Interview: Roland Stringer (The Secret Mountain)

Founded in 200, The Secret Mountain initially focused solely on music CDs for children in Canada and France. It started released book/CD cominbations in 2003; in 2005, it started releasing titles in the U.S. market. Over that time, though they've covered a broad range of musical artists, from longtime Canadian artists to Trout Fishing in America to a collection of Jewish lullabies from around the world, one theme that runs throughout their collections are an attention to detail and quality in their product.

I recently talked with The Secret Mountain's founder, Roland Stringer, about the genesis of his company, how the book/CD combinations come about, and more about the company's latest release, Sunday in Kyoto.

Zooglobble: What were your earliest musical memories?
Roland Stringer: I was born in 1960, so I was part of that whole wave that grew up on the Beatles. I had that cliched scene of my sisters going crazy because they were watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.

I grew up in a small French-speaking town in Western Canada, so I heard a lot of traditional French music on the radio. As I grew up, in pre-teen years and beyond, I listened to Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel -- these North American artists.

What led to the founding of The Secret Mountain?
By the end of the '80s, I was doing artist management, music publishing, touring, a lot of everything. By chance, one of the artists I was working with did their first children's record in 1990. It was a project for freinds and family, but it went over well. So I produced kids records through the '90s.

In 2000, though, vinyl was gone, and the CD is a piece of plastic. I though it'd be nice to give the kids something more imaginative, involving storytelling, pictures, drawings, with music from around the world. I was wanting to work with illustrators on one end, storytellers on the other, and they really were doing the same thing. I was just coming up with the package.

You know, I was always interested in looking at the vinyl -- I remember studying those album covers from the Who or Genesis.

How do you decide on the music?
There's no specific way. For example, some are concepts. Dream Songs Night Songs is a collection of world lullabies, produced homogeneously. Some artists we gave the songs to, some songs they brought us.

Trout Fishing in America, I've known the duo for 20 years -- their manager is a friend. We had dinner and found out they wanted to go into the book side... Once you have a relationship, they become friends and part of the family. You're kind of committed.

How do you decide on the picture side of it?
It's done pretty much at the same time as the music. The illustrators will will sketch the characters and we'll show them to the singers. They might say, "Oh, that's more country than I thought," and sing the song with some twang... We're not book publishers exactly, not CD publishers.

One idea we've had, I don't know what we'll do. An illustrator has done a mouse -- we'd like to do something with that, just not sure what.

Like with musicians, certain illustrators are on our radar. One person does all our design, he oversees that whole side of the business. He'll say, "I was in a gallery, I saw something." He serves as a scout for us. Other times, the artists will mention.

We view illustrations as art, not as packaging for Walmart. If I know there's an illustrator into jazz and we do a jazz album, then there's a common interest. Illustrators often really like music in their studio, and musicians often read a lot of books and are into descign. Stephane Jorisch, when he did My Name is Chicken Joe, said, "I love this, I'm having so much fun."

What did you find interesting about Sunday in Kyoto?
Well, Gilles Vigneault is a household name here in Canada. He's written 30, 40 books of poetry. I think I've said he's Canada's Pete Seeger. He's certainly in that range. I always liked his approach -- he had stuff both for adults and kids. For the past 40 years he's said one goes with the other. He was at a press conference where he was asked about that and he said something like, "At 80 years old, I want the song to last as long as possible, and it'll last longer for a child. The only difference is who receives the song -- I'm still writing what I care about."

There's a leitmotif theme about displacement. In this era of higher immigration, where is home? Home is where the heart is -- where your friends are where you spend your Sunday afternoons. Kids are a lot more open to playing with the idea of home.

The rest of the CD, there's a lot of wordplay, like folks are hanging out and jamming. Not so much telling a linear story -- there's some jamming, then conversation, and meanwhile the kids are running around...

