Interview: Rafael Atijas (Loog Guitars)

I'd stumbled across the Loog Guitar on Kickstarter within a day or two of its project being introduced on the site. Within another couple days after that, the project -- a three-string guitar with interchangeable parts that could be assembled with kids -- had already met its funding goal.

And why not? The combination of a kid- (not to mention adult-)friendly design and sustainable production was, unsurprisingly, a big hit. At this point, two weeks before its funding deadline, it's already reached more than $52,000 in pledges, 3 1/2 times its funding goal. Even musician nerds (and I mean that in the best way) like Chris Ballew expressed interest in the project.

The creator of the Loog, Rafael Atijas, answered a few questions about inspirations for the guitar, direct and indirect, why someone might one instead of a ukulele, and the source of its curious name.

Zooglobble: What are your musical memories growing up?
Rafael Atijas: I remember when I was 12 and I decided I wanted to be in a band. But I had no idea how to play guitar and this is what i thought: "I'm too old (:-))... it will take me forever to learn how to play guitar... I'd better pick up the bass, since it has less strings and should be easier/faster to learn." I guess that was really the beginning of Loog Guitars.
When did you first come up with the idea for the Loog Guitar? Was there a particular inspiration?
It was a little bit out of pressure: I had to come up with a business idea for my thesis (I was doing my Master's at New York University) and I knew it had to be something I really liked, because I was going to spend the next few months completely absorbed by it. I don't remember the exact moment when I put the whole idea together, but I guess I narrowed it to something that blended music and design (my two passions), incorporated a few trends I saw (the DIY movement, the value for natural, sustainable materials), and I really wanted to create a product that had a real benefit for those who use it. One product that did serve as inspiration is the LikeABike bicycles. In a way, one could say that what they did for children's bicycles, we are trying to do for children's guitars.

How long did it take you to refine the design to the point where you were ready to apply for the Uruguay Innovation Agency grant and to try Kickstarter?
I started working on this in my head in December 2009, and working on the actual design and business plan in January 2010. It took us about 9 months to refine the design (a lot of iterations, prototyping and testing), and by September 2010 I applied for the Uruguayan Innovation Agency grant. By that time, I also discovered Kickstarter and submitted the project (to be pre-approved by them).

Do you have any sense what percentage of the guitars are being bought by families (as opposed to adults for themselves)?
Not really, or not to the point of having percentages (we don't get access to our Kickstarter backers' information until after the campaign is over). But I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of all buyers are adults wanting the guitars for themselves. Even the short-scale model is a favorite among my grown-up friends.

What advantages does the Loog have over a ukulele?
I wouldn't really know in which way the Loog Guitars are better than ukuleles. I love ukuleles too... but I guess a guitar is always a guitar, if you are into pop, rock, folk, blues, at least. My take would be: if you want a ukulele, then a ukulele is better; if what you want is a small guitar, then I guess ours is better, since it is actually a guitar (with guitar strings, etc.).

Where did the name "Loog" come from?
It's my subtle but very meaningful homage to Andrew Loog Oldham, the first manager and producer of The Rolling Stones (see here). I always found him to be a fascinating character (I'm a rock nerd, as you can see) and back when I had a band I had a chance to meet him and he was super kind to us.

Photos courtesy of Loog Guitars.

Interview: Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer

Do family musicians have long careers because they have lots of ideas, or do they have lots of ideas because they've had long careers? While you're pondering the chicken-and-egg nature of the question, you can read this interview with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, who might be exhibit A for consideration of the question. Over the course of more than 25 years of making music together full-time, they've got a lot of different plates spinning - albums, concerts, ukulele orchestras, creating musical curricula, and much more.

Their latest endeavor is called Sing to Your Baby, a book/CD set designed to encourage parents, grandparents, and other caregiver to, er, sing to their babies. The idea that everyone should sing to and with their kids from the get-go is an important one to me, so I wanted to spend a few minutes chatting with Fink and Marxer about the project. And, as if to emphasize the duo's reach across the broad spectrum of family music, we started out chatting about one of kindie music's hot new groups, the Pop Ups, and ended by talking about living legend Ella Jenkins.

Zooglobble: Good morning!
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: Good morning... so are you looking forward to going to Kindiefest?

I am. You?
We don't think we're going, but if plans change, we'll try... We're excited that the Pop Ups will be playing there.

As am I... It was interesting to me the first time I listened to this random CD and found out that y'all were on one of the songs.
Yes, and now one of the two, Jacob Stein, his father, Michael Stein, is the male vocalist on our album.

