Interview: Morgan Taylor (Gustafer Yellowgold)

I tend to think to think of Gustafer Yellowgold as a real character, with thoughts and feelings just like any other person. Which is a mistake, of course, because as most readers of this site know, he's actually from the sun and he's a fictional, animated character. Credit for this feeling really goes to Morgan Taylor, the musician and animator behind Gustafer, who in three DVDs has imbued his yellow creation with a three-dimensional character space via song and animation that exceeds many cartoons.

The fourth Gustafer DVD, Gustafer Yellowgold's Inifinity Sock, will be released on March 1, and in addition to letting us see the DVD cover, Taylor recently talked to us about AM radio, Gustafer's origins, and how evidently I'm not the only person who thinks of Gustafer as being real.

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?
Morgan Taylor: I remember the A.M. radio always playing when we were getting ready to go to school in the mornings. It's funny, when I recall the mornings, I remember it being cold. This would have been spanning around 1974-1980? The radio was a safe and constant home thing. Besides that I remember that before I could read, I knew which songs were which of our old 45s that my older brother and sister had collected. I knew from the designs on the paper rings, what song it was. I used to love playing, and drawing and making stuff while listening to records.

Were you an artist or a musician first?
I think my artist side emerged earliest. But by the 4th grade I knew I loved singing and started getting singing parts in school and church musicals and stuff. I spent the following 20-plus years doing one or the other in some form. But it wasn't until 2004 that I figured out the effect of combining the two. Plus, my mom has now finally stopped saying "I wish you would do more with your art..."!!

What was the inspiration for Gustafer? Did you (do you) come up with the songs separately and fit them into Gustafer's story, or were they (are they) written specifically with him in mind?
He was just a doodle at first, really. I drew him two or three times on some marker boards in a record shop in Dayton, Ohio back in 1997, and he stayed in the back of my mind until I started a book & CD project with my wife Rachel, many years later. It was backwards, because I wrote all these first-person, absurd story-songs with no one specific in mind. Then I realized the old doodle was actually "the guy".

Do you think of him as I have just there -- as a character that you actually know?
I've made enough content and material now that the aspects of his personality are all quite established now. At first I was just pulling together these random, weird songs and making the world fit the music I had already written. Basing the world ON the music and lyrics. Now it's the other way around. He exists. He has favorite foods, hobbies, wants and needs and aspirations and influences.

Has the animation/DVD production process changed since the first DVD?
Yeah, when I started, I was just drawing one flat image per lyric line. But now I understand the animation process better, so I can give the animator an image file with multiple layers. I want to stay within a certain set of bounds, because the limitations of the animation are what gives it much of it's feel. We want to keep that intact, but take new steps creatively at the same time. We're just finishing the fourth DVD and now have it down to a pretty calculable process. Some of it is creativity on a deadline, but I secretly love having the pressure to create.

What's been the coolest thing a child's said to you/written to you about Gustafer?
Just hearing kids talk about Gustafer as if he's real, and say their own creative thoughts about what Gustafer could do. We've also gotten some flat-out inspirational letters from fans/families who thank us and tell us they enjoy how it brings the family together. Mind-blowing for us, because we never really think about that side of it while we're making stuff. We see the people at the shows who are having fun, but for some folks it goes even deeper.

Will future Gustafer DVDs have somewhat more of a narrative arc than the initial disks?
Yes, the next DVD called Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock is a full, real story. With (hopefully) suspense and everything! [Ed: That's the cover right there, folks.]

What's next for you?
Considering the length of time it takes to create content, my mind is already on DVDs #5 & 6! I feel blessed to be able to do this for a living and I hope we can keep it going for a long, long time.

Photo credit of family: Erin Patrice O'Brien

Interview: Christian Jacobs (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

When characters you've created for a TV show start making appearances in Super Bowl ads, it's clear that your show has reached some decent level of cultural significance. So it is with Nick's Yo Gabba Gabba!, which is currently in it's third season, with a new episode, "Fairytale," premiering last week (Friday, Nov. 5th).