What's next for the label?
We're prepping the follow-up to My Name is Chicken Joe. We've got some demo songs from Trout Fishing, and hope to have that out maybe in Fall 2010.

There's a project that's been done in French and now we're working on it in English. It's a song for every letter in the alphabet. We'd like to release that soon.

Finally, there's a storybook CD about jazz in New York City in the 1930s, about a musician from Brazil who wants to make it in New York City. We're working on it now, and should know in a couple months whether it'll be a 2010 or 2011 release...

Interview: Dave Poche (Imagination Movers)

Ever since the Louisiana band Imagination Movers has had their own show on Disney (the favorite show of the Official Nephew of Zooglobble, I might add), the visibility of the high-energy jumpsuited band has grown exponentially. While up to now they've been producing the series in Louisiana, this fall they're embarking on their first national tour, helping to solve idea emergencies in a city near you.

We had the chance to catch up with red-hatted bassist Dave Poche as he was getting breakfast while on tour in Paducah, Kentucky. We talked about his musical influences, the genesis of the band, the status of lunches with his wife during filming of the TV show, and the one bad thing about being on tour.

Zooglobble: What were your early musical memories growing up?
Dave Poche: When I was very young, I had a Credence Clearwater Revival cassette, and of course a Beatles tape -- that was the first of my own music. I also liked Schoolhouse Rock. And I was really part of the early MTV generation.

As for when I was older... Rich had been involved in music for a long time and Scott sang in college. But I only had picked up the bass when I was 20 or 21. And when we formed the band, we needed somebody to play bass, so I started again.

This project sparked a lot of creativity. My father was in the LSU marching band, so I guess it just took thirty years to tap into [that creativity].

What was the spark for starting the Movers?
Having kids. We went to a lot of birthday parties and saw a lot of kids entertainment. Lots of cartoons, but there were not a lot of live action males. We thought that maybe we could create something that we didn't see at the time.

We knew folks that did fundraising work for the local public TV station and pitched a show. They were enthusiastic, but had no money.

So the original idea for the Movers was always a TV show?
Yeah. We got together at nights, from 9 PM to midnight to work. A few songs on our albums were written as the basis for the show, but we wrote songs inspired by the kids' milestones and lives. We tried to use some of existing songs for the [new] show, but it didn't work out so well. I definitely miss somewhat writing about what's there in front of us rather than being defined by the boundaries of a particular narrative.

What have been the biggest blows to your preconceived notions of doing a TV show?
The schedule -- there is so much going on at all times. Fourteen hours a day, five days a week -- it takes four days of work to put together one 22-minute show. On top of that, we have to review script notes, write songs, spend time in wardrobe. Yeah, the time commitment is something I regretfully underestimated -- I thought, hey, I'll have lunch with my wife every day. Instead, once we're there, it's like we're locked down and the warden has the key.

But the camradarie is great. The crew is 90% local, and the community support is great.

Tell me about what you've done for this, your first national tour.
When we were on our own, shows might just be the four of us, with a trash can drum set. Now, I think people will be surprised by the quality of the production. We did twelve dates outside of Disney earlier this year and the response was great. We did everything on our own -- the friends who we hired got experience and they're back with us on tour. We wrote everything -- the narrative and so on.

Of course, there's also the tour bus that we quote-unquote slept on, so it's not perfect.

Have you noticed a difference in the crowd response?
Oh, yeah, they know the words, so that when we say, "It's not just a problem, it's an..." they'll all shout back "idea emergency!" The fact that they know us makes it that much more fun.

What's next for the band?
We're going to keep on doing what we're dong. We're hoping to get a Season Three of the show picked up. We'll keep touring. You know, we're like the #1 kids show in Australia and the UK - maybe we'll be able to tour there.

A lot of what didn't seem accessible, even a year ago, now seems possible. We just want to keep having fun -- it's still fun.

