Interview: Animals Rock – Beau Young and Shelley Craft
The adult friendly, infectious sounds of ANIMALS ROCK are the brainchild of Beau Young – Australian singer, songwriter, and musician (and not to mention two-time world champion surfer). Teaming up with television presenter Shelley Craft and a band of talented animals, Animals Rock is a kid’s entertainment act that is loaded with fun and sprinkled with educational value.
INT: What inspired you guys to start up Animals rock, and how did the partnership come about?
BEAU: Shell and I first met via me playing at her girl’s kindy in Byron Bay. Also pretty much around the same time, I got to surf with her husband at Watego. We got talking and Shelley had the album. It’s been a dream working with Shelley. Everything I had in my mind, Shelley thought as well. So it’s been incredible really, from my standpoint.
SHELLEY: Well it’s the same for me, ladies. It was really a meeting of the minds and fabulous timing. My oldest one was only about 2 at the time when Beau first played at her day care, and she literally had these songs stuck in her head. So when I put anything else on in the car it’s like “No! Animals Rock!”
INT: Well that actually is a great segway into our next question, because your songs are definitely catchy. I have two small children so I’ve been playing them a bit with my kids and I find myself hours afterwards still singing them over again. What is the creative process that you guys go through to create these songs?
SHELLEY: Well this first album was definitely Beau’s from the start. He’s been touring with it at day cares for a number of years. So I’ve basically written myself into the script, decided which parts I thought my amateur singing voice would suit, and with a lot of coaching from Beau, we re-recorded parts of the album with me on it. But this definitely was his first baby and the birth of Animals Rock – being songs that are always going to be about animals, their environment and of course their characteristics. And then as you well know, every single animal plays a different musical instrument – that’s a part of it as well. There will always be an animal and a new instrument on every track.
INT: Shelley, you sound really great on the album. Did you undergo any vocal training before Animals Rock or was this something that you were already skilled in?
SHELLEY: No, I’ve always had the rock star fantasy.
INT: Well you’re living the dream now.
SHELLEY: What would I be next in my incarnation? It is either a Pink Impersonator or going back to being a kid’s entertainer. That was the beautiful appeal of it for me. I started in kid’s entertainment working at Movie World on the Gold Coast and then Today Disney being my first job in TV. I really consider that to be where my ultimate skill and heart lies – in entertaining kids. There’s nothing more rewarding than having kids dance and sing along with you. They are the toughest critics of all. Adults will always give you a second chance and even if they don’t particularly like you and they enjoy the show, they’ll keep watching. If kids aren’t interested they’ll switch off in a heartbeat. If they’re down the back at the day care centre playing with the blocks rather than dancing, well then you know you’ve missed the mark.
INT: What kind of genres does Animals Rock explore?
BEAU: So, it is kind of at the moment still in the blues/folk rock kind of area. I think as musicians Shell and I definitel y want to expand and I know that all parents – not being a parent yet, unfortunately… I know that parents play their regular music to their kids and we know kids love it. So we’re definitely up for expanding as well, and you know whatever other elements would be nice just to really round things out for the children’s education.
INT: We know music is extremely important for children, how do you think your music helps kids?
BEAU: When it came to the song writing process Shelley and I have a giant animal dictionary, and that has every animal under the sun from the smallest of insects to the tallest of the dinosaurs. As you all know sitting in that room, children are so intelligent beyond their years. Each verse is based around the animal’s habitat, what it eats, its weight in comparison to say – an elephant weighs as much as two small Volkswagen cars, or whatever it may be. That’ll be the verse and they’ll get used to singing that with the catchy music behind it, and then comes the chorus. Each and every animal, like Shelley said, they’ll have a specific instrument, probably pipes in there or chimes in for the chorus. Obviously, an elephant it’d be a large pair of cymbals. And then obviously using their arms as a trunk from side to side. So it’s subliminally very educational without them knowing it. They find themselves singing the song, ideally, and understanding a lot about the scorpion or a hawk or whatever it may be and then come the dance moves… that’s all about fun.
SHELLEY: We cannot keep up with the moves [in other kids acts], so this is very much music that doesn’t make parents scratch their nails down the blackboard. It’s CDs that you can leave on in the car once the kids pop out and it won’t drive you crazy, and of course dance moves that will keep you fit enough and keep the kids interested enough but you don’t need a degree in dance to be able to keep up.
INT: Beau, what is more fun – being a solo act or a part of a kid’s act?
BEAU: I think that it allows a little bit more room to breathe. Playing day cares solo, I did find it was extremely hard to cover all bases and also fully engage the kids. And I just think having a group outfit, and I always dreamed of having myself – being a male, and having Shell there as a female – I think that’s great for kids – they can relate and I think we’ve really chosen the animals in that regard, too. I think it’s just a lot more fun – I think there’s a lot more to engage a child – and just seeing the animals play instruments and they all have their own personalities. It’s definitely bigger than myself which is awesome. That was the dream, to take it a different context. In that regard the band – and then also now with Shell on board – we can hopefully write more songs together and after farm animals take it to the jungle, take it to the sea, take it to the land and prehistoric animals cause there’s definitely more songs in the bank there. It’s an important time for kids and the environment.
INT: So what makes Animals Rock different from other children’s acts?
SHELLEY: I think definitely the content and the music. It will always be about animals and their environment – we don’t need to sing about bubbles or brushing our teeth or hula hoops or anything else. It will always have that educational value of animals. And of course the music, Beau has got this amazing, as you’ve heard, blues roots – that’s where he’s from and that’s what it’s all about and again that lovely connection with music as far as the actual fundamentals of music, not just tunes that’ll get kids dancing but it really is very intelligent music and as you said it won’t drive parents mad in the prospect.
INT: Where can our readers find more information about you? Where can they get your album?
SHELLEY: You can find it all on www. animalsrock.com – we’ve got our Facebook page too which is ‘Animals Rock’, Instagram – we’re there as well. Tour dates – that will be the biggest thing for 2016. We’ll be hitting the road – so we’re actually kicking off with carols up here in Queensland and the Sirromet Winery – they do their Day on the Green and now they’ve got their Christmas carols, so we’re involved with that which is great. We’re doing the Essential Baby and Toddler show expos in Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne – so that’ll be March and April – they’re on the road with Peppa pig. And from then on, hoping we can get to the regional centres as well. Eyes peeled, here we come.