Really? [Checks his copy of the book.] Wow. Hadn't made the connection.
Cathy: Yes, he was in Country Current, the Navy's country band, when I first met him in the '70s. Later he performed and wrote songs for the Dinosaur Rock series. More recently, he became a cantor out in California.

OK, so I usually start out interviews by asking people what their earliest musical memories are. In this particular case, I'm wondering what memories you have of music-making and singing by your parents.
Marcy: I grew up in Detroit and my mom sang in a jazz trio. My grandmother was a barrelhouse blues player -- she knew everybody. There were a lot of black string bands made up of people who came up from places like Louisiana and St. Louis to work in the factories. People were expected to play, and if they didn't plan, they'd sing. We'd go to my grandma's house, or to parties and dances at the Henry Ford compound.

I remember having a tremendous bond with family members. When you're playing music, opinions don't get in the way. There's an equality between people. Now, at kids' concerts, we want parents and kids to sit, and sing, together. The new book is an early extension of that philosophy.

Cathy: I had a lot less music, but my mom was a good piano player, good at sight-reading music at the piano. So I remember her accompanying me as a four-year-old on my two favorite songs, "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Little Brown Jug."

Marcy: There's a big difference in how we grew up. I followed, but Cathy is an instigator of fun and music.

That doesn't surprise me. So moving on the CD itself -- what was the specific inspiration for it?
Cathy: There were two specific things. The first is that over the past 25 years, we heard repeatedly from parents that wanted to sing to their kids but didn't know how to or were told that they were no good at it. Then about four years ago, I was asked to serve on a local committee looking at how to engage families in the arts. The committee never went anywhere, but I was ready to go.

We wanted to start from birth, from the very beginning. We wanted to empower parents -- songs written in keys anybody can sing in, to create access... We had this vision of people listening with an earbud in one ear, the other ear listening to the baby, with the baby only hearing the parent's voice. In reality, though, we know people will use it how it's the most convenient for them.

The other inspiration was the opportunity to lead a singalong for a friend of ours who recently became a grandparent. We all gathered at someone's house and passed Chloe [the grandmother] around the group and each of us had a chance to sing songs to her.

How did we get to this point where so many people say they can't sing? Why do people feel that way?
Cathy: Well, some people are just told they can't sing. But our culture lets people push a button and be entertained. We try to do more -- we teach, sing with others, teach ukulele. Dan Zanes does a lot to encourage this, too. But we're all so busy... I realize the irony in that Sing to Your Baby uses electronics, but only as an aid. We heard a story about a 4-year-old whose family had an advance copy of the album who brought in her baby doll and sang to her.

We live in a fast-paced society. It used to be that parents were the entertainment center... [With the album,] anybody could feel that they could do this.

What is the source of the songs -- are they new, or have you had them sitting around for awhile?
Marcy: One song was re-purposed.
Cathy: It was a song of Marcy's called "Wherever You Go"
Marcy: I wrote it a long time ago for a godchild whose parents suddenly died.
Cathy: It was from our album Air Guitar. It was a beautiful song to end this album. It's about unconditional love -- a baby needs to understand that they're loved unconditionally.

What's next for you?
Cathy: We're doing workshops for new parents and caregivers to empower them, using the book as a textbook, sort of, plus giving tips.

As for the future, we have lots of thoughts and plans -- ten pages of things we want to do. We always have, like, 5 things going on. We're working a lot with the ukulele, doing music therapy practice. There are recordings on the horizon, but we have a lot of recordings out. I never run out of ideas...

By the way, I liked the review you did of the new Ella Jenkins CD...

Thanks... she seems to engender these feelings of adoration and total respect wherever she goes, as you would know.
Cathy: And she does the same thing everywhere she did at the Grammys. We were at an awards presentation for her recently that was held in a big church and she had all the men handclapping to "Miss Mary Mack." We can make the world a better place if we all sang.
Photo credit: Sara R. Coats. Illustrations by James Nocito.

Interview: Cory Cullinan (Doctor Noize)

Cory Cullinan, the musician/genius/madman behind Doctor Noize is both a very funny and a very loquacious man. The interview below, which was conducted in late December, was even longer what's printed below. I left out jokes and I left out even more of the obvious passion Cullinan brings to his unique family music project. Even if you've never heard of Doctor Noize (or even if you have and can't forgive him for writing that "Banana" song that's still stuck in your head), read on find out more about his musical upbringing, crazy musical plans, and views on U.S. Men's National Soccer Team coach Bob Bradley.

