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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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...