Crucial to its success, not only with kids and parents, but even amongst folks whose sippy-cup days are both far behind and ahead of them, are the musical guest stars -- the Roots, the Ting Tings, Sugarland, the Shins, and, on "Fairytale," the Flaming Lips. With the episode premiering on Friday and the Yo Gabba Gabba! Live tour making its way around the country, I thought it'd be a good time to talk with one of the show's creators, Christian Jacobs (that's him on the right there). The father of four chatted with me last week about his musical (and TV) childhood memories, Scooby Doo, and the difference between Tom Hanks and Anthony Bourdain.

Zooglobble: What are your earliest musical memories?
Christian Jacobs: Early on, my dad only 45s from the 1950s. Kinda wacky songs like "Alley Oop" or "Yackety Yak." There'd be songs that were like "news report" mixes, where they'd have spoken "news report" mixes interspersed with silly music, sort of like Dr. Demento. Children gravitate to the more silly things.

Then I listened to a lot of radio in the '70s -- DEVO, Blondie, the Clash, stuff that was different from what else was being played. I was drawn to the green hair, the spikes -- the media helped with that interest...
How about your TV memories?
A bunch: Sesame Street, Electric Company, ZOOM, Mr. Rogers... it was a golden age of kids TV. Daily feasts -- it was all new, there were no studies saying watching TV is bad. We'd watch PBS all day as a kid, then run outside.

It was really a different time as a kid. There was lots of freedom to be a kid without adult supervision. Those shows, that freedom, really resonated with a lot of parents our age. Yo Gabba Gabba! strikes that chord, I think, helps bring back that freedom.

Reminds me how I used to walk nearly a mile to my kindergarten along a relatively busy street... I don't think I'd let my kids walk that route today...
It was definitely a different time, yeah. I'd at least be a little scared. So with the show we're going backwards a little bit, trying to capture that feeling of imagination and freedom.

Was your conception of Yo Gabba Gabba! music always to include guest stars?
It definitely evolved. We wanted to have different musical styles represented in the show. But once we brought in Biz Markie in the pilot, we started thinking about about bands we could bring in. We were a little reluctant -- I remembered how a lot of times I'd just tune out the two-minute musical montage in Scooby Doo where they'd have some band. So how could we integrate the bands into the show? That's when we came up with the idea of the Super Friends Music Show, with the TV set. It was an organic thing.

How has the process in getting artists change -- did you ever anticipate getting the Flaming Lips to be on the show?
In the beginning, we went to friends to fill in the gaps, or our own bands. And then we decided we'd send some requests to bands we liked. When folks like the Shins, and Cornelius, and Sugarland said "yes" right away, they made it OK.

With bands, managers or agents serve as a filter for requests; we'd actually written to the Flaming Lips when we first started and didn't hear back. But at some later point, they called and said, "We want to do this, we're fans, what can we do to be on the show?" At some point our schedules finally matched.

At this point bands that have been on the show are really big fans or have kids who are fans. They matched the show's energy level, they're giving really good performances.

I think that's a strength, actually -- you're not going to try to get somebody like Madonna because she's a big star. I mean, you had somebody like Jack Black on the show, and he's a star, but he fits with the show, and you're probably really big fans.
You know, I was talking with Tom Hanks at an awards show recently, which was by itself just cool. But he was saying, you know, my kids are grown now, I really don't know your show. Compare that to Anthony Bourdain, he was a huge fan, and came on the show. If he's not invested in the show, who cares about the performance?

How do you go about selecting the musical acts for the tour (since they're not always the same folks who've appeared on the show)?
Well, usually we start in the area. Like, who is local that could make an impact. It's hard to lock down people out on tour, for example. But we've had some great bands and guests on the tour and guests that have a local relevance to the cities.. Like Bootsy Collins in Cleveland, Run DMC from NYC, Zac Brown Band from Atlanta and so on. We always shoot for the moon, and sometimes we get really close!

What's up next for Yo Gabba Gabba generally?
We have our fingers crossed to start on a season 4 and we are working on a script for a movie. Pretty big plans for a pretty little preschool show! Ha!

Photo Nick Jr. (YGG cast w/ Christian Jacobs)
Photo Ben Clark/Nickelodeon. (Flaming Lips)

Interview: Keller Williams

Virginia musician Keller Williams has a couple feet's worth of toes in a wide variety of musical ponds -- bluegrass, jamband, jazz, folk, to name a few -- and he's just added family music to that list with the release of Kids. Williams chatted by phone last month about Hee Haw, the unplanned appearance of his daughter on the new album, and the relative merits of being a musician versus doing temporary construction work.