Zooglobble: What are your early musical memories growing up?
Cory Cullinan: Well, my parents used me as a drum. I think. My head's a little fuzzy on that. Pretty much the only rock band we listened to when I was a little kid was the Beatles, and they're still probably my favorite band. Other than that it was musical theater and classical music.

I took piano lessons, sang a lot, and played saxophone. The sax I play onstage as Dr. Noize is still the Yamaha student model I played in elementary school. The first records I bought were Queen's The Game and Saturday Night Fever... I met Howard Jones in my teens and he was super cool to me. I loved his DIY approach to making music and his unabashedly positive, anti-whine philosophical message. I learned to play a bunch of rock songs and started writing and recording my own songs on cheap Yamaha and Casio synths I bought in Hong Kong.

My most significant early musical memories were in high school with my friend Mark Van Horn. His parents were not rich, but his dad nonetheless somehow funded a makeshift eight-track recording studio in the janitor's room at the apartment complex he managed. Mark and I spent virtually all our time there when I wasn't playing soccer. We wrote and recorded entire albums together in our teens, learning both the artistic and technical craft of songwriting and recording. One of those recordings -- "Gotta Teach Others To Enjoy Life" -- is actually used unchanged in our new Doctor Noize online game, Who Dropped The Block? That's 17-year-old me writing and singing all the harmonies. We went deep.

So Mark introduced me to the recording studio and my future wife, then he died in his twenties of a brain tumor -- just like my brother. Crazy. Mark and my brother inspired much of my life's philosophy, really -- I sort of do a lot of things in honor of them -- and they were two of the funniest and most naturally brilliant guys I've ever met. And I was hooked -- on both the music and the girl.

I listened to and played a lot of rock and pop music, then started to find the genre a bit too musically conservative to keep my fire intrigued. I know everybody in mainstream America thinks rock is rebellious and challenging and classical music is conservative, but musically speaking that is precisely backward. That's a whole other conversation.

So I went to Stanford and enjoyed degrees in Music and Political Science. I performed in the Stanford Chamber Chorale with both Dave Kim (co-founder of Outblaze) and Kyle Pickett (the amazing conductor of CA's North State Symphony, who I now play concerts with). I forged a lifelong friendship with Jay Kadis, who runs the recording studio at Stanford and taught me a lot more about recording techniques, and Jay and I still get together to record some of the Doctor Noize tracks at Stanford when I'm in town. (Don't tell the university -- this interview isn't gonna be published, right???)

What specific event or two made you turn to family music?

Well, I met Jimi Hendrix in a dream, and he said... Oh sorry, wrong audience. I was talking to Berlioz about writing his Fantastic Symphony in an opium-induced frenzy of creativity and... Oh sorry, wrong audience.

The two most significant events were the births of my action/adventure superhero daughters. I [also] loved teaching high school music and conducting choirs, and found that there was nothing better than connecting with kids about music. So I wanted to apply that to younger kids like my own kids. I took my kids to see shows by a wonderful guy in the San Francisco Bay Area named Andy Z, and my kids and I decided that daddy should do that too.

What I really wanted to do was create a live show that would engage both kids and the adults in the CREATIVE PROCESS. I would watch kids' entertainment of many kinds with my children, and I'd appreciate 'em because my kids liked 'em, but not necessarily have any inherent interest in it myself. I have attempted to make my show of interest to the whole family by including insane amounts of energy for the kids, and an insane web of musicianship and technology for the adults.

I'm a one-man-band who plays a bunch of different instruments onstage and arranges and records songs live. Adults quickly get the sense that there is an element of danger involved for me onstage -- any number of technological or musical things could go wrong -- and it's fun to watch. Like watching ice skaters to see if they're gonna fall. Admit it -- that's why you watch ice skating. It's okay.

Frankly, this element of danger and insanity makes the shows interesting for me too. I also wanted the show to be very interactive and actually ABOUT the creative process. Kids are taught how to play music, but they're not often taught how to CREATE it. So that was a little bit of inspiration I felt I could add to the typical family musical experience. Kids leave Doctor Noize shows singing "Banana" -- but they also try to figure out the meter of the next song they hear, because we do stuff like that in the show.

Finally, like most of us in this business, I was a commercially unsuccessful adult artist. I loved the music and had some die-hard fans, and even had a few songs slip into movies and TV that still make me some money, but never figured out a way to make it a full-time legit profession with the crazy eclectic music I wanted to play. If I had been playing in the late sixties and early seventies instead of the corporate and minimalist rock nineties, maybe it would've flown. Or not. Who cares? It was fun while it lasted.

So really, I was just looking for a way to stay off the street and out of prison like Merle Haggard. Or not.

