celebrity interviews by the Daily Stroll

Ralph Covert of Ralph's World - Celebrity Dad

interviewed by Beth Warrell Leistensnider


12.14.06


It’s been more than ten years since Ralph Covert was teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and someone approached him to see if he would be interested in doing a Wiggleworms class, the school’s popular music classes for parents and children. “I told them that there are probably better people out there, I don’t really fit your profile,” said Covert, who was leader of local band the Bad Examples and teaching songwriting classes at the Old Town School at the time. But he decided to give it a try, and says Covert, “I found that I had blast doing it. I really loved hanging out with the parents and kids.” And, lucky for new parents everywhere, Covert decided to keep doing it even when his own daughter, Fiona, outgrew the Wiggleworms stage. Soon the Old Town School organized a concert and a record was suggested, and the rest, as they say, is history.


TheDailyStroll: Your daughter, Fiona, is now 11 years old. Does she still enjoy listening to Ralph’s World?

Ralph Covert: Fiona still enjoys it, but she’s also listening to more age-appropriate music. But she still performs with me; she performed in some of the Disney videos we did recently. She plays guitar and piano, sings, dances, and acts—she’s a true triple threat!

TDS: It seems Ralph’s World takes up the majority of your time now; are you still able to play and record with the Bad Examples?

RC: Ralph’s World takes up the majority of my time, but we still take time to play shows and there is a lot of cross-pollination because so many musicians who work with me in one band work in the other, as well. We’ve got a ton of Ralph’s World shows coming up in the new year, but on January 20, the Bad Examples will also be Fitzgerald’s (a popular club in Berwyn, IL). We’re thrilled at the success Ralph’s World has been fortunate enough to have and the opportunity to pursue that success is great. But just because you have kids and you’re a parent doesn’t mean you have an obligation to not be the adult that you were before you had kids, too. There are things you do with your kids that are completely satisfying, but there are things that you do with your spouse that are satisfying that you wouldn’t also do with your kids.

TDS: Do you ever get Bad Examples fans who discovered you because of their kids listening to Ralph’s World?

RC: It goes both ways. I can’t tell you how many fans have told me, “We met at a Bad Examples show and now here we are at Ralph’s World concert.” It’s great to know that what I’ve done creatively has such a deep rhythm in somebody’s life. There’s always a number of Ralph’s World parents, too, that will consider coming out to see the Bad Examples. It’s fun to see that incredulous, goofy smile on their faces when they realize they’re allowed to be an adult. They know if they like the Ralph’s World stuff, “well, this is by the same guy, I might like this too.” Ralph’s World stuff is so much fun to make, the records are a blast to record. You feel kind of goofy-happy to do because the kids are so much fun.

TDS: As it says on your website, Ralph’s World is now a part of the “Disney Universe.” How has this changed things, if at all?

RC: Basically, we’re getting the music out to a broader, more national audience. In a way, it has democratized, if that’s the right word, the people who are Ralph’s World fans, broadened the range of people who get exposed to it. Minty Fresh (the band’s previous label) was in favor of pricing the cds higher and that almost made Ralph’s World an upper-middle class white person’s music. Disney prices them as low as possible and puts them in major chain stores. When I get recognized in airports now, I have to say it is by a broader cross-section of people. It is a great feeling knowing that the music is getting to a more representative audience, that it’s getting to all kids, not just some kids. One of the things that good kids’ music does is that what is your favorite as a kid takes on such a prominent place in your life, your inner dialogue, the way you see the world; it helps shape who you become. Ralph’s World music is a celebration of life, and it makes me happy to know that there are kids for whom my music is that thing.


TDS:How is it different performing for children as opposed to adults?

RC: Bad Examples fans have always been very upbeat and not cynical. But the kids have such energy and eyes-wide-open enthusiasm and that is just magical. A lot of the things remain the same, in that when you play a show, you need to take the audience on a journey. It’s a lot of the same core ideas. Things do happen quicker in a kids’ show. And at an adult show, you don’t usually say “Ok, we’re going to do a bouncy song now; everybody bounce!” But there are a few songs in the Bad Examples catalog during which the fans just naturally start bouncing along. “Sammy the Dog” (from Happy Lemons) was originally a Bad Examples song. We’d have everybody sing along. But kids bring a real passion and energy and exuberance. A lot of the same skills apply, they just get applied in different ways. In a kids show, I can more overtly rev them up. Years ago, I was paying an instore show at the Virgin Megastore on Michigan Ave. and Billy Corgan (of the Smashing Pumpkins) happened to be shopping in the store. Matt Walker, who has played for Billy’s solo records, also happens to be my drummer for Ralph’s World. So Billy knew the Ralph’s World sutff and he came up and chatted after the show. He said “Man, it’s just not fair, people have so much fun at your shows. When I play, people look down and shuffle their feet. Your gig is more fun than my gig.”


