deedle Deedle Dees, I always felt like there was something I should be doing that I wasn't. I don't feel like that anymore.

I encouraged the other guys to take names from American history but they had their own ideas. Innocent Dee is named after a pope. Otto von Dee after the ruthless unifier of the Germanic states. And Booker Dee, contrary to what many have assumed, is not named after Booker T. Washington. He told me that all his heroes were musicians and that he'd like to be named after James Booker, the great unsung New Orleans piano player.

What is your favorite historical story?
I just finished a song about Satchel Paige called "Bring 'Em In" that retells what is probably my favorite historical story at the moment. Anecdotes of Paige always have slightly different details depending on who tells them, but I like to think that things happened the way they do in this particular version. I'll just paste the lyrics here because I think they tell the story better than I can write it in paragraph form:

Bring 'Em In
words and music by Lloyd Miller

Way back before Jackie wore a hat with a white "B"
they played a game between the black league and the white league
Satchel Paige walked the first batter from the white team
they started talking, called him "overrated."

Satchel turned to his shortstop and said:
Bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in
bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in bring 'em in

So outfielders moved into shallow outfield, Satchel Paige said, "no no no no no..."

So outfield moved into the infield, Satchell Paige said, "no no no no no..."

So outfield and infield moved onto the pitcher's mound, Satchel Paige said, "Sit down... that's what I meant when I said..."

CHORUS

ooh ooh ooh ooh...

Satchel walked Batter Number Two
Then he walked Batter Number Three
Bases loaded, Batter Four stepped Up
He went down swinging
Batter Five stepped up, Satchel sat him down
Batter Six, Strikeout!

CHORUS

ooh ooh ooh ooh...

Which "historical" song gets the biggest reaction in concert? Which non-"historical" gets the biggest reaction?
The historical song that seems to get everyone really excited is "Teddy Days." It's a very frenetic song to begin with, but before we play it, I encourage the kids to engage in a full-on Mr. Universe-style muscle posedown while we play it. I of course demonstrate some of my favorite poses in order to give them some ideas.

"Obedience School" and "Vegetarian T-Rex" are generally pretty chaotic as far as non-historical material goes. I've actually tried to figure out how to jettison our non-historical stuff so that our shows make more thematic sense, but people keep saying things like "We'll be there Saturday and please please play 'Obedience School'."

Which is easier for you -- music or lyrics? Do you write those separately or together?
Usually they come together -- a line like "He was a puny sickly child" (the first line of "Teddy Days") will arrive fully formed with melody as I'm walking to pick up my daughter from day care or something. The rest of the song will sort of fall together behind that initial lyric/melody line.

What music do you and your family listen to at home?
Lately we've been hearing a lot of Arfie, a CD that goes with a class my daughter is taking. It's the first time we've actually listened to kids music in our house and I'm worried. A couple of weeks ago I took Arfie out of the player and put in The Clown by Charles Mingus. My daughter, who had been hiding behind a curtain in our bedroom, rushed out, pointed at the CD player and demanded "Arfie!" That said, though, there are some songs on Arfie I like -- and I think they're all written by Morgan Taylor of Gustafer Yellowgold (seriously, he's credited on the album).

Luckily, though, we still get to hear some of the stuff that was on constant rotation pre-Arfie: Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders, Nels Cline, Archie Sheep. I find it difficult to understand anything but jazz these days -- having a child disconnects you from your old childless life in so many ways, but no one told me just how much it would disrupt my brain's language bank. I feel like I'm re-learning to speak as my kid learns for the first time and so it's much easier for me to comprehend a saxophone honk than a chorus sung in English.

You've mentioned that you want to do more performing in schools -- why in particular is that?
This is something I wanted to do when I first started the band, but I had no idea how hard it was to do. If you want to play in a theater and sell $15 tickets, plenty of people in New York are happy to give you the opportunity, but if you want to perform in a public school, there are all sorts of hoops to jump through. We're affiliated with a couple of arts organizations that occasionally send us in to play in schools, but they only offer us a few shows a year -- I guess they just have so many artists on their rosters and have to spread the work around.