What was the inspiration for your different take on kids' music -- the musical theater / rock opera approach? (The question I'm pretending Stefan wrote but that I actually am writing)
There are many wonderful people doing wonderful songs for kids. Some of the best and most experienced have graced me with their friendship and support, like Roger Day and Justin Roberts and Zak Morgan and Yosi and Steve Weeks. Really good people make really good children's music. There are so many great kids' pop rock musicians out there, I figured my contribution to the traditional pop/rock genre was not necessary. It's already being done so well.

So I decided I wanted to do a "work of musical theater" approach, what Mindy at XM called "my rock operas for kids." The former teacher in me always keeps an education geek hiding underneath my overt craziness, and the insight I learned as a teacher was this:

Get people hooked on a character and a story and they will go deep with you. They will be voracious to learn.

I wanted to teach classical music history to high school kids. Everyone said I was nuts. I was nuts, by the way, and that's precisely why I could relate to the kids. My feeling was that nothing reflects passion and intellect and soul and dedication more than the great composers and their masterpieces, and despite the fact that mainstream American culture assumes kids can't handle complexity and length, I know they can. The key is getting them CURIOUS. How do you get 'em curious?

What I learned as a teacher is that all you have to do is be a storyteller and truly reflect the passion behind the music. Anyone will respond to it then. You tell the amazing story of how Berlioz conceived and wrote the Symphony Fantastique, how Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the Ninth, how there was a riot at Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring because so many people HATED it -- and then you just say:

You don't wanna hear it, do you?

And of course, they always do. Who with a heartbeat, a brain and a soul wouldn't? And once a kid is curious... They realize the music is rebellious, deep, magnificent beyond conventional imagination. Within two years my little music history class was so popular it was made a required course for freshmen at the high school where I taught. And that is maybe the coolest thing I've ever done. Sure, the occasional fart joke added to the course's appeal -- but mostly it was the journey we took together.

We're spending thousands of dollars and hours on free Learning Adventures at Doctor Noize Inc. [They] go deep inside the music in ways that conventional American wisdom says kids are too shallow to appreciate. I am telling you they're not too shallow.

I am now being commissioned to write a 45-60 minute orchestral work for kids that will become the fourth Doctor Noize album, book and related productions. (The first three installments, for 2010, 2011 and 2012, are already written.) This came out of Doctor Noize shows I've performed with orchestra and I couldn't be more excited about it. The next album, The Return Of Phineas McBoof (Fall 2011), has an orchestral version of "Banana" with opera superstar Nathan Gunn. It's got goofy recitatives and everything. It's my six-year-old's favorite track on the next album. She gets the joke.

So anyway, my insight was to create family musical works with interesting characters and storylines that are connected to subtle Music Appreciation Indoctrination... I figured that if I attached the journey to fun characters and stories -- just like I did when I taught high school classical music history -- many kids would hop on board and take a musical journey that was far more eclectic and challenging than the typical family album. I realize that the parents who want to hear the next Puff The Magic Dragon or easy-listening children's music might hate what I do -- and frankly, I'm happy to lose that audience. It shapes my audience into the kind of audience I want to connect with. The audience at my shows are gamers. They're ready to come up onstage and do something crazy.

You have a big sense of humor -- how has working with kids made you funnier?
Stefan, it's not that I'm laughing with them -- I'm laughing at them. Really, honestly, how could you not laugh at what I do? I left a very successful career as a high school music teacher and department head to go do something speculative at best. It was not technically the smart thing to do. I worked long hours to get exactly where I wanted in my teaching career, and then just up and retired from it once I was on top. I didn't start Doctor Noize part-time -- I left my job and went full-time with no guaranteed salary. My wife supported this and is a saint.

When you take risks in life, the only way to go is to have a sense of humor. Not to get all serious on you, but my problems are so trivial they're laughable. I've known people with real problems who dealt with them with grace and courage. My wife and daily hero is legally blind, yet a blazing success in career and motherhood. My only brother and my dad both died when I was a teenager. My best musical friend also died of a brain tumor (like my brother) in his early twenties. That all sucked. What I learned from all this -- particularly from my teenage brother's amazing response to his fatal illness, when he displayed a wisdom and courage that I try to emulate every day of my life -- is a total cliché:

Love your life. Figuring out how to do what you love, and spending time with people you love, fuels your days with joy, meaning and purpose. Everything else is inefficient fussing. Some people will not love what you do, and that's fine, because if you do what you love, you will always find an audience. People connect with people who are obviously doing what they love, because most people wish that's what they were doing and wanna know how they can gather the courage to do it, even if people think it's crazy. So life is simple: Define your version of awesome and then go be it. Don't worry if it's not someone else's version of awesome. And when it doesn't go your way, try to redefine awesome by having the grace and courage that my brother had in extreme circumstances.