TDS: Do you listen to other kids’ music? Which musicians’ work do you enjoy the most?

RC: I don’t really listen to much kids’ music. I think it is partly because I’ve met so many different kids’ musicians and they’re all just uniformly awesome people. And I love a huge range of music, but I’m so picky about what I do listen to that I think I’m scared that I’m not going to like the music as much as I like the people. But the stuff that I have listened to shows there is a rising consciousness that kids’ music doesn’t have to be lame. And a number of people have reminded me of the fact that when the first Ralph’s World record came out it was one of the first that refused to treat kids’ music like kids’ music. When the guy from the New York Times said I might be the Elvis of kids’ music what he meant was taking the genre in a new direction, showing that it could do anything. Anything that helps make music more enjoyable for kids and their parents is a wonderful thing, and if my music has helped raise the bar and move in that direction, then that’s a good thing.


TDS: What do you like about the music scene in Chicago, both for children and adults?

RC: The Old Town School is one of the reasons that the Chicago kids’ market became one of the most robust kids’ music markets; because parents and kids got used to the quality coming out of that school. Chicago is so blessed, though, that there are so many genres of music that are so deep in talent and in opportunities to see live music. Not a lot of cities in the world can support such a vibrant music and arts community. And Chicago is big, but it is also accessible. It’s a great town in which to live and make art, because it’s a very viable place. You can make music and there are people who will come out and see it. That’s the thing that was really driven home to me in the 1990s when the Bad Examples toured nationally a lot. On a couple of the Ralph’s World records, I even had Sam Lay playing, a blues drummer who was playing in the 1950s at Chess Records and is just legendary. He played for Bob Dylan at the Newport Jazz Festival. That keeps the music really legitimate and vibrant. Kids respond to that, too, they know quality. They will tune into it when it’s quality music.

TDS: How hard has it been to combine the life of a touring musician with having a family?

RC: Ralph’s World stuff is fortunately mostly during the weekends. During the week, I’m working on recording, songwriting and doing the stay-at-home-dad/work-at-home-dad routine. The traveling is mostly on weekends. I’ve got friends who have so-called straight jobs who travel much more than I do. Yeah, part of being a musician is the itinerant aspect of the lifestyle. But most of it is in and out on a weekend. My friend Matt Walker is on tour with Morrissey and he’s out for three months at a time.


TDS: Does your daughter ever go to out-of-town shows with you?

RC: Fiona goes to the shows sometimes. I’ve always given her the opportunity to travel, but it’s always something that she has the choice to do. It’s their job to be a kid, it’s not their job to be your kid; it’s your privilege to be their parent. It’s important to provide opportunities and help them reach for the horizon but keep boundaries in place.


TDS: Ralph’s World’s most recent album was Green Gorilla, the Monster, and Me. What are you working on now?

RC: Well, really our most recent album was our first Disney release, Welcome to Ralph’s World, which is a compilation of 15 songs and videos. But Green Gorilla was the most recent album of all new stuff. We’re starting the process now for a new album, we have a lot of songs that are about ready, but we probably won’t really start recording until 2007. We’re trying to finish up a Bad Examples record now. This is the second year for a children’s rock-and-roll musical that I did, a version of the Nutcracker (A Nutcracker’s Christmas, which Covert describes on his website as “ a children’s musical theater version of The Nutcracker, that I wrote with my playwriting partner G. Riley Mills. . . . it features all new original music, and a modernized story-line that tells the Nutcracker story from a fresh perspective while mixing in comedic twists, swordfights, and some boisterous dance numbers.”). I’ve also been commissioned to write two other musicals, so I’ve been doing a lot of work on that. This morning I was punching away on some songs for that.


Thanks Ralph!