Interview: Murray Cook (The Wiggles)

Note: This interview, conducted on behalf of the Phoenix New Times, can also be found here. Reprinted with permission.

Talking with The Wiggles' Murray Cook -- AKA the Red Wiggle, the group's lead guitarist -- is akin to talking to one of the Beatles, and finding out that they're really down-to-earth blokes. Before meeting Anthony Field and Greg Page while studying early childhood education Macquarie University, Cook played in various bands such as The Finger Guns. In 1991, Field, Page, and he formed the Wiggles. The rest is brightly-colored history.

It's possible that being the highest earning entertainers in Australia -- beating out Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and Kylie Minogue -- has gone to their head, but nothing in our conversation with while he was in New York waiting to do a meet-and-greet suggested anything of the sort. In fact, it was a little bit like talking to your neighbor down the street -- if your neighbor down the street not only earned more than Kylie Minogue but also released a single ("Monkey Man") with her.

Cook and the rest of the Wiggles (sans Minogue, sadly) will appear in two shows at Phoenix's Dodge Theatre today. Read on for more info on the Red Wiggle...

Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
Murray Cook: Well, it was the '60s, so a lot of the Beatles, of course... There's a long-running TV show in Australia called Playschool -- forty years and still running -- I watched that. But, of course, the Beatles and the Stones were important. At about 11 or 12 I started playing the guitar -- became obsessed with it, really. Kept on playing it. My dad in particular suggested that there might not be a career in it. About ten years ago, my dad said he was probably wrong that, which was nice for him to say...

What process do you and the band go through in writing music?
It's all pretty collaborative with us. Anthony's brother [Paul Field] helps out with the music, though Anthony does a lot with lyrics. Paul Paddick, who's Captain Feathersword, also contributes. We all work together, all on the same page.

How about Greg [Page, the original Yellow Wiggle]?
Yeah, after Greg decided to leave the group, he got away from it completely, a totally clean break.

You're starting this new tour -- how long does it take you to prep for taking a show on tour?

It doesn't happen from scratch. A lot of the songs we've done for a long time. We obviously can't change "Hot Potato," for example. The show more evolves over time. We're touring all the time -- Australia, the US, the UK -- we're coming off a UK tour right now. We learn on the road, but at the end of the year, if there's a new show, maybe a couple weeks.

So are there differences between American audiences and Australian ones?
The kids are pretty much the same. It's more the parents. Here in the States the parents get just as involved, just as vocal, as the kids. In Australia and New Zealand especially the parents are more relaxed, laid back. The UK parents are somewhere in between.

When you're playing, are you playing just for the kids, or are you trying to reach the adults too?
If you're interacting with the kids, then you're probably doing OK with the adults. We take what we do pretty seriously, but have fun with it. A lot of the music is pop music anyway, so that helps. But if they [the parents] hate it, they won't come back with their kids. There's lots of acrobatics now, so that helps [with the parents].

How do you keep it fresh after doing this for 18 years?
The audiences help keep it fresh, there's always something different from them. The response from kids, obviously. We're always trying to improve the show, changed the show. There's no shortage of ideas -- because we do enjoy this, we're always finding something new.

Interview: Adam Levy (Bunny Clogs)

The Twin Cities' Adam Levy's got a lot going on -- still working with his main band The Honeydogs and a side project with a name he hesitates to use on a kids music site (it's OK, Adam, I mentioned it anyway), he's also got a kid-friendly side project called Bunny Clogs. He released More! More! More! earlier this year -- it's definitely one of the most interesting kids' CDs of the year, but it's also got some of the most entertaining tracks of the year, too. (Here's the review.)

Adam recently answered a few questions about the project -- read on for how the album's like an old De La Soul disk, the unique aspects of playing for kids, and his defense and critique of contemporary pop music (in other words, arguments for and against Miley Cyrus).

Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
Adam Levy: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. KISS. The Beatles. Sly and the Family Stone. Hendrix. Dylan. I'd have to say the diversity of '70's radio was the biggest impact in my early childhood -- you heard elements of everything in pop radio from that era: British pop, soul, funk, country, classical, disco, prog, hard rock, blues. I also remember an explosion of interesting children's music in that Sesame Street era -- Free To Be You and Me, Carole King's Really Rosie, Harry Nilsson's The Point.