If you look at every single Doctor Noize character, the constant is this: They're doing what they love even though some people think it's crazy. Phineas is an imperfect character who essentially says to you: I love you because you have the courage to do what you think is right. Whether I like what you do is irrelevant; I am inspired by you because you are pursuing your passion. Have that courage and find people to connect with through it.

What I learned that is slightly less of a cliché is this: No matter how well you sketch things out, there are gonna be times of stability and times of instability in your life. So you might as well come armed with a sense of humor and the knowledge that life is not generally gonna hand you the keys to the kingdom on a platter. People are not gonna agree with you on everything, so don't get all fussed up when they don't. Love 'em anyway, even if you think they're ridiculous. They probably are -- but so are you.

Then, when things do go your way: You think that's just as insanely funny as when they don't. But you're really the same guy either way. Or girl. I'm really the same girl either way. Or guy.

How did the partnership with Outblaze come about?
I threatened them. I said: "Hey Big Company Outblaze, if you don't sign a deal with Doctor Noize, then you won't have a deal with Doctor Noize." I think that was a really compelling argument on my part and it really put our partnership over the top. Outblaze's animation and game studio, Dream Cortex, has done all sorts of amazing production work through partnerships with Hello Kitty, Tom & Jerry, Turner, Ben10, and Paris Hilton. Okay, not Paris Hilton -- I just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.

Anyway, I was touring in the San Francisco Bay Area, and ran into the co-founder of Outblaze and Dream Cortex, Dave Kim. I hadn't seen him for over a decade, since our Stanford student days singing in the Stanford Chamber Chorale together, and had no idea he'd become this titan of industry. That's my term, not his. Anyway, Dave heard about Doctor Noize, came to a show in Silicon Valley, saw a bunch of screaming kids having a great time, and said: "Let's do this!"

That's the way things usually work in great businesses where people are in it for more than the money: Creative friendly people meet other creative friendly people and stuff happens. Just about everyone I've met in this bizness -- from my peer recording artists to the lady who books the local library -- is in it to get inspired and do great fun things for people. It's a fantastic bizness of fantastically well-intentioned people.

Dave is a gifted musician, and so is Outblaze's co-founder Yat, who's a cellist trained at the Vienna Conservatory. Dave even sits on the Board of the world's largest classical label, Naxos -- and he really likes the idea of a family brand with insanely high musicianship. We get crazy talent on the recordings -- I've found that after I give my "I'm slightly crazy, you're awesome, and here's what I wanna do with you on this wildly unconventional family album" pitch to (X Established Musican), they always wanna do it. So far I have a 100% recruiting record on talent I seek for the recordings. (I'm sure someone will pass on the offer at some point.) And they usually say something like: "Nobody ever asks me to do crazy stuff anymore, this is a blast."

Most people think kids can only handle a simple two-minute song about a simple subject. I completely and totally and vociferously and (enter an even more obstinate adjective here) disagree. Kids are way more curious and open to creativity than adults. The truth is: It's adults who are set in their ways and can't handle as much wild creativity as kids. But when adults go somewhere with kids, they drop their preconceptions and will open their mind to many more things.

That, in a nutshell, is the best thing about doing family music and multimedia. It brings generations together, inspires kids, and reminds adults what life is about. The audience gifts me that reminder every show I play.

What are you looking forward to being able to do with Outblaze that you couldn't do before?
Um, everything. I get to realize my dreams with them. I'm like a kid in a candy store with Dream Cortex (Outblaze's animation and game production studio). I could not praise them more highly. I get to come up with ideas for games and videos and books and websites and educational curriculums, and then I have this wonderful team of creative animators and programmers who make those visions a reality with me.

Also, I get to fly to Hong Kong. This should not be underemphasized, because there are these amazing new planes that go to Hong Kong and you can watch like four movies on them and play games on your personal screen. I saw Tropic Thunder last time. Quality film, should have won 107 Oscars. Also, they give you free little booties for your feet. I don't know why.

So now in addition to albums, the books are all in 3D animation, we do 3D animated videos, online games, iPhone and iPad games, educational multimedia curriculums, merchandize, and Doctor Noize transcontinental airplanes. Except the transcontinental airplanes.

I am up late working like a dog and having Skype meetings with the production crew in Hong Kong more often than not now, but the metaphor is apt: Dogs love what they do and make no distinction between work and play.