Interview: Laurie Berkner

Photo credit: Michelle Pedone
Laurie Berkner needs no introduction. In spite of this fact, I'll provide one anyway. Over the course of five albums and more than a decade, Berkner has become quite possibly the biggest kids music superstar, at least among the preschool set. Although there have been a number of other folks who have been making great music as well over the past decade, I think it's Berkner's appearances on Noggin's Jack's Big Music Show that served as the tipping point, the catalyst for finally making the genre resurgent.

Berkner talked to me while riding in a cab to her New York City offices. Read on for details of her first singing experiences, what it's like to give up (some) control in the studio, and how hard it is to not lose sight of those singing experience amidst all the other business aspects of life as a musician.

Zooglobble: What were your strongest musical memories growing up?
Laurie Berkner: Well, the first memory was being 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years old, and my parents made me stay in my room until a certain hour in the morning. I had a Fisher-Price record player, and I had a "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music. Our bedrooms must have been on opposite ends of the apartment, because I would march around the room and sing loudly.

The first time I sang in a group I was about 7, and it was my first chorus practice. We sang the schools' theme, "A whale of a school." It was the most incredible feeling to me... I listened to a lot of Broadway music, and then being in college, I listened to Joni Mitchell.

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
I graduated from college as a psychology major, with an art history minor. Coming home, I wasn't sure what I'd do. My dad said, "I thought you'd be a musician." And I said, "Who would pay me?" So my parents said they would pay for an apartment for 1 year, and pretty quickly, I got a job as a preschool music specialist.
Photo credit: Todd Owyoung
What's the difference between playing in a classroom as opposed to an auditorium?
The good part of playing in the classroom is the relationship you develop with the kids. In an auditorium, you have an energy with the kids -- it's exciting, festive, but without that intimacy of the classroom. In an auditorium you also have that sharing of a musical experience with the band, which goes back to that singing together thing I liked so much. I'm trying to do more of that [the playing with kids], they taught me a lot.

Both are exhausting.

What was the most rewarding part of making Rocketship Run?
Well, I have a real control thing. I certainly felt like I knew what worked musically. Working on the album with Adam [Bernstein] and Susie [Lampert], it was really great, but it was really hard - a real learning experience. But when I let go, I left open a space for something much more exciting.

Like on "Going on a Hunt," which was a song I made up while walking with [my daughter] Lucy. Adam said, "let's try doing it in different styles." And [percussionist] Bob [Golden] said, "we could do a story" based on the song.

And it was just different in the way it was produced. I wrote lots of songs out of my experience of being a parent.

How much time do you spend on music versus other stuff?
It is embarrassingly -- painfully -- out of proportion.

I've been thinking about it for years. I'm very blessed that I have a lot of reat people working for me. I don't spend enough time with the 3 people on paid salary. In fact, I'm going to a meeting with them right now.

When I started this, I hated [the time spent on business]. It can suck me under. And if I don't spend time on the music stuff, it loses the structure. I need to squeeze in a rehearsal. I need to walk around listening -- I'll make time for that. Part of it is being a parent. I know lots of people feel the same way, feeling like I don't do it well.

Yeah, that's just part of being a parent, I think.
Yeah, I'm always working to find that balance.

Photo credit:Steve Vaccariello
So how did the "Pajama Party" tour come about?
That was a fun thing that just came up. One day in the van on our way to a show, Susie joked, "Wouldn't it be great not to have to get dressed up for a show?" And so we decided to do it. We found out there was an organization called the Pajama Program that collects pajamas and books for kids that are waiting to be adopted. It's not a big change to the show. It's a little more theatrical, but really just a big party. It's very energizing.

What's next? Is there a new album on the way?
I'm working on a number of projects, but they're mostly so early in the process. I don't have an actual product at the moment -- it's not the best place for me to put my energy in at the moment.

Interview: John Linnell (They Might Be Giants)

A couple years ago, I interviewed John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants about their Here Comes the 123s CD/DVD set. Now with the impending release of the follow-up to that Grammy-winning album, Here Comes Science, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Flansburgh's partner, John Linnell. In our chat we talked about his earliest musical influences, writing songs that aren't silly dance songs, and the role of science advisors...