In the fall, we're going independent, meaning that we'll have the paperwork to set up shows and in-class workshops with schools without being affiliated with a arts-in-schools non-profit. Hopefully this will allow us to play in schools all the time because I have so much curriculum ready to go. I've always envisioned the Dees as an educational content-producing machine rather than a rock band, a vehicle for making high-quality musical products-- not just CDs, but books, DVDs, whatever -- that aren't beholden to school boards or sales figures. That's not to say that I want to hole up and record and never perform, just that I want our stuff to reach new audiences. In New York, even if our show is totally free, most of the people who show up are of the same demographic: rich white people. This is largely an issue of information -- the people who come to see us are the people who read the magazines and websites and other sources that cater to them. The longer I do kids music, the more I realize that you have to bring your music to the people you want to hear it. It's not enough to say, "I'm tired of playing only for people who can afford it, let's do a free show in the park." You have to actually go to new communities and connect with people via schools and community organizations.

At least once a week some parent asks me, "When are you guys going to be on TV?" and I, every time, explain that while I would one day like to see a slow-moving Reading Rainbow / Mr. Rogers-style history and music show featuring the band (we actually drew up a proposal for such a program a while back) I'm much more interested in playing in schools and providing teachers with musical ways to teach their curriculums. Most people respond to this speech with a confused expression I like to call the "You poor fool" look. In other words, the look people in New York get on their face when they hear some poor fool describing some endeavor that is guaranteed to make them absolutely no money. I get this look a lot.

What's next for the band?
Up next for the Dees are 1) out-of-town shows 2) shows at schools and untried venues. The band has had some of our best experiences playing outside of New York City. For one, it's great to play for a crowd of total strangers, people who have never seen -- and often never even heard -- of the band. Even more fun are the reactions of the kids. Many kids at our shows in NYC have already seen Dan Zanes seven times so they get the whole concert with guitars and drums and whatnot, but even in places as close as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania we have kids coming up to us after the show absolutely beside themselves because they've never been to a concert before. It makes you feel what you're doing is worthwhile and it's a feeling you only get in the city if you're at public school serving a low-income population. Recently Booker Dee (Chris Johnson) and I were playing at this school and my upright bass was out of sight of most of the audience because we like to play on the floor at the same level as the kids. When I lifted that thing up to play our first song, the squeals and gasps that came from that auditorium were unbelievable.

Our efforts to expand our roster of venues will also include some experiments with places that have never hosted a show. I'm going to ask a couple of guys who promote underground deejay and indy band events at all manner of places-- restaurants, abandoned warehouses, farms (yes, there are farms in brooklyn), empty swimming pools-- to help us figure out how to do shows in the neighborhoods that everyone avoids unless they live there or teach at a troubled school. There are plenty of concrete playgrounds, empty lots, abandoned buildings, churches, community halls, and other places that could host a kids show and I'd like to figure out how to do shows at this sort of place regularly by getting somebody to fund a performance series featuring us and other local acts that we like. And not just so-called "kids music." I want to bring in people doing cool stuff that kids would find interesting -- Latino indy rock bands (there's a budding scene in Queens), young rock and hip hop groups, theatre groups and puppeteers, all kinds of acts.

The other big thing in our near future is a lot of new music, much of it incorporating a different sound, more the sound of our "grown-up band." The four of us moonlight, along with this fabulous mandolin player named Ari Dolegowsky, as an old-timey string band with ukulele, upright bass, acoustic guitar, banjo, and washboard. We play fundraisers and restaurants and do swing, Django, gypsy, Yiddish, bluegrass, old jazz, country blues, and whatever else occurs to us during our rehearsals. A lot of the new songs I'm writing are designed for this instrumentation. The aforementioned Satchel Paige song might still be a big organ and electric guitar number, but new ones like "Battle of Brooklyn," "Ghosts of the Great Bridge" (a tale of trips to the Brooklyn Bridge with my daughter that incorporates the history of Washington and Emily Roebling and the bridge's construction), and "Amelia Airplane" (the first of a few songs written at the request of the winner of the Zooglobble contest) are all string-band songs. This is our recreational music, what we play in the backyard once the baby's asleep, and so I guess it's not surprising that it's worked it's way into my writing.

Interview: Ralph Covert (Ralph's World)

And every audience is different and every audience, the vibe is different and influences what the show becomes and it's a marvelous dialogue because there is that push and pull. There are artists that stick to a set list, but to me that's missing half the fun. To me the fun of it is that if you're in tune with the audience, they help lead the artist.