What trepidations did you have upon signing the deal?
I had a lot of trepidations, and they all seem ridiculous now. My trepidations centered around this: I am at heart an indie guy. I like being the little guy who shakes things up and acts like companies with money on the line would never act. It's fun. I know that many of my wonderful peers in family music feel the same way -- we're drawn to the genre because we love kids and because in many ways, this genre is the closest thing to indie rock left. You can get fairly "big" in this genre and still be quite small. That is dreamy.

Outblaze has been amazing and given me the opportunity of a lifetime. They basically said, in a nutshell:

We like the fact that you're crazy and have all these wild ideas. We have brilliant animators and programmers and we think the combination of your creative and musical ideas and our established production house will be garbanzos. (Okay, they didn't say garbanzos...) We're not trying to make you go all vanilla -- we have production people who very much get what you're doing and can help you make it even better.

Everybuddy at the new company really enjoys working together and believes in what we're doing. Of course we don't know how successful we'll be commercially, there will be bumps in the road, and you never know what will transpire around the corner. But we do know that we really feel strongly about what we do and are very proud of the productions. That is an opportunity many creative people never get -- to do what they want to do at the production level they dream of -- and I'm consciously thankful for it every day.

These interview answers are almost as long as Waterworld.

What's next for you/Doctor Noize?
Our first iPhone app -- Bananas! -- just came out. Today it is #20 in Kazakhstan. I am not making that up. I have no explanation for this. I recorded a whole album's worth of different versions of the song "Banana" -- all in different genres -- for it. A shiny new single -- "I'm With The Band" -- and reimagined rerelease of The Ballad Of Phineas McBoof -- CD and book -- was also just released. And a brand new 3D animated video of "Banana," a new online game with its own new Doctor Noize soundtrack, and an extensive Learning Adventures educational curriculum are free online at doctornoize.com.

Later this year we release The Return Of Phineas McBoof -- a full line of multimedia products based on the sequel to The Ballad Of Phineas McBoof. Production on Return has already begun -- in fact, the storyline and songs of the first five Doctor Noize albums and books are already written and sketched out. We have some really interesting things up our sleeves in the years to come... The other multimedia products will flow from these albums and books.

If we can sell enough of these productions, we'll keep making 'em. If we can't, we'll stop. The only thing I can promise is that great fun, purpose and passion will be poured without restraint into the productions, the musicianship and animation will be top notch, and the results will reflect that. Whether my version of awesome is your version of awesome is of course up to you.

What do you think of re-signing Bob Bradley to the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team for another 4 years?
Finally an important question. Bradley didn't call me up to the US camp this year, even though Team USA was hurting for forwards and I briefly held a roster spot on the Stanford Varsity Soccer Team many years ago before ending my Somewhat Serious Athletic Ambitions to go all in for music. I feel my omission was an oversight on Bradley's part. I mean, no US forwards have scored for two World Cups straight, so I pose this irrefutable rhetorical question:

What harm would it have done to start me at forward this World Cup? I can guarantee you it would not have created a drop-off in the measurable metric of "forward goal scoring production." (For those keeping score, I'm pretty sure all rhetorical questions are, in fact, irrefutable -- the glorious twin sister byproduct of unanswerable...) So I was kind of hoping the new coach would gimme a ring. Then I find out the new coach is the old coach.

Interview: Recess Monkey

Longtime readers will know that we're big fans of Jack Forman, Daron Henry, and Drew Holloway -- AKA the Seattle trio Recess Monkey -- here at Zooglobble HQ. Great songwriting, engaging live act, down-to-earth guys, not-entirely-overbearing handpuppet band manager, the band's got it all. They're busy busy busy all the time -- they're recording their next album with producer Tor Hyams this month while probably planning even more cool stuff with the Seattle-based Kindiependent collective -- but still found time to answer a few questions. So without further ado, please enjoy.

Zooglobble: What were your earliest musical memories?
Jack Forman: I remember going on long road trips around Indiana, listening to Beatles and Johnny Mathis 8-tracks with my parents. I think Anne Murray was in there too. My mom was always extremely musical, and my dad thought he was, so they encouraged me to try instruments out.

Daron Henry: My first musical memory is listening to "Here Comes the Sun" while sitting on my grandparents' kitchen counter. I think that I was 4. As a kid I was always dancing...so much so that my first grade teacher called me "The Dancing Bear" after a Captain Kangaroo character.

