I love chatting with dynamic and interesting people. And recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shoshana Sperling from The Monkey Bunch.
Naturally Savvy Question (Andrea): What inspired you to start The Monkey Bunch?
Shoshana Sperling: My husband and I didn't have Christmas/Hanukah presents for our little neices and nephews so we put together a little 3 song CD and sent it off to them. Pretty soon all the kids at their day cares wanted CD's and more songs and just more of us so we thought, hey, maybe we'll do a whole album and kids will like it and then we can go back to our regular grown-up lives. Not so easy. The Monkey Bunch has taken over!
Naturally Savvy Question (Andrea): How do you come up with your song choices?
Shoshana Sperling: For the first album I wanted to do all the songs that my mother and I used to sing when I was a kid. Then we thought we should write our own children's music and so we wrote about half of the CD. Some of the songs were songs that I had written as a kid and just never put down on paper. My husband was able to sort it all out and make sense of it. For our second album (out on May 30th!!!) we took songs that we love as adults and made them kid friendly and of course, we created some original music that reflected our joys of music. Old "standards" in the children's music genre were pepped up a bit and give a sense of todays music.
Naturally Savvy Question (Andrea): Tell me more about your philosophy: 'Empowering kids with the goal of saving the planet'. How does that come into play with your music, your performance, etc.
Shoshana Sperling: We believe that children are the people… treat them well and they…no. I'm not going to quote Whitney Houston. I won't. But she's not wrong. Not about this anyway. Growing up my mother taught me about equality. How a group of people who are organized can make change, that I should always question authority and that even if something doesn't effect me, I should speak out against injustice. I learned all of this at a very young age and always felt that I had the power to change the world. I walked many a protest march and now, as an adult (mostly), I really try to give this to kids. They are the superheroes of the world! Because the planet is in such a state of distress it is going to be up to the kids to make it right and they have to start now by believing that they are strong. Strong enough.
Did I answer all of the question? On our CD we never perform down to the kids. We use real instruments and real music because kids deserve to have real music. We try to give them real ideas and concepts. With humour, they can understand anything. When we perform live I try to listen to what kids are saying and not brush them off. They are important. I let them hear their own voices in the PA system, I get suggestions from them and then we sing what they have suggested, we bring them on stage and let them run the show. We ask them about electric cars, pollution, their parents and poopie diapers. Hey, it's important.
Naturally Savvy Question (Andrea): Do you eat natural and organic food at home? Do you have any tips for our visitors on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
Shoshana Sperling: I do my best to eat all organic and natural food at home. Sometimes it's not that easy. We have this motto that if it's not organic then it has to be local or visa versa. We try not to have processed food in the house and we try to make sure what we're eating or cleaning with is fair trade so that migrant workers aren't suffering because of my shopping choices. But look, we TRY. Sometimes it doesn't work out. The point is to try. My tip for people to maintain a healthy life style is to try. Change one thing at a time. Be aware. Be educated about what goes on your skin or in your mouth or on your floor. One thing is if you eat meat, (the biggest form of pollution in my mind) then buy from a local farm, buy organic if you can, and don't eat it everyday. Maybe Monday and Friday are meat -free days for you and your family. This would be the biggest one for me. Try your best and don't get too depressed cause you need to arm your children with the knowledge that change can be made and they can make it. If you get too down about how big it all seems then they will feel even smaller than they already are.
Saving the planet can be fun! It is about building a community so find out where your local market is and plan to go there for dinner every week. You'll buy your groceries but you'll meet the people who grew them and other families who feel the same way. Ask your grocery store to bring in organic veggies and meat. They will do it if they hear it enough. You and your kids will feel amazing when the grocery store changes because of you just making a request.
Naturally Savvy Question (Andrea): How do you maintain balance in your life?
Shoshana Sperling: Uh…. Hmmmm….. Somedays are better than others? I don't know. I try to take breaks. I try to be good to myself. To work out. To be in the moment with my son. To tell strangers that I really like their shoes. Just being good to other people for no reason keeps me smiling. Knowing that I have good friends and family and that I'm choosing to make people think with music and laughter. This stuff keeps me balanced. And then other times I just cry for a bit and sit in front of the TV with popcorn. BUT it's organic popcorn and it's purple so that cheers me up.
For more information about The Monkey Bunch and to purchase their CD, Click Here.
To watch their video, Five Little Monkeys, Click Here.