When did you first know you wanted to make music for a living?
When I was 12...

You've been writing some of the Bunny Clogs songs for a while now -- how did you get into writing these songs?

I had just finished the darkest, most intense songwriting and recording of my career up to that point (a concept album, 10,000 Years with the Honeydogs) in 2003 and started buying home studio stuff. The songs happened quickly as I was learning to use all of the gear. Sort of got my mind out of the dark place I had been for the last ten or so years.

In the late 80's/early 90's I got into De La Soul and the Beastie Boys and always loved the worlds those guys created in their albums -- characters, inside jokes. Bunny Clogs gave me permission to take the best things about my family life and relationship with my children, those inside jokes, nicknames, love of food, rhyming, surreal goofiness... and share it with others.

How does the process of writing the songs with your kids work?
My kids participated in all kinds of ways: giggling in the background, contributing lyrics, clapping, singing. It was dad messing around with music at home. My son did all of the artwork for the record.

Photo by Tony Nelson
What are your kids' favorite Bunny Clogs songs, either for listening to or playing live?
"Midtown Greenway," "Song For Powderhorn" -- for their musicality. "Butter," Shpilkas," "3 Dogs and a Pancake" for how crazy they make the kids go. Both girls are becoming quite comfortable on stage. Both are singing really well. Esther, the oldest, is becoming a visual centerpoint for the show -- her dancing is ridiculously good.

What do they (at least your daughters) listen to generally?
They like some cool stuff like St. Vincent, Bird and the Bee, Tupac, the Beatles, but they also dig Miley Cyrus, the JoBros [Ed: The Jonas Brothers, for those not yet in the know], Taylor Swift. I am tolerant and let them listen to contemporary pop radio because I know how big of an impact it had on me in my own childhood. I hate to sound old, but modern pop is so homogenous -- production, songwriting, arrangements. There are many musical moments, but I fear many kids who are not listening to indie music or being exposed to older stuff are getting a very limited sonic landscape in pop music these days.

You've played a few Bunny Clogs shows now -- what have you learned about playing live shows for kids?
Kids are the toughest audience. They don't pretend to be interested or physically moved by the music. It's visceral for them and you have to engage them constantly. They love to be part of the show, too.

Keep the show short.

You participated in a kids music panel at SXSW -- what has surprised you about the family music business as you've gone about releasing More! More! More!?
There is an explosion of interesting family music. The big labels aren't interested because the sales aren't big enough. That's OK -- I think there's room enough for all of us.

What's next for Bunny Clogs and the rest of your musical endeavors?
Lots of shows coming up. Trying to figure out some ways to tour with the band. Working on new material for Bunny Clogs, Honeydogs, and another project. [Ed: It's OK -- you can say it here -- "Hookers and Blow."]

Interview: Molly Ledford (Lunch Money)

Everything I like about Molly Ledford and the awesome band she leads, Lunch Money, can be summed up, I think, in that photo to the left, which Molly titled "cookie eclipse of the head." The self-effacing nature, the humor, the goofiness, the well-thought out design -- all of which Lunch Money and that picture have in spades.

So without any further ado, here's Molly on the first time she was banned from singing something, her peppy song about a horror movie from the '70s, and why having fun (and looking like it) is an important part of being in Lunch Money. There is also some gauntlet-throwing, so please watch your heads.

Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
My parents always had records playing - Paul Simon, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Kingston Trio, The Spinners, Vince Guaraldi. Most of it I enjoyed, except that I think I got subjected to Barbra Streisand's Guilty (the Barry Gibb collaboration) a few too many times on long trips to Pennsylvania. In the car, my brother and I would perk up when Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" would come on the radio. Or the chorus of British children singing in Pink Floyd's "The Wall." Or I even remember being delighted by Monty Python's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" with all its funny sound effects. I think kids have always listened to their parents' music and panned for something they could relate to.