Drew Holloway: I'll never forget the look my Dad gave me when we came out of Record Revolution in King of Prussia, PA with a copy of Van Halen's 1984. I begged him to get the record after watching "Jump" on MTV hundreds of times. He must have seen potential in my augmented air guitar (playing a broom up on our couch) that helped him overlook the striking cover! My father's finger tapping on the dashboard to the AM radio hits we listened to on the way home from baseball practice and his openness with his record collection (The Beatles, Beach Boys, Jim Croce and Chet Atkins) are truly etched as early musical memories for me.
What are your musical memories from being in bands pre-Recess Monkey?
Jack: I took cello lessons in the music building at Indiana University when I was four or five. I have two distinct memories (neither of which relate to actually being able to play the cello, sadly): my instructor had extremely bad breath, masked by lemon cookies, and whenever she wasn't looking I'd lift my tiny 1/4 size cello onto my knee and play it like a guitar. It took twenty years to pick up the bass for the first time, but I think this was definitely an omen! We have a fan here in Seattle who's about the same age that I was who just started taking electric bass lessons! It's such a coup! Who ever heard of starting with BASS!? It's a total score for all of the bass players in the kindie scene!

Daron: I started playing percussion in middle school. I went on to play bass drum and quads in the marching band in high school. I taught myself how to play the drum kit in college so that I could play in a punk rock band with my friends. After that I played in all kinds of bands from rockabilly to goth dance!

Drew: In high school, a number of geeky cross country runners, me included, got together at my house to make lots of loud noise in the basement. Again, props to my parents for their support, and homemade pizza as we rambled through Stevie Ray Vaughn inspired "gems." I think my Zoom effects processor clouded the fact that I wasn't really playing actual chords.

Thinking back to the very first RM album, how (if at all) has your philosophy/songwriting approach on music for families changed from then 'til now?
Jack: One thing that hasn't changed- we put all of our faith in Drew and it always kind of works out.

Daron: I think that our songs have changed because we continue to challenge ourselves and each other.

Drew: We've been working hard to grow as people, teachers and parents and I think that process has informed our approach to writing, recording and performing songs. It's a growth mentality where it's kind of necessary that we are pushing ourselves creatively.

Jack: Something else we notice is the songs continue to be more and more danceable, and they invariably become 10-20 bpm faster when we introduce them live.

Who came up with the idea for Mayor Monkey? Does he have his own insanely devoted fans?
Jack: We were recording the second half of our first album, and liked the idea of someone to introduce us and the album. We were really scratching our heads about it, and then suddenly there was a knock on the door. Drew opened it, and there, suitcase and overcoat in hand, was Mayor Monkey.

Drew: Sometimes I wish we had just pretended not to be home. I feel bad about saying that. It's just that...

Daron: MayMo would like to think that he has as many FB fans as Lamb Chop, one of his show biz heroes. But alas this is not the case.

MayMo: I would like to interject here! I might not have a lot of fans... but I do think that they may be insane.

How do you do so much (recording an album every year, DVDs, touring) and still hold down full-time jobs? What's the band's division of labor?
Jack: The funny answer to this is "we're sponsored by Starbucks." (Okay, not that funny)

Daron: possibly a Time Machine?

MayMo: Not to Brag...but, I think that it is due to my ability to organize and keep these boys on track!

Jack: We feel really lucky that each of us has a really unique, and complimentary skill set. Plus, we just have an insane amount of trust in each other.

Would you rather be writing, recording, or playing live?
Daron: Every part of the process has its own charm. I personally love seeing the journey of a song...from the mind of Drew to the studio and then being slowly transformed in front of a live audience.

Drew: Watching a parent smiling at their kiddo singing or dancing along to one of our tunes is pretty grand, as is the excitement of loading in to the studio for a new session... yet as a songwriter there's a special magic around the spark of an idea; creating melodies and wordsmithing, that takes the cake for me.

Jack: What's great about being prolific is we never have the chance to get tired of any of it.

MayMo: Well, personally, I like the part where the song makes money!

Jack: And when is that, exactly?

Have you found that Kindiependent has helped further increase the visibility of the Seattle family music scene? What else would you like to see Kindiependent do?
Jack: We were really inspired by what we saw in Kansas City last year when we played the amazing Jiggle Jam festival. They really have dialed in a supportive, collaborative music scene there, full of bands truly respect and help each other. We came back with wind in our sails, eager to help build that kind of an atmosphere here in Seattle. The great news is, we were already friends with lots of other bands that we loved- and we had all already played shows together. Really, all we had to do was give a name to what was already starting to happen!