Over the course of six Ralph's World albums, Ralph Covert has written more really good songs for kids and their families than probably any other artist. So it's not that much of a surprise that Disney recently signed Covert up to release those albums and his next album. It's also not much of a surprise that he's touring House of Blues venues and other classic rock venues this spring.

Covert took some time out of his schedule a couple weeks ago to chat with me about his tour, performing, writing songs, and watching his daughter grow older. All that while worrying about a lost tour banner. (You'll have to read on...)

Zooglobble: Thank you for taking the time with me for a few minutes about this tour. So you just played the House of Blues and the Fillmore in San Francisco -- what was that like?

Ralph Covert: Oh my gosh, it was a blast. Both shows went great. The Fillmore, I mean, how cool does it get? It was really neat because one of the reasons we've tried so hard to do stuff like this tour where we've tried to keep the rock 'n' roll vibe in the Ralph's World show and bring it to these rock 'n' roll venues is so that parents and kids can have that shared experience. It's cool for the parents because it still has that authentic rock 'n' feel and it's cool for the kids because they get to go somewhere they never would get to go.

And at the Fillmore the parents were excited to be there and the kids were excited about having their first concert at the Fillmore, and the band's excited... One of the stage managers said he felt it was the best show they had there all year. Musically, it was great, but even more important than that, every audience member walked out with a smile and every staff member was grinning from ear to ear for the entire show.

Are you doing anything different on this tour? I know you've played some larger venues in the past (such as Ravinia and the Jamarama tour) but are you doing anything different since you're playing larger houses and more traditional rock venues?

Well, Jamarama tour was one of these packaged tours with a bunch of different acts with their little slot. Most of the other acts were pretty much more in the traditional kids' pop thing where they're playing the tracks. They're entertaining the kids but they're not doing it by playing real instruments and playing rock. There are some that are doing that and I think that's great -- that's part of the whole new wave we're part of.

But the Jamarama tour is very much about that other packaged thing. What we're doing, really at the heart of it, it's a rock concert experience for kids. To that end, it's exciting to take that kind of rock 'n' roll energy to a big venue, to a rock venue like the House of Blues, like the Fillmore, because we obviously know from many years of social and cultural experience that rock shows are pretty fun. [Laughs]

Is that a sociological statement there?

It is a sociological statement -- rock shows are fun.
You obviously play at times just for adults, adults-only shows, and then you do the Ralph's World thing. What is the hardest thing about playing for kids as opposed to playing the adult shows? The thing you really have to work at or is just hard for you to get through as a performer compared to playing for 35-year-olds?

I wouldn't say either is really hard. They're different audiences, but neither of them is hard per se. Kids' attentions... it's a little more like herding cats. It's really my responsibility as the band leader to keep them engaged. It's similar to a rock show, but maybe the pacing is a little quicker.

Do you play with a set play list?

With neither Bad Examples shows nor Ralph's World shows do I use a set list. We'll write a set list, but for me it's definitely a suggestion list. The guys that have played with me for years know that anything is liable to happen at any minute and they've learned after countless left turns and surprises to always be on their toes and to have faith that more often than not I've got a pretty good instinct about what will happen next.

If you're at a Ralph's World concert and the kids just don't seem to be getting into it are there particular songs that you'll turn to and say, "Let's do 'X' song next" and that never fails to get the kids energized and really focused on the show again?

Well, it really depends on what their needs are. There are times that the kids might be restless. You need to give them a bouncing or dancing song and they can get some blood flowing and get energized, so maybe a song like "Dinosaur Rumble" or "Fee Fi Fo Fum" might be great to put there. I need to make sure I balance in songs that keep the adults engaged and so if I've done some stuff that's more targeted toward the kids I follow up with "The Coffee Song" so the grownups can sing and have a smile. Songs like "We Are Ants" are always a favorite because when we ask "why are we marching?" we have the audience shout back "we are ants!"

Hold on just a second... [20-second pause]

I apologize. Talking rock 'n' roll logistics, we had the airline lose the 16' x 16' backdrop we put behind the stage and I needed to give him the right number.

Anyway, pumping the fists, shouting "we are ants!" gets everybody engaged. But it might be the kids are restless and need focus and I'll a song like "Me and My Animal Friends" because they listen very intently to that one. Sometimes you give them a listening song, sometimes a dancing or bouncing or physically energizing song, and sometimes, ironically, if you've put the audience through a lot of different things, sometimes they need a song they can listen to and just zone off on. Just kind of not sing, not dance, not clap, just a familiar song that doesn't require them to do much.