But one moment that truly rocked me was the night my dad blasted Meet the Beatles shortly after I had gone to bed (maybe he thought he had headphones plugged in? It was unusually loud....). I think I was about seven at the time. I came running out, enthralled. My parents would not let me play their copy on my own relatively crummy record player, but I luckily found one at my neighbor's garage sale for a quarter. It was totally scratched, and I listened to it over and over. So really I became way more familiar with my personal scratched copy. I could sing along to every skip. I also listened to Casey Kasem's Top 40 every weekend in my room on an old clock radio, and I remember falling into a happy trance when Olivia Newton-John's "Magic" came on the first time.

When did you first start getting interested in writing music (generally, not for kids)?
My mom got me a guitar when I was nine and I took some lessons, but I have to credit my ever-scheming friend around the corner with getting me started on songwriting. One day she said she was writing a song (she was always up to something), so I tried my hand at it too. I came up with something especially for us to perform at the school talent show (we were in 6th grade). For some reason my chorus contained the lines, "I run away and throw away these chains. It doesn't solve my problems, but it helps to ease the pain." But to my surprise, when I gave my mom a sneak peek at my talent show song, she forbade me to play it. So we ended up covering "Take It to the Limit" instead. In high school I really started writing songs (still with angst, this time only semi-imaginary) and have been in bands ever since.

What specifically led you to record the first Lunch Money album (Silly Reflection)?
I recorded Silly Reflection because Lunch Money was starting to play shows around town and it seemed like the natural next step for a band - to have a recording. I started the band because I was working for the children's department of the library and part of my job was to book entertainment for children's programs. I started to notice there were plenty of puppeteers, magicians, clowns and solo musicians in the region, but I couldn't find any bands geared for kids around here at the time (around 2003). I always loved watching bands the few times I was around live music as a kid. I thought it could go over well. And while my main band at the time, The Verna Cannon, dwelled seriously on sad street, I also was in the habit of writing goofy songs on the side for my own amusement - about grocery stores or clumsiness or being the parent of the kid from The Omen. So it wasn't that much of a stretch.

All I'm saying is that I totally want to hear that song about The Omen.
It was really upbeat and from the point of view of a mom being sort of pleased with her child (like, not seeing the problem with him). I'm not saying it was that great - but it was the sort of thing I would find myself writing in between sad songs.

What did you have to change -- if anything -- about playing live when you started playing music for kids?
Playing for kids is a little bit of a tricky business. When I played for adults, I was in my own little confessional box up there, and I kind of had the attitude that if people weren't listening, they just didn't "get it." It certainly wasn't any reflection on me! Hah hah. But after a few shows with children staring glumly up at us, I realized we needed to work on the show. No matter what was going on in their heads, we needed them to LOOK like they were having fun if we wanted to be asked back.

I remembered going to see a band from New York called Bishop Allen when they played here. I have never been the kind of audience member who was into participating much. I've always avoided doing "YMCA" or the "We Will Rock You" beat at sporting events. But Bishop Allen played this song called "Little Black Ache" and I had the most fun and found myself, 8 months pregnant no less, throwing my fist in the air and shouting "What you got!" along with everyone else. I barely recognized myself.

So I thought about Lunch Money and have been seeking ever since to distill that very quality, to unlock that mystery of how to write songs that people, especially people like me, would enjoy participating in. It's really daunting to me. How do you make a song that can exist as a solid song in its own right but also have this accessible participatory element to boot? "Roller Coaster" was my first attempt and probably still my favorite. Random unstructured dancing is great participation too, but you can also lose people to some chaos that way. Every few songs at least we have to bring everybody back. And thankfully J.P. is great at bringing people back to focus.

How much songwriting inspiration do you draw from your kids' lives versus your own observations?
I pay attention to what they are talking about and doing, and sometimes that leads to a song idea, and I also use them as an in-house focus group. But I would say that most of the details come from my past and current experiences and observations and I just have to hope they will resonate with other people. They are personal and I hope they come across as real. Someone should be able to get to the end of a Lunch Money CD and feel like they pretty much know me.