Zooglobble: What are your musical memories growing up?
Keller Williams: There are many... the first real musical memory was watching Hee Haw. You know, I get asked that by college papers and I tell them that and they've never heard of it.

Really?
Yeah... Twenty-something, it's frustrating trying to explain to them, it had Buck Owens, Roy Clark...

Anyway, by the age of 3, I'd convinced my parents to buy me a guitar. Then it was Kiss -- I used a hockey stick in lieu of an electric guitar. I remember listening to 8-track tapes of John Denver, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Willie Nelson, driving around with my parents.

I sang in church choir, the Fredricksburg Children's Theatre, high school choir, but by tenth grade, when I was 15 or 16, I was playing guitar a lot. I got paid for the first time at age 17, playing in the backyard of a restaurant.

When did you decide you wanted to make music for a living?
When I tried to get jobs when I was 15, 16, 17 years old. The minimum wage was $3.50. I did a little temporary construction work where I mostly would sweep or scrape mortar out of cinder block cracks for 40 hours a week. I realized that I could get a day's pay for 3 hours work, sit while I was doing it, and maybe even get a date out of it.

What led you to making this album for families, Kids?

Well, I had an unhealthy fascination with the Grateful Dead and listened to that Garcia/Grisman album [Not For Kids Only] long before I had kids.

So these songs are playful and positive, for the parents as well. Four of the songs were written before I even had kids. I'm trying to appeal to parents, too, make it more digestible. The parents are the ones buying it.

Did you road-test the music with your kids?
Yeah, we'd listen to the demos I'd recorded while driving in the car. My daughter learned the music so well that she's all over the record now.

And the concept was to not compromise in making the album?
Yeah... kids music doesn't necessarily need complexity, and I wanted to keep the lyrics light.

I wanted to talk briefly about the website -- it's pretty involved...
Folks like me are below the radar, and the website is the most important way for me to publicize myself. My wife is the mastermind -- she came up with the idea for the goat orchestra and the 24-hour goat cam. She also helped put together the physical packaging for the CD.

I've got a wonderful team that handles different parts of my career. I'm more of a weekend warrior now, it's a whole different way to tour. My wife has her finger on that -- the only problem I have is keeping up.

So are you hoping to do some family shows?
I'm definitely looking at doing some matinees. Some places I tour [for adult shows] are dank, dirty places, but some are clean and could work. If the record does well, I'll focus more on it, but for now, I'll just be piggybacking on the rest of my tours.

And what else do you have going on?
I've got a big New Year's gig coming up. I'll also be playing 11 Yo Gabba Gabba! Live shows in 7 days in the Pacific Northwest. I'll be playing 1 song for 5 minutes -- it's a coveted slot, I'm grateful for sure. And I've got 15 songs for an adult record that should come out next summer.

We'll see how this kids album does. It's a new, exciting adventure -- I will have to see what happens.

Photo credit: C. Taylor Cruthers

Interview: Darren Critz (Symphony Space)

Darren Critz is the Director of Performing Arts at New York City's Symphony Space. Their 2010-2011 "Just Kidding" season kicks off this weekend with "The Story Pirates," and it certainly doesn't end there -- it's a full season of kids music and entertainment. Because it's such a comprehensive season and because it's in New York City (a place where a lot of acts not from NYC still would like to play), I thought it'd be interesting to talk with Critz about the series, his goals for it, and what he looks for in acts. Even if you live far away from Manhattan, read on for the secret power of Alan Alda, what attracts Critz's ears, and how you hear Symphony Space shows...

What are your musical memories from childhood?
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and got to see Ella Jenkins perform pretty regularly at our public library throughout the '70s. My mom adored her and was always on the lookout for her performances, so we were always at our library or any venue she played within a 50-mile radius. We were sort of to Ella Jenkins, what Dead Heads were to the Grateful Dead, with a Chevy Nova in place of the VW van (and without the psychedelics of course). “Did You Milk My Cow?” is still the greatest call-and-response song ever!

