Trout Fishing in America: Songwriting Secrets
Creativity, fun, music and kids all play a large role in helping to inspire this weeks guest musicians, Trout Fishing in America! Daddy Brad sits down with the two man band, Ezra and Keith, to uncover just how these guys come up with fun and wacky song lyrics like "there is an alien in my nose..." These guys infuse their song writing with the creative ideas of kids, collaborating and creating music that is exciting and inspiring to listen to! DadLabs ep. 402. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Daddy Brad: Welcome back to the lounge – I’m Daddy Brad and I am joined today by the fantastic musical duo Ezra and Keith – better known as Trout Fishing in America. In the 1970’s their musical paths crossed and they have been entertaining ears ever since.
Ezra: one, two, three and…
Keith: I crept to your school
A little after lunch
I was sitting in the library
Reading adventure books
Daddy Brad: One of the big things is - it get kids interested in music early, you kind of started that in the classroom – talk a little bit about how you go about that.
Keith: We started talking to kids and saying how we wrote songs and instead of just how we do it – we showed them. We said you’ve got to start with an idea. You take one idea, you start building on it – what do you think would be a good idea to write a song about? Asked the kids that – then they come up with these ideas and we start picking them.
Trout Fishing in America: Gross, gross, gross there was alien in my nose.
Ezra: And the thing is too, when you tell a kid that you’re going to do an idea, you take their ideas – that’s a promise. They come up with an idea – you’ve got to take that idea and…
Keith: But you modify it sometimes. I said, “What do you want to write about?” he said “How about boogers?” You know boogers are good, but anything else out there? “Err how about an alien in my nose?” I’m like now you’re talking!
Daddy Brad: There you go.
Keith: So we have a song called Alien in my nose.
Trout Fishing in America: Gross, gross, gross there was an alien in my nose.
Daddy Brad: Did that kid get royalties?
Keith: Well not exactly, but what we do is we send the equivalent of royalties back to the organization that brought us in - which allows them to bring somebody else in which gives more kids more opportunity to listen.
Ezra: If they are going to cut funding for anything – arts are one of the ones to get cut, so anything we can do to make that thing work and grow is what we do.
Daddy Brad: And the kids are just absolutely energized?
Keith: Kids believe that they can do anything – you tell them they can write a song, believe me – they can write a song.
So I put it on the floor – trying to squish it with my shoe – when this didn’t work, I knew what I would have to do.
Ezra: I think it depends an awful lot on the kid. Some kids learn by ear - that was me; some kids learn by reading music – that was him.
Keith: I have a degree in music, he can’t read music – we both have the same job. There’s a lot of ways to get here you know?
Trout Fishing in America: Gross, gross, gross there was an alien in my nose, and it was gross, gross, gross there was an alien in my nose, an alien in my nose - an alien in my nose. And it was gross, gross, gross there was an alien in my nose.
Daddy Brad: Oh man that’s awesome! Trout Fishing In America – Ezra, Keith – thanks guys. Listen if you want to check these guys out – figure out where they’re going to be, buy their albums – go to troutmusic.com on the web, figure out if they’re coming to a town near you and if they are - get your kids and go! Its tons of fun – even if you don’t have kids its tons of fun – go!
That’s all for us this week in the lounge – check us out on dadlabs.com. Trout take it off! Whoa, whoa!