I know you were working on your next album for a long time. Why did it take so long to record Dizzy?
Tempo, tempo, tempo! It took us a while to figure this out. We'd earnestly set out to record our songs and we'd think we were rocking out and then we'd listen back and it would sound so dreadfully slow. If we're listening back to it and getting impatient, that's a problem. I got discouraged, and also I had two VERY young children at that point, so I just threw in the towel for a while. Then thanks to Frances [England] busting a move and putting out Family Tree, I finally got off my butt. Our kids are almost exactly the same ages, and I told myself that if Frances could do it, the gauntlet had been thrown down! So just to light a fire, I declared a release date and we went back to the drawing board. We started setting these tempos that finally felt fast enough, and while we were recording them, I'll admit we were hanging on for dear life at times, but in the end it finally felt right.

A lot of the songs on Dizzy seem much more activity-oriented -- is this a result of playing live?
I'm looking at the back of the CD and seeing what you mean. It probably is a mixture of the live show and also what my own kids are up to these days. You know, spinning around getting dizzy in front of me or coming home with free balloons from the grocery store.

What music do you listen to with your kids?
I pay a lot of attention to the children's music scene, so my kids have a really decent collection of lots of our fellow "kindie" bands. I've noticed they most often request the people they've had the chance to see live. I also make them mixes for their birthdays - songs that seem to represent them that year. It started as birthday party background music and has turned into its own thing. These days my son also likes to camp out on his bed and pore over the CD cases while he listens. So even with all this music business talk of the demise of the CD, I believe in packaging!

What's next for the band?
Well, thanks to this crazy thing where this guy reviewed us on NPR, we got some good momentum that we are trying to maintain. Luckily we were already lined up for Kidzapalooza and The Austin City Limits Festival, so that helped the look of the ol' Lunch Money timeline, and our new friend Tor Hyams is coming to visit in November to produce our next album. I have booked the studio time. The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Interview: Debbie Cavalier (Debbie and Friends)

Debbie Cavalier leads a double life -- not only is she behind Debbie and Friends, which offers a bunch of songs (and animation) squarely aimed at preschoolers (and maybe their older siblings), she's also the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music's online division. So she's got a pretty broad perspective on life as a musician, educator, and entrepreneur. (She's also a really nice person.) Read on for her inspiration for Debbie and Friends, some music education tips, and the worst part about playing keyboards.

Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
Debbie Cavalier: My mom always played a lot of Tom Jones and Neil Diamond in the house when I was a kid. She also played my grandfather records a lot: The Marty Gold Orchestra. My grandfather has been a huge influence on my musical life. I just wrote a blog post about this.

Upon getting my own record player in elementary school in the mid 70s, my favorites rotations up were Elton John, Carole King, Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, Carly Simon, and Bruce Springsteen. Elton John definitely got more airplay in my room than anyone else.

What was the path that led you to your current job at Berklee and what does that job entail?
I was a music education major at Berklee and had a wonderful time as an elementary music teacher and choral director for a several years. During that time, I became involved with music education publishing and developed some music methods and choral arrangements for CPP/Belwin and Warner Bros. Publications. After a few years, they offered me a full-time position as an education editor to develop music education publications. I had the wonderful opportunity to develop music education publications with authors such as Shari Lewis and Buffalo Bob Smith before they passed away. I also did a lot of work with Bob McGrath from Sesame Street. Those experiences have had a tremendous impact on the work I do with Debbie and Friends.

After about five years at WB, I was hired by Berklee as the managing editor for Berklee Press. Shortly after that we started to develop plans for an online school, Berkleemusic.com. We became accredited in 2004, and now five years later we have the largest online music school in the world serving 30,000 students from more than 80 countries. Berkleemusic.com is the online continuing education division of the college. We have 100 fully-accredited online courses and certificate programs in music production, music business, songwriting, film scoring, arranging, and more. I’ve been the dean of continuing education at Berklee for the past five years. My job entails working with Berklee’s esteemed faculty in developing new online courses to serve a global community of musicians with music education opportunities. We have a team of 30 people at Berkleemusic and our enrollment is growing each semester. Our students tend to be adult learners who have a passion for music and want to further their career opportunities by studying with Berklee faculty and other students from around the globe. I love my work at Berklee and am very thankful for the flexibility it affords me with Debbie and Friends. Most of Berklee’s faculty and staff are involved in one kind of music project or another in their own musical lives. It’s a wonderful environment filled with opportunities to collaborate and grow.