Daron: One of the other cool outcomes from this project has been that it has brought all of the bands closer together as musicians. We all had a blast creating the song "Vagabond Worms" as a collective of creative folks. We are really excited to keep creating songs in the near future.

Drew: Community is such a powerful thing and it really does help to make a bigger impression! There's so much to share, we're only just scratching the surface. It's such an honor to and joy to play and create with this talented and varied bunch - be on the lookout for more tunes, series and helping out of towners jet-set into the Emerald City!

Jack: Each time we do a group show, we tend to double the attendance: from 400 to 800 to over 2000, so we're eager to be talking about what our next big festival event will look like.

What's next for the band?
Jack: We are so, so excited to be jumping into our seventh album this winter! We're lucky to be working with Tor Hyams, and are looking at next spring for the release.

Daron: We have a lot of fun shows planned for 2011. We are really excited about a Mini-East Coast Tour that we will be taking in February: NYC’s Symphony Space on Feb 26 and Vienna’s Jammin' Java on Feb 27. We also have a big show here in Seattle at The Moore Theater on May 7, sharing the stage with our Kindiependent buddy Johnny Bregar!

Drew: We've been so energized by meeting and collaborating with other bands, in Seattle and all over the country. Our 2010 summer tour was marked by visits with Lunch Money, Michael Rachap, Billy Kelly, Joanie Leeds, Uncle Rock, Grenadilla and Dean Jones and Dog on Fleas. We're so fortunate to be making music for families and connecting with other amazing artists! We hope to deepen these relationships and make new ones in 2011. Needless to say, we're excited to say hi to everyone at Kindiefest in the spring!

Photo credits: Charlie Bartlett

Interview: John Crooke (PlayNetwork)

I was in a Chuck E. Cheese's for a party early this fall and while I was absent-mindedly watching the video loop on the TVs next to the giant (and silent) animatronic animals, I was shaken out of my reverie by the appearance of the great video for "$9.99" by Caspar Babypants (AKA Chris Ballew). Hunh? When exactly did Chuck E. Cheese enter the kindie scene?

I sent off an e-mail to Ballew, and he mentioned that he'd licensed the video for use to PlayNetwork, which, among other things, provides in-store background music and video media. Which then led me to John Crooke, Senior Director for Creative Development, who answered some questions about PlayNetwork and what it looks for in music.

Zooglobble: First off, can you briefly explain what PlayNetwork does?
John Crooke: PlayNetwork produces experiences for consumers that are centered around media for retail environments. From music to TV, video and design, we’re telling stories through media and building partnerships with the most talented and creative individuals in those areas. We create, produce and deliver exceptional content and media experiences.
How often do you need to find music appropriate for a family setting?
Many of our clients require family-friendly music and video, reaching from rock, pop and country to children’s programming. When it comes to younger audiences, we deliver a lot of kid-friendly content and are constantly on the search for new, fun content for those environments. Dependent on the client, we seek new content on a monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly basis. We also like creating original content for our clients and mixing it in with popular children’s properties. We work more like a TV network rather than a digital signage company; we understand our audiences and want to provide content that speaks to and entertains them. Kids are particularly media savvy and we want the content we provide them to be as seamless and relatable as the programming they consume at home.

This may be a nebulous question to ask without a specific client, but what do you listen or look for in deciding whether a family music song/video is appropriate for the service you're setting up?
The most important thing I look for in a song is a hook. I seek proven titles and melodies, such as Yo Gabba Gabba, They Might Be Giants, Dan Zanes and Ralph’s World. We have an intuitive understanding of the client’s needs and we have them in mind when listening or watching content. We listen for what works and look for the most visually engaging content that will resonate with a particular audience in the retailer’s environment.

Have you found that there is more interest from clients in incorporating family music into their settings?
Many companies are very clear in their vision and have been since the beginning of our relationships, so there hasn’t been a surge in family-friendly programming. However, the companies that do cater to families have gotten better at investing in and speaking to their clients. We believe we have a role in that by offering welcoming audiovisual experiences that appeal to the whole family. We span genres and demographics, but also cater to those companies that don’t want to focus families and want to reach a more edgy youth culture. We’re targeted in our approach and strategic with our content offerings on every level.

How do you go about finding family music/videos? Can musicians submit their music directly to you?
Absolutely. For example, Chris Ballew and Caspar Babypants came to us through an internal PlayNetwork connection. We tap into labels, studios, broadcasting companies and kids programming, but we also put our ears around everything we can. In addition to doing our homework and aggregating content, we encourage artists to submit via the PlayNetwork website. Once we have the content, we pull it together and build an entertaining show for our clients.