Seattle rock stars – for toddlers

Kids’ music, for those around eight-years-old and younger, has come a long way since my children listened to Barney’s “I love you, you love me” and The Wiggle’s “Toot toot chugga chugga big red car.”

Those groups have been replaced by Kindie Rock and Seattle is leading the way with groups like Caspar Babypants, The Board of Education and Recess Monkey. (You can see these groups perform later this month at a free concert in Seattle)

I talked with Jack Forman, Drew Holloway and Daron Henry before a Recess Monkey concert at a local school. They are all elementary school teachers in Seattle.

“It took us a few years to discover that we weren’t just teachers who loved that job, we were also musicians who really liked to collaborate,” says Forman, the group’s bass player. “We started making music for adults. Soon that became music for kids and we’ve been doing music as Recess Monkey for about five years.”

Drew Holloway, Jack Forman and Daron Henry (left to right) met at University Child Development School in Seattle and formed Recess Monkey about five years ago. Photos by Kevin Fry

Forman says it makes sense to have kids as a target audience for their music, because that’s where their inspiration comes from.

“We have more conversations with kids each day than with adults,” he says. “Most people I talk to are around 3′ 5″ tall.”

Holloway, who sings, plays guitar and writes their song lyrics, says they pick up on the topics kids are talking about in school. Some examples include songs about monkey bars, riding bikes and friendship.

They have a new album coming out this month called The Final Funktier, with a space theme and songs titles including: “Science Fair,” “My Brother is a Satellite,” and “Constellation Conga.”

How cool would these guys be as teachers?

“In my classroom I actually sit on a drum, it’s called a cajon which is a box. I’ll do rhythms and the kids will respond to that,” say Henry, Recess Monkey’s drummer. “We just went through a whole thing of doing our times tables by doing rhythms with them.”

The teachers spend their summer months touring around the country, and winter breaks recording albums.

Recess Monkey recently got some national attention in Time Magazine feature about rock music for kids. Even so, they have no plans to quit their day jobs as teachers.

All three say they’re not looking to get discovered by Disney.

Although, they joke, “If Disney’s is setting their sights on us, that’s okay.”

Listen to this report