What made you decide to do a kids' CD?
As a music educator, I've always enjoyed sharing music with children. As my career path development and opportunities came my way, I found myself further and further removed from children. Debbie and Friends brings that back. But I have to say it was my nephew Will who inspired me to write my first children's song just a few years ago when he was only 3. He told me the story of the Three Little Pigs one day with such enthusiasm that it sounded just like a song form. It occurred to me that the Three Little Pigs story would make a great song, and it just grew from there. I began writing “story songs” and other music for children, then performing, then recording, and I just loved it! The fact that Debbie and Friends started with my nephew Will makes it extra special to me. And whenever we play shows in Boston or Philadelphia, Will comes up on stage with his brother Ronnie and sister Rebecca to join us on a few songs. They and their brother Teddy are a constant source of inspiration for me!

I made a little Web site for Will about the inspiration he provided. (I just happened to have a handy cam while he told the story to my mother -- his grandma). Here’s a link to the story and the song on Will’s site:

What group of kids are you targeting with Debbie and Friends?
The target age is pre-school and kindergarten children ages three to six. However, we have lots of fans at our shows who are seven, eight and even nine years old. Babies and toddlers seem to enjoy themselves too. But, the songs, activities, skills, lyrics, and interactions are targeting 3-6 year olds and the grownups who love them.

Which main aspect of the music process (writing, recording, playing live) do you enjoy the most? The least?
Playing live! I love the interaction and connection I share with the kids and families through live performance, and the shared musical experience the concerts provide for families. I believe children's music is not about performing for kids, but rather, interacting with them and I enjoy that aspect so much.

My other favorite thing is collaborating with my producer Michael Carrera and all of the wonderful musicians who contribute to the Debbie and Friends recordings. They take an idea and make it better. Making music with others is a wonderful experience.

What do I least enjoy? That’s easy… carrying equipment before and after a show. My keyboard is very heavy!

Your videos are pretty high-quality -- is the video-creation process something you enjoy, or do you just have lots of talented friends?
Thank you! It’s both. I love the process and I have wonderfully talented friends who have been very generous. My dear friends Amy Schrob and Sharon Lynch made the "Hangin’ Around” movie for me as a gift. I also discovered a terrific animation company in the UK through Craigslist. The owner is Greg David and the company is Planet Sunday. They produced an animation based on the “Three Pigs and a Wolf” and just finished another one based on “I Got a Laugh.” They are starting to work on a third. The videos have been a wonderful way to reach new fans and has even opened some doors in licensing and TV placements.

Have you learned anything from making and playing the first album (Story Songs and Sing Alongs) that's affected what you're doing for the second album?
Oh yes! I learned that the story songs concept is a big hit with families. There is something about the familiarity of a well-known storyline set to music that makes for a fun interactive experience. The kids know where the story is going and are excited to assume the parts and roles throughout. So, there will be more familiar stories to sing about, including “I Think I Can” from The Little Engine that Could. That particular story is not in the Public Domain, but we were able to negotiate a fair license.

I also learned that stylistic variety is enjoyed by families. I feel very fortunate to have my Berklee colleagues to call upon to record and perform in a variety of styles. We recorded the rhythm section for five new songs in a Boston-based studio last week (piano, organ, bass, drums, and guitar) and I’m more excited than ever about the second album CD.

Having been a classroom music teacher and choral director for many years, there weren’t any huge surprises. Interaction and active participation for kids and their families seems to be most important and so all of the songs are written with a collective music making experience in mind.

If you had one piece of advice for parents wanting their kids to develop basic music competency, what would it be?
Make music a natural part of your every day. Don’t be afraid to sing in front of your kids. Studies show that a parent’s voice is a baby’s favorite sound. Sing with your child every day, and don’t worry about how you think you might sound! The important thing is that you are modeling a love of music and a non-judgmental approach to making music.