And the same thing happens at a Bad Examples show. There are times when you need to play a show that doesn't demand a lot of them and that's the lull before maybe you rev them up to the next level. And that's part of the fun of it with a live concert -- you're taking them on a journey. You're taking them to a bunch of different places.

You're trying to lead them places and that leads to emotions on the part of the parents and kids...

Yeah, that's part of the fun of live music, but they don't know where you're going, of course, and you're trying to surprise them and entertain them, but in a way, they're driving the bus because their needs are choosing where you're going on the journey. And every audience is different and every audience, the vibe is different and influences what the show becomes and it's a marvelous dialogue because there is that push and pull. There are artists that stick to a set list, but to me that's missing half the fun. To me the fun of it is that if you're in tune with the audience, they help lead the artist.

So do you like writing songs and recording them in the studio or do you prefer playing them live? If you could only do one... is it when you're playing live that the songs really become something to you or does recording have its own set of pleasures?

Well, you're absolutely right, playing live is a very unique and wonderful and awesome experience. Being in the studio, I love that equally, though it's a completely different process and experience. The one thing I love most of all that is at the heart of and the essence of what I do is the songwriting process, which is yet a third process completely different from recording and performing. It's the thing that if I had to choose one piece of it, it's the actual writing and creating of the songs. But I'm really happy I don't have to make that choice, because recording in the studio and playing live are both a blast.

I was reading a fan-written review of your recent Bad Examples show in Chicago and it mentioned you had even played some new songs there. One of the things that struck me about the review was that you played some new songs there. So clearly you're not only writing Ralph's World songs but also continuing to write songs for the Bad Examples. I know you've said before that you don't think of yourself as writing kids' songs but just as writing songs. But I'm wondering at what point in the process you decide this song would be great as a Bad Examples song or this song here is really not working as a Bad Examples song but would make a great Ralph's World song. There are some songs that you could play in both settings, but there are some songs that are clearly for one venue or the other and I'm wondering at what point you make the decision that this a song you're going to write for both audiences or for audience "x" or "y"?

Well, when the girl character in the song takes off her dress... [laughs] I don't stress about it really. When I'm writing songs, my goal is for the song to be all that song can be. I'm trying to shepherd that song into its becoming whatever it's supposed to be. You're right, there have been songs that I've written that have either played well in both venues or that I thought was writing in one venue and ended up in another. The song "Hideaway" off Green Gorilla was a Bad Examples and the guy who produced and engineered the Ralph's World stuff -- he and I had been working on a Bad Examples album together. Our record label (pre-Disney, indie label) wanted another upbeat rocker and they suggested a couple of cover songs... they begged me to do a cover version "Woolly Bully." And I said, "Love it. Don't get it in the context of Ralph's World."

So my producer remembered "Hideaway," which is a Bad Examples song. It was one of the ones we'd looked as we were going through demos for this record and he says, "I kinda feel like I'm robbing my brother to pay my sister, but what about doing "Hideaway" on the Ralph's World record instead of the Bad Examples record?" And I said, "Huh." I actually touches on pretty universal themes. A lot of things stay the same with Ralph's World and Bad Examples. Certainly melody is going to go either way, rhythm, emotional center is fine either way. Lyrics are stories and details... I feel like I'm not answering your question....

It sorta sounds like you write the song, let the chips fall where they may, and then say, is this something that seven-year-olds would be interested in listening to?

A lot songs I write where you know right off where the song is going. But because I'm trying to write them as pure songs, not kid songs... I wanted to write a kids' punk song, because there are fans that love punk music, and I love punk music, so on the Green Gorilla album there's a song called "I Don't Wanna." Energy-wise, emotion-wise, sound-recording-style, chordally, rhythmically, aggressively, it's as punk as you get...

You take away the lyrics, and you wouldn't know.

And, quite honestly, listening to the great classic punk songs, with the lyrics intact. That's one of the great things about the punk genre, they so often have their tongues planted so firmly in cheek. Look at a Clash song, "Lost in the Supermarket" -- that could be a kids' song.

Well, it is now a kids' song. Ben Folds recorded it for "Over the Hedge."

Well, there you go.

So are you working on a new album?