Zooglobble: What are your childhood musical memories?
John Linnell: There were a couple specific records -- first, Songs of the Pogo, it had lyrics by Walt Kelly, who wrote the comic strip and worked with a songwriter on the record. It came out in the '50s, before I was born. It was a followup to a songbook Kelly wrote. It had some crazy, non-sensical wordplay.

Sounds like you...
Yeah... it was an important record in my childhood.

Then there was the LP of the soundtrack to Dumbo. I remember "Pink Elephants on Parade" -- it was a march with a menacing quality.

When I was 8 or 9, there was a Banana Splits record I liked. It wasn't quite as acid-touched as HR Pufnstuff, say -- it was the inferior followup. All those guys now acknowledge the influence of drugs on kids' TV...

How did you pick the topics for Here Comes Science?
We attempted to represent all the sciences. There was no way to cover all of them, but we tried to make it representative of the sciences -- earth, biology, physics, chemistry, paleotonology, applied sciences. We could make a couple more volumes and not run out of general topics. There was a whole series of Singing Science records, after all, that featured Tom Glazer.

Was it harder to write songs where you have to convey scientific truth rather than emotional truth (or a silly dance song)?
The previous recordings weren't that difficult -- there couldn't be anything simpler than alphabet. We could pour our efforts in being emotionally engaging.

There already was an alphabet song...
Yeah... but with Science, it was a lot harder to write factually accurate songs. We hired a guy from the New York Hall of Science to check what we did. We didn't need to hire anyone on the [Here Come the] ABCs and [Here Come the] 123s albums.

Were the videos made an even earlier component of the process as a result?
No, we pretty much applied the same process. We wrote the songs, then handed them over to the visual folks. We had to oversee the videos more. The science advisor looked at the visuals, which was somewhat grueling. Sometimes we re-storyboarded them to make the information more clear. But the creative animators could still express themselves. In fact, the visuals were even more packed -- the video for "Meet the Elements" crammed all this information into the video that wasn't even in the song.

A major theme of the album seems to be trying to convey the idea of science as much as or more so than facts...
We didn't talk much about themes when we were writing songs -- we just presented the information. But a little way through writing the songs, we realized we had some songs about science as a way of thinking, which is a topic that is both important and challenging for kids. The way I'm saying it here puts kids asleep right away. But hopefully they'll pick it up on the album. Like on "Science is Real" -- there are ways of ferreting out truth. It's the difference between science and myth. Hopefully kids are interested in that idea.

What's the next kids' album going to be?
I can answer that in two words: no idea. This album opens us up to a broad range of possibilities -- we've been unleashed from simpler topics. After ABCs, the Disney producers said that the obvious next step was the 123s. But here on out? We could certainly tackle subjects for older kids now -- history, or how society works. It'll be fun.

What else is next?
We have a book coming out called Go!, which is based on a PBS song we did. It's a nicely illustrated version. And another adult CD is still in the works...

Photo credit: Autumn DeWilde

Interview: Peter Himmelman

Peter Himmelman has been around the kids' music scene for a while -- not as long as he's been making music for a living -- but his first album for families, My Best Friend is a Salamander, came out in 1997. He's adapted nicely to the brave new world of the music industry, scoring the Judging Amy TV series and creating not one, but two video series for the internet (more on that below). His fifth album for kids, My Trampoline, is being released today on the new Minivan Productions kids music label.

I talked to him by phone last week, calling him at 8 AM -- not just my time, but also his time. Despite getting in from a songwriting workshop at 1 AM that same morning, Himmelman was thoughtful, expansive regarding his views on kids and music for kids, and, as befits a man who tells lots of ornate stories, far more verbally agile than I typically am at that hour...