And at the risk of sounding incredibly square, Alan Alda singing “William Wants a Doll” off the Free to Be You and Me soundtrack was my favorite song as a kid, and dominated a good year and a half of my life. I’m thinking there are only a handful of people out there who list Alan Alda as a major musical influence.

How did you get into concert booking?
It was something I stumbled into. I come from a theatrical background, originally as an actor (soon realizing I had neither the love nor talent for it), then as a producer, which I was much better at. I came to Symphony Space to produce our theatre events, in addition to the music, dance, and family programs. Having a young daughter, I attend a really large number of kids’ music events both here at Symphony Space and everywhere else you can imagine. As with anything else, the more you involve yourself in any given thing, the more you learn about it; the more you learn about it, the more you appreciate those things, and the more you appreciate them, the more you want to share that appreciation with others. I’m lucky that I get to do that in this role.

Symphony Space has always had a few family shows -- what spurred the increase in frequency?
Demand more than anything else. There was a time when we offered just a few kids’ shows per year. Parents would often stop by the box office during the week to see if we had any kids’ shows happening the following weekend, and many times we didn’t. There was definitely a need and desire for more, and we set out to fill it. We went from a few shows per season to semi-regular shows, and then about five years ago, it seemed like a natural idea to expand the program further by offering something every Saturday between October and May. There is something really exciting about being able to give families the opportunity to plan their entire year in advance, or to have the freedom to wake up on any given Saturday morning and just show up knowing we’ll have something fun and interesting even if they don’t quite know what it will be until they get here.

What do you look (and listen) for in selecting musicians for the series?
A combination of the familiar and the new. There are a handful of musicians like Justin Roberts, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Morgan Taylor (Gustafer Yellowgold), who appear regularly in the series, that are really at the core of what we present. We are committed to them and their work, and our audiences look forward to their annual appearance here. I can only hope that a child’s experience at Symphony Space with these artists comes close to eliciting the same feelings that I had with Ella Jenkins at my hometown library. In addition to these core artists, I also look for the following:
-Up-and-coming artists that parents may have heard about, but probably haven’t had an opportunity to see live;
-Musicians with unique styles that explore interesting musical genres;
-Artists who really engage the audience with a great live show; and
-Musicians who are committed to expanding what kids’ music offers children and their parents.

What helps you decide to book an artist for the first time?
There can be a lot of factors at play. In most cases it’s as simple as hearing great new music and the desire to expose it to our audiences. We definitely present a lot of musicians in the “kindie” rock tradition, which is pretty beloved here in NYC, but we also strive to represent more diverse genres of music, through new artists. With our adult music program, we constantly ask ourselves questions like “how do we get our jazz audience to see our classical shows?” or “will a group that liked pop show X also like pop show Y?”

Kids’ music doesn’t face that same obstacle in many ways, and the ability to be diverse without driving away or losing audiences is what makes kids’ programming and introducing new artists so rewarding. Once we become adults, we’ve often established what we like, and it isn’t always as eclectic as we’d like it to be. A parent may love hip hop and hate traditional rock n’ roll, or love rock and dislike country. With kids, parents tend to be more comfortable breaking away from the genres they like in the spirit of exploration. Many want to expose their kids to a variety of choices, and we can’t really find that freedom in programming anywhere else. This definitely makes it easy to bring in new things, with the quality of each group’s music as the driving factor that keeps things together and consistent.

How do you hear about artists?
Lots of ways. I read kids’ music and parenting blogs, album reviews, and kid-related periodicals and newspapers; I go to kids’ entertainment conferences; I talk directly with artists who submit their materials to me; I talk extensively with parents after shows who recommend their favorite artists; musicians recommend other musicians; I swap ideas with other programmers; I have a Rhapsody subscription which has a pretty extensive selection of kids’ artists; I talk to managers and booking agents I’ve worked with previously who pitch new groups … the list really could go on and on. Your site is really an amazing resource, and I’m constantly keeping up on new things through you as well!

What else can families expect at Symphony Space shows (besides just the music)?
We’re a multi-arts center, so the goal is to offer all the variety we offer in our adult programs to the kids. Our music program is certainly what we’re best known for with our family offerings, but we also have a pretty extensive amount of theatre and dance for kids too. Being the home of Public Radio’s Selected Shorts, we’re also pretty proud of our literature program. Thalia Kids Book Club events are these amazing gatherings where well-known authors come and read excerpts from their books, do extensive Q & A’s and work on creative writing exercises with the kids. Most of our kids’ shows are perfect for the 2-7 crowd, but because there is writing involved, these programs are for kids who are slightly older, which actually helps us reach more children in the process.