We are just beginning discussions on a new record. I'm very excited about that -- it'll be great to have the first all-new record with Disney. It's been really exciting to work with the great partners, with Disney, and with the tour with Rice Krispies and House of Blues and LiveNation. It's really exciting getting to work with great companies that really understand what they do and they're really committed to kids and rock and roll and finding a way to bridge a gap to make kids rock and roll an organic thing that encompasses both... By spring it'll be a juggling act between tour and album.

I recently heard the Park Slope Parents compilation -- I didn't know you were from Brooklyn. [laughs]

I'm not from Brooklyn but there are apparently enough Ralph's World fans in Brooklyn that they consider me one of their own...

The cut you contributed I really liked. It's actually a track on an album that's about ten years old; it's called "Fools Will Try." It's a great song. You probably wrote that at a time when your daughter was very and you probably wrote that with her in mind. I don't want to say that it's harder now that your daughter has entered double digits in age, but is it different now... I know you've said you're not thinking of kids when you're writing songs --

Oh, I am thinking of kids when I'm writing songs, but I'm not trying to write down to them...

How is it different now writing songs that kids will enjoy now that you've got a child who probably is no longer in the main target age of your audience.

Well, the first element of it is, ironically, the "Fools Will Try" song, which was written in some ways with Fiona in mind was not a kids song, of course. It was an adult song off an adult record. Obviously, the sentiment is one that was influenced by thinking about her. Certainly her childhood and her being a kid had an influence on my kids stuff, but I've always approached it as pure songwriting for songwriting's sake. I wasn't sitting in the room with her going, "OK, honey, I'm going to write you a song now because this is the way I'm going to parent you" --

I'm going to write you a song about zoos, do you like this?

Yeah, it was never that way. It is interesting with her growing older and out of the Ralph's World demographic, but the most interesting thing about that is she's grown up watching me create and write songs almost... it's a non-event that I do it. It's not a big deal, it's just what I do. You don't explain breathing, they breathe. It's interesting to watch her -- she writes songs. She's such a creative person, she just does it. So that's been the interesting thing about watching her grow out of the Ralph's World age, is swimming in the waters of music around her so long, just embrace and accept it that that's what you're supposed to do, is create.

So for me, I'm just continuing down my path of loving music, of writing songs, and record them, and being privileged enough to share them through CDs and concerts. My life is built around that. And sharing goes both ways -- they put me in their lives. You have the opportunity to give that gift and receive that gift, that is such a blessing. To see Fiona understand that and absorb it and create songs and write songs and add her voice.

That's just cool as a parent.

Awesome as a parent, awesome as an artist.

I've really enjoyed talking to you, but you've got to track down a banner.

We've got to track down a banner or our San Diego show will have no banner.

At least Stonehenge isn't two feet tall.

Exactly. [Laughs]

Again, I do very much appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today. Hopefully at some point the tour or you will come through Phoenix.

Oh, yes... I've got a bunch of friends in Phoenix, I want to come play!

OK, we'll let House of Blues know they need to establish a venue here.

Or a LiveNation spot. I'm gonna rattle some cages, tell them Phoenix is one of the markets we've gotta get to!

Best of luck on the rest of this tour, have fun recording the album.

Thank you so much.

Interview: Mr. David

When the children’s thing came knocking at the door, it was a light I hadn’t seen before. Children: they’re honesty, they’re excitement, they’re real human hearts, right in front of you. My first gig with the kids changed everything. It suddenly gave me this focus I hadn’t experienced before.

One of the most unique and creative kids' albums of the past year was Mr. David's The Great Adventures of Mr. David. Filled with flights of fancy, musically and lyrically, the album is, appropriately enough, rather adventurous. The San Jose-based Mr. David was kind enough to answer a few questions about his musical upbringing, the inspiration for some of his songs, and his band. (Thanks very much to Mr. David for his time.)

**********

My earliest memories of listening to music: I’m standing in my sister’s room at about 6 years-old, and I’m listening to The Cars, Duran Duran, The Cure, Joy Division . . . Hm, some other girly stuff I can’t remember. I do remember her room was full of colorful, little knick-knacks you get from the mall, little clippings of cute 80’s musicians on the floor, pink Good ‘n Plenty candy boxes on the bed -- I didn’t feel very hardcore in there.