Zooglobble: Thanks for taking such an early call...
Peter Himmelman: Oh, no problem -- please don't tell anyone that I don't live a bohemian lifestyle...

So I'll start off with a question I typically ask in every interview, and that's what musical memories you had growing up?
That's a good question worth asking. When I was 5 or 6, I'd listen with my older sister, who was 12; this was maybe 1966 or so. I would hear the Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or maybe "Stop in the Name of Love". The ever-enchanting "House of the Rising Sun." I remember the electric organ -- snippets of songs can be very moving.

Then when I was 7 or 8, I'd play with my friend Doug Kauffman -- he had some free LPs. We'd listen and pretend the stuffed animals were the band. The rabbit would be the singer, flopping around. I enjoyed it more than he did, which is maybe why I went into music and he went into finance.

You tell a lot of stories in your songs, so do you also have any book memories from growing up?
Oh, Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach. My mom would read to me from a collection called Kiss, Kiss, which was kind of dark. Shel Silverstein. Maurice Sendak, of course - Where the Wild Things Are. Jules Verne... My first book I can remember really getting into was Scott O' Dell's Island of Blue Dolphins. Oh, we had these stories on vinyl -- I remember 101 Dalmatians. I also liked audio stories -- I still do. I like the aural imagery.

Do you segregate your writing for kids?
Whenever I write anything, there's a reason now -- I'm doing a record, or it's gestated for awhile. If it's a kids record, the songs, even the chords and music, have to be within a kid's perspective. So many things are not within the kids' records -- divorce, lust, so on.

So what would be appropriate? What I do might push the parameters. But I think kids are part of the human species. They're not some obsequieous animal. The child is as intelligent as his adult self, but some things are beyond his experience.

It's like, why expect them to enjoy Tom Clancy?
Exactly. It's like writing a recordd in Peruvian for Americans. It's just not understood.

I was doing a songwriting workshop in Boulder this weekend. I assigned them to a kids song, and it was so moving for some folks. A well-written kids song will resonate with adults because they've had that experience. If it's not overly glib it can be very touching.

"Children's" music is primarily music without the innocence stripped out and without it being over-sexualized. Children are getting into s-called pop music too early. Can't we prolong the innocence instead of getting into the p***o culture, be it regarding food or sex? Do we have to start at age 9?

Yeah, we don't have cable, so it's a little easier for us...
Wise man. For a while we didn't even have a TV. We stilll don't have cable...

So what changes have you seen in kids music since My Best Friend is a Salamander?
Well, in my case, that first record I only did for the paycheck. There was a time limit. Like Michaelangelo, maybe. Now I've figured out the pathway -- an easy access to do it over and over. I can get in that door fairly easily.

I was never too aware of the bigger genre, even now. There's lots more -- some of it successful, some not. It does seem like there's a little of "There's gold in them thar hills!" attitude going on...

Can you tell us a little bit more about Curious World?
I've been doing the Furious World broadcast live every week for almost a year now. All along I wanted to do something similar for kids. Not didactic -- just presenting information. I'm trying to inspire and prolong wonder, which is the essence of childhood.

I've done 10 episodes -- I'd like to do a whole year's worth. It'll be at an appointed time like a TV show, and on iTunes as well.

The show looks great. There's lots of kids -- I'm just a facilitator. My mom, who was involved in gifted education really liked it.

You know, Bill Cosby, when he talked to kids, he wasn't obsequious. And when kids are talked to that way, they in kind feel ennobled. In my show, some of the answers are genius -- not smart, but cute and endearing.

What's next?
I decided in Colorado to do my next kids' record -- 14 songs. And I've got an album for adults, Mystery of the Hum, coming out.

Beyond that, this week it's getting chickens in the backyard. And King Ferdinand, my tortoise, was lost for a couple days, but he's back now...

Photo Credits: George Verschoor (Peter solo); Marc Jacobs/Peter Himmelman (Peter w/ King Ferdinand)