What's coming up for the series (both immediately) and in the months/years to come?
It’s a well-rounded season I think, with folk-based artists like Elizabeth Mitchell and Randy Kaplan; alt-country from Farmer Jason; indie-rock from groups like Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, Rocknoceros, and Lunch Money, hip hop from Secret Agent 23 Skidoo; world music from Suni Paz and Los Munequitos de Matanzas; and funk from Sugar Free Allstars. I can’t name them all here, obviously, but it’s pretty exciting stuff.

The focus this year is really to highlight the national scope of the kids’ music scene by bringing in a lot of acts from across the U.S. to play at Symphony Space. The bands and artists performing this season represent 15 of the 50 U.S states, and we’re really excited about this. It’s sort of a given when you’re playing for an adult audience that at some point you’ll put together a tour and find enough venues along a route to do a regional or national tour. I think that kids’ artists should be able to have the same luxury, and I’d love for Symphony Space to be a place that aids in kick-starting a move for kids’ artists in this direction – a launching point for a tour that brings more family music to venues everywhere.

We’re also focused on getting the music heard by as many people as we can reach through the internet. We record almost all of our shows and make them available a few weeks after each performance for free via streaming audio on our website at symphonyspace.org/live/family. It’s a great way to experience the artists live, even if you can’t be at the show.

Interview: Haley Bonar

Haley Bonar's late 2009 kids' EP Sing With Me was one of the most surprising and gratifying (and too brief) releases of the year, heartfelt and featuring Bonar's clear and beautiful voice. It's a combination that worked just as well on her most recent album for adults, 2008's Big Star.

I'm always interested in getting a wide range of perspectives on the family music scene, from those who have been in it for many years to those who've only peered in the window just a little bit. I also like talking with cool musicians. So this interview meets both those standards. Bonar talked with me a couple weeks ago as she was on the road, moving back to Minneapolis from Portland, Oregon, sharing with me musical stories of growing up, life sharing music as a nanny, and the beauty of awkward dancing.

Zooglobble: What are your musical memories growing up?
Haley Bonar: I conducted a lot of plays. We had a Schoenhut piano. I would make my mom play while I danced in a circle. We weren't super-musical, but we listened to it a lot. I never shut up.

When did you decide to become a musician, to make it a career?
Hmmm.... I didn't really know that it was a real career. A career means making money and I don't make money. Of course, now I'm super-rich [chuckles]. No, there wasn't a single defining moment.

You worked as a nanny -- how would you work music into your daily life?
The first full-time position I had was 3 sisters. These kids listened to really bad music and I couldn't deal. They did better after their mom took 'em to a show. Then the kids only wanted to listen to my two uptempo songs.

The Portland family was part-time -- the younger girl had to listen to it all the time. Other than that, not as much -- being a nanny supported the habit of being a musician.

What led to the EP?
My dad was always asking me to record something. So I recorded it in October just to have something new on sale when I went on tour.

Which sold better: your Christmas EP or the kids' EP?
I don't know. I just got the kids' EP on iTunes, so it's sort of hard to compare. I think it [the kids' EP] is doing pretty well, though.

Have you noticed any difference between playing for kids and playing for adults?
Well, I've really only done a few shows. One was with Rock the Cradle at Minnesota Public Radio. That was amazing. Also at the Walker Art Center [in Minneapolis]. It was all ages, which is I think the highest complement you can get as an artist. It's not just cute boys in shorts and cute glasses. When parents say, "My kids love your records," it feels great.

I also played at this crazy bookstore in the Twin Cities called Wild Rumpus. It was packed -- full of kids that were cute, and the parents were cute, and the kids were dancing really awkward, and I love that. I feel like families are attending more of my shows now...

You're working on a new album now, right?
The new album is recorded, and will be mixed in a couple weeks, so it's the later stages of the process. I'm still trying to figure out when it'll be released. It's really different -- my favorite album so far... It's definitely not Mary Poppins.

Photos by Cameron Wittig