I have older brothers too. My oldest brother, Paul, was a Deadhead at the age of fifteen, so all I heard from his room was “Terrapin Station” and “Shake Down Street.” (1985: my brother is burning incants and designing airports for fun -- Paul was a very smart kid.) My other brother, Yorgo, was into The Police and U2 (the early stuff, which I think is the best). Let’s see what else . . . oh, Bob Marley, The Beatles (The White Album), Peter Gabriel, Steve Miller, Pink Floyd, Midnight Oil, The Stones -- Yorgo had more music because he had more money than anyone else, and he was still a teenager. He was really good at holding jobs.

The first record I ever put on by myself was “Eye of the Tiger.” How funny is that? Life is full of strange stuff. I didn’t really play a lot of music until high school. This guy Jake was playing “Come As You Are” at lunchtime. It looked so simple and so cool. I wanted to become the song. I went home that day, found my Mom’s old guitar in the closet, and played Kurt’s opening riff for hours. It took a while before I was able to play and sing. I thought you had to be like God in order to do that. In fact, I’m still learning how to do that.

I still play that same guitar every once in a while, It’s a 1965 Karl Hauser, hand-crafted in West Germany. My Mom played it at Willow Glen High School in 1966. I graduated from the same school 31 years later. She says the guitar sounds better today. I used that guitar in spots in “Sea Song” (The Great Adventures of Mr. David) I also used it in “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in my first album for sentimental reasons.

I remember another enlightening experience I had with music was in 8th grade. It was during P.E., and we were walking the track because we were lazy skaters, with a typical 13 year-old bad attitude. My friend Sean takes off his head phones and says, “listen to this. . . . “GOOD DAY SUN SHINE, GOOD DAY SUN SHINE, GOOD DAY SUN SHINE, I NEED TO LAUGH AND WHEN THE SUN IS OUT . . . “ Oh, that got me running. End of story.
You have some background as an actor -- How did you decide that you wanted to play and record kids' music?

Auditions were getting old. You drive up to San Francisco to audition for something, get judged and go home feeling like, “What did I do with my life today?” It was cool when I got work, but it wasn’t really me. I wasn’t supposed to be placed in the background. I have too much to give. I didn’t feel like I was using the part of the brain that needed to be expressed. Student films were the best. I didn’t get paid, but man they were fun. We have some pretty funny little shorts around the house.

When the children’s thing came knocking at the door, it was a light I hadn’t seen before. Children: they’re honesty, they’re excitement, they’re real human hearts, right in front of you. My first gig with the kids changed everything. It suddenly gave me this focus I hadn’t experienced before. I knew I had focus in me, but it wasn’t tuned in until I started playing for the brats (I mean the kids!) I started writing more songs. They were flowing more honestly. I felt like the kids were constantly looking forward to another Mr. David song. It made me want to keep bringing them to the table. I didn’t ever ask an adult if this song worked. I’d play it for the kids a day or two after writing it, and they’d always let me know if the song was worth putting on the album.

I wrote a song the other day called, “Jump in the Jumpy House.” I can’t wait to record it for the next album. I’m playing it live now, and the response is awesome. (It has a James Brown vibe.) Anyway, the kids thing just took off, felt right and so I went with it.

Were any of the songs on "The Great Adventures" inspired by adventures of your own?

Yes, most were adventures through my mind. But, all of the sea and beach songs like, “In the Storm, Fighting the Octopus,” “Surf’s Up All Around the World,” “Dream Away; Sail Away” and “Sea Song,” were all pretty much influenced by driving over Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz in the early morning. I always find the morning is one of the best times for lyrics. The morning is a good time to go fishing for songs. Even Mick Jagger said so in his documentary “Being Mick.” It almost sounds too simple, but that’s the way I work. I always find it interesting to record or just remember the date and time when a song comes. There’s a different feel to a song, depending on the environment and time of day.

I visited San Miguel, Mexico on my honeymoon, and it was a lot of fun. I did more writing in my journal than actual songs. Here’s a funny story how “La Cucaracha” was born. We had dinner at one of the best “slow food” restaurants in Mexico. We’re feeling good, and walked out of the restaurant to head back to our house. My wife is standing in a farm of cockroaches. She jumps and screams, I look down, and it’s gross. These creatures are running around, dancing around her feet. She steps on one and it cracks! But, it still runs away like you gave it fuel. We keep walking and she says: “You should write a song called ‘La Cucaracha,’ and have the kids jump every time they see one.” We wrote the song that night out on a cobblestone street.