Play music-related games such as:
-- Make Up Your Own Songs (Parodies): Make up new words to familiar songs. Make up songs about a pet, friends, family, the morning routine, school, putting toys away, or anything at all.
-- Name that Sound Game: Play a sound from the kitchen and have your child name it while listening from the next room. You can play sounds that are as easy as running water and as challenging as pouring cereal into a bowl.

Also, participate in Kindermusik and other early childrood-related music programs in your area. And, go to concerts, recitals and other musical performances whenever possible!

What's next for you?
With Debbie and Friends the next step is to write, record, and make more music, play more concerts, and reach as many kids and families as possible. We’re working on new songs, booking more shows in different areas of the country, and having lots of fun!

Interview: Robert Schneider (Robbert Bobbert)

Every time I hear or see Robert Schneider, head man for the indie-pop group Apples in Stereo, I'm totally convinced that his side project Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine isn't some cynical grab for attention -- he's 110%, maybe even 120%, jazzed by the stuff he does for kids. His fun debut album as Robbert Bobbert for Little Monster Records -- Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine -- may have just come out this year, but as you'll read in the interview below, he's been working on a lot of this stuff for a long time.

Zooglobble: What music do you remember listening to growing up?
Robert Schneider: I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, so my early years were in a beach city. South Africa is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans merge; they have awesome beaches and surf. After our family moved back to America, I eventually discovered the Beach Boys. I think their music reminded me of the feeling of living by the ocean.

My parents listened to a lot of Cat Stevens. I love his music – Tea for the Tillerman and the song “Moonshadow.” I saw Harold and Maude when I was around 12, and it is one of my favorite movies with its great Cat Stevens soundtrack. However, the Beach Boys are still my favorite band. My son Max (age 8) likes them too - he heard Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds when he was in the womb; and later saw him perform the songs from Smile - but I think he likes the Beatles a little bit more. He came into the Beatles on his own, hearing the music around the house and from other family members who are big Beatles fans.

What impact did other pop culture (e.g., TV, movies) have on your musical tastes?
TV was banned in South Africa until 1976. There simply wasn’t any TV there because the government thought it would corrupt the populace. In my last year there when I was 6, I can remember seeing TV for first time…there was a little picture of a springbok going across the savannah in black & white and thinking, “Wow – a movie in my house!” Prior to that, what people did was play movies at home on projectors. You could rent movies at the local store.

When our family moved to America, I watched a ton of TV that first year. Between the ages of 6 and 7 (1977-78), I watched a massive amount of reruns and basically got caught up on American culture. I also listened to a lot of 70’s pop and disco, mostly from TV. This permeated my mind. So, the TV world of the 1970s probably influenced me somewhat.

When I was in middle school, MTV first came out. We lived in the college town of Ruston, LA. The local cable TV service would not carry MTV, but Louisiana Tech had a satellite disc. My dad was a professor there, and I went to a school on campus (it was awesome! We had a planetarium, regular music class, art classes). Every day after school, once MTV started, my friends and I walked over to the student center on campus and watched MTV on the giant screen. I had to go out of my way to get it, so it was really special.

I have great memories of the early years of MTV. There was a great show in the 80s called The Cutting Edge. I also watched 120 Minutes -- the absolute hippest music was on there, like REM and Robyn Hitchcock. I discovered this noncommercial, alternative music existed, and it blew my young mind.

Most of my early musical influences came from buying records, reading magazines and listening to Louisiana Tech's great radio station KLPI.

What came first -- the songs (or the album) or Robbert Bobbert?
The songs came first. They were recorded over many years, first for my little brothers for their birthdays and Christmas. This continued even as we started the Apples and Elephant Six Collective -- I continued to record songs for my brothers and for other kids I knew. Eight years ago, we had our son Max, and throughout his life I’ve been recording songs for him. The song “Gravity” was written for his school science fair last year. Gravity is awesome and I wanted to write a song in praise of it. I did a presentation for the kids about physics and wrote the song for the class. Once I had a bunch of songs, enough for an album, I finally started pulling it all together. I decided to use the name Robbert Bobbert because it’s a nickname my mom called me when I was a kid.