People walked by and thought we were crazy, between the two of us jumping up and down and yelling “La Cucaracha!” Mexico was fun, man. We had a lot of good food and everything and all of a sudden there was a “LA CUCARACHA!!” It works! Let’s put it on the album.

"Pearl" is a song that’s close to my heart. I played baseball when I was young. I didn’t play in high school, because I was too busy growing out my hair, and trying to be a Beatle. Funny thing is, I still have this connection to baseball in a more sentimental way. There’s something old and haunting about it. I think about families on their way to a ball game. I think about the way a child feels at the game and how their perspective is about dreams, and all the good stuff in life. I think about my baseball card collection and how a Ricky Henderson rookie card meant more to me then a warm meal. One day I thought about a kid catching a homerun ball, catching a dream, or a pearl, and giving it back to Dad. It just made sense while I wrote it. And I got all teary eyed.

I wrote “Backyard” in my backyard. Didn’t have to go too far to find that one.

Some of my elementary students helped me write “Rock n Roll” (the Lizard one). We were all sitting around one day, every one was chill and I thought, “Hey let’s write a song.” We did it in 30 minutes, lyrics and music. These kids get it. Kids are just cool like that.

The album has a very relaxed and loose feel -- was that just carefully planned recording, or did you intentionally seek out that sound?

The relaxed and loose feel just happened that way. I didn’t plan that.

Some of the songs, particularly the instrumentals, have a very "painting with sound" feel to them. How well do those go over in concert compared to more straightforward songs like "I'm A Fish"?

I must admit the straightforward tunes like “I’m a Fish,” “Rock ‘n Roll,” and “Come to the Plaza” are good dance tunes for concerts. That’s the kind of solid playing you need at shows. I find people are more interested in up beat tunes, especially at 1 in the afternoon. It’s always good to stick with tunes that make fans move. They don’t want to sleep at that time. I try to keep my shows UP. I don’t want to lose people with a dreamy octopus song.

I also think “Dream Away; Sail Away” works better for the album then in concert. Those songs could work better while driving with the family on a trip, or an hour before bedtime while things are winding down.

It’s interesting you mention a “painted feel.” I love to paint. A painted sound is much looser. It could be some form of meditation. I like to get lost in the song. It’s all a part of the trippy experience.

Which are your favorite songs to play?

Sea Song
I’m a Fish
Come to the Plaza
La Cucaracha
Rock n Roll
Pearl

Tell me a bit more about your band, The Buckwild.

I was in a band called “Scapegrace” We broke up a couple mouths ago, but The Buckwild (our children’s project) has basically the same members as Scapegrace.

Mr. David: guitar/lead vocals
Richard Ajlouny :guitar/vocals/mandolin
Ryan Westphal : Bass
Adam Aharon: Drums

Our first big show was September 17, 2005 at Bonfante Gardens It’s still going strong. We just came back from a pretty cool show in Thousand Oaks (LA). We were doing both Scapegrace and The Buckwild thing for a while. The other members saw The Buckwild as something more promising. Adult music for us meant playing in a bar for 13 people. It just looked bad so we dropped it. Scapegrace did influence our Buckwild sound for sure.

I think that’s what’s unique about me. I don’t change my music for the kids. It’s basically the same stuff I’d be playing for adults. And, the same is true for my bandmates. Good music is good music. Scapegrace affected The Buckwild’s project in that the adult back beat and rhythms were moved over for the children, and I think that’s why parents can enjoy the show too. But, of course, we use kid friendly lyrics.

The children’s music helps the adult music in that it lightens it up. I like to keep things simple, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have deep meaning or are not well thought out. So whether I’m doing children’s music or adult, I still apply a lot of the same methods.

What would you like to see in Mr David's future?

We’ve always had a vision of Mr. David as something larger than just the music. I’d hope that someday, we would be able produce some of our ideas for different kinds of content for kids—music, books, programs—with the music as the linchpin for it all. My wife is a writer and designer; I’m a writer, illustrator, musician and painter. We’ve got great ideas for books and programs. We just need to find the right partners to help us get there.

My hope is that we can go national, even international, and win enough of an audience to start branching out and doing other things (with music always being at the center of it all.)

Also, I’m really proud to say that I’m putting out a kind of children’s music that really is different, and I hope that my music will help to change how people think about music for their children. I see the change happening in a larger sense in this genre, with artists like Dan Zanes and They Might Be Giants, and I want to be a part of that, in a big way.

Mr. David