While some of the songs were written a number of years ago, others were (presumably) written recently for the album. Did you take a different approach at all with the new stuff (e.g., deliberately changing how you wrote lyrics, melodies, production)?
The older songs were recorded on 4 track cassette in my bedroom when first learning how to record songs. They tend to be a little looser and sloppier. The song “I Love the Animals” is one of my earliest kid songs; “I Am a Clock” is newer and is more musically tight.

I think besides the fact that I am a better musician and producer/recording engineer now, my approach is pretty much the same. Every song I take on its own and just make it as fun and gleeful and colorful and unusual as possible. I try to write whimsical lyrics. I want the songs to come bursting out of the speakers like a piñata. Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine was recorded over a long period of time, but even though you can hear how the music evolves over time, somehow it all works.

What did you use for inspiration in writing this album?
Besides the songs I wrote for specific occasions (my brothers’ birthdays, Max’s science fair, etc...),I tend to draw inspiration from things I’m very interested in. I love science and looking at how clocks work as a perfect system, as you can hear in the song “I Am a Clock.”

Just like the song says, “I Love the Animals"; coincidentally, that was almost the title of the album. Different animals give me a lot of ideas for characters (like the little duck in polka dot pajamas and the mighty, mighty elephant…). Animals are a ubiquitous subject in childhood. Some of the backup vocals on the songs were inspired by actual animal sounds – the “quack quack” on “Little Duck” and the “bark, bark, barooo” on “Hey Little Puppy” (which was created to sound like my pet beagle Simon). In the future, I want to write more about astronomy and outer space. I love those topics. And, probably more about animals too.

Photo courtesy Holly Sharp; taken at LA Times Book Festival in April 2009
You've played a few shows for kids -- what's different about playing a show for them as opposed to playing for adults?
The kids’ show's at least 50 percent comedy. I bring in the bubble machine, gags, real and fake inventions and goofy dances to make kids laugh. In an Apples show, I may tell the occasional joke, but with the Robbert Bobbert show the jokes are pretty much going all the time. The Apples are known for being spontaneous, but with Robbert Bobbert it’s like improv standup comedy for little kids. I go out and be as dorky and silly and funny as I can. At same time, I am trying to throw out stuff for them to think about.

The educational aspect does not exist for Apples shows, unless you count the fact that audience members are always coming up and asking me questions about the placement of mikes, recording techniques, etc.

My goal for playing the Robbert Bobbert shows is to be like the ultimate big brother or cousin…that fun, zany, endearing person in your family.

Has writing Robbert Bobbert affected your writing for the next Apples in Stereo album?
The children’s songs are really more like early Apples stuff. Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine was primarily recorded on keyboard. With that record, I just got in the habit of playing piano a lot so the new Apples record will be more piano based – only one or two songs will be guitar-based.

In a sense the Robbert Bobbert record did affect the next Apples record. It doesn’t sound the same at all, but it’s a step in the progression of the music. I’ve spent the last several years honing a certain production sound. When Brian Wilson released Smile it gave me a belief in big production, so I use a blend of synthesizers, laser sounds, fast drums, synth space, choppy guitars…in my mind I hear a perfect R&B and psychedelic production sound that I’m always after. Robbert Bobbert does reach it sometimes, the perfect blend of analog/ acoustic sounds with electronic textures all fitting together in a way that is really awesome. The last Apples record (New Magnetic Wonder) and the new Robbert Bobbert song “We R Super Heroes” are great examples of that.

What's next for Robbert Bobbert? What can you tell us about the Robbert Bobbert TV show in development?
We have an animated video of the song “We R Super Heroes” just starting to make the rounds now. Also, I’m working on an idea for an animated TV show about the art of discovery and invention, mostly involving my love of math & science. I want it to be packed full of all sorts of interesting and cool stuff that I’m into and that I’d love to show kids if I have the chance. It could be Op Art, 3D design, or patterns in nature. It’s not meant to be a teaching show but rather turning kids on to discovery and problem solving. I want to pump them up and tell them that they are the generation who will grow up and discover great things, unravel mysteries and create the future of humanity.

I’m also playing at two festivals this summer: -- June 13 at 4 pm at South Street Seaport, NYC and August 31 at 7 pm in Millennium Park, Chicago