I’ve known Eli Rosenblatt for about seven years now – I was introduced to him by Monarch co-founder Caleb Thompson, who grew up with and played in a band with Eli. The two are longtime friends and both great musicians. Eli, now, has taken his talents (trademark Lebron James) to the world of kids’ music: writing songs, giving lessons and playing shows for happy, dancing children! And coming up, Eli will be playing Timber! Outdoor Music Festival. I wanted to chat with him about what it’s like to go from the world of 21+ shows to the world of kids’ music: 

Jake Uitti: You’ve been playing music in Seattle for some time now – from St. Siren to Picoso to Si Limon – and now you’re playing kids music! What inspired you to play music for kids and what sort of set are you planning to play this year at Timber?

Eli Rosenblatt: I started playing kids’ music after working at Sprout Preschool in Columbia City for a while. Being a musician, I naturally just started making up songs for the kids and that’s how it all began. My set will be the same one that I will be playing at King County libraries (KCLS is presenting me at the festival) throughout the summer, called, “We All Need the Sun”. The key with kids’ music is threefold:

-Beautiful, rhythmically interesting music
-A huge amount of love for children and people in general and the ability to feel it, connect with it and transmit it to kids in a performance setting
-Getting the audience moving and engaged

I do my best to hit all of these during every show I play.

Songs include “Grow”, where kids plant themselves in the ground and grow up into plants; “Sunshine”, a song that talks about the fact that the sun shines on everyone regardless of race, sexual preference, size, shape and encourages people to take inspiration from this and shine THEIR light on EVERYONE; “You Don’t Need A Car That Big Unless You Are An Elephant”, which is a little absurd story telling over what I call a “booty beat” bass heavy, club style stuff… boom-crack-boomboom-crackboom…

And then we just roll with whatever is happening in the moment. If little Tommy wants to tell people about his pet frog, we encourage that, if Maria decides that we need a verse about a chipmunk, we make that happen. There have definitely been some pretty awesome spontaneous group discussions about love, sports, friends, animals, adventure, the idea of a journey at the shows.

JU: What are the similarities and differences between playing kids’ music and music for adults?

ER: The similarities are when the magic happens: the connection between audience and performer, it is as good as life gets. The difference is that there is no emphasis on image, sex, drugs in kids’ music. I feel at EVERY show that I am doing 100% the right thing, fulfilling my mission on earth!

JU: You also teach music to kids – any standout students? Any funny stories?

ER: I teach music to both kids and adults and I do have some amazing students. One of them is named Reuben Rosenblatt (no joke). At 13 he is already becoming a damn good songwriter and finding his way around the guitar as well as being a pretty good drummer and bassist. He is totally wacky and off the wall in the best possible way, lot’s of accented personas, good fashion sense. I’m switching it over from guitar lessons to me producing his demo in the next few months. I basically try to push people to take it as far as they can. Another student, Riley Potvin is 9 but about the size of a 6 year old with a heart about as big and fearless as the world. AMAZING voice and presence… feisty, I think is the word that applies in the extreme to her. She’s already written a pretty good pop song and once she can play and sing it to a click track, I’ll be doing my best to produce it and get it out there to the masses.

JU: That’s interesting, so you go from guitar teacher to record producer – do you wish someone had done that for you at an early age? Is that where the inspiration comes to push others forward?

ER: No, I don’t think I was ready for that at that age. I do wish I had had some musical mentors like what I am being for these kids though, but not necessarily in the production sense. The push to do this comes from me wanting these kids to get good so we can have some FUN! I see them as my peers and I want them to have more skills so we can collaborate… like, yesterday… I’m super impatient by nature!

JU: When you found out Timber! hosted events for kids what was your first reaction?

ER: I didn’t know Timber! existed or hosted events for kids until a librarian I’ve worked with said, “Wanna play at the timber! festival?” So I said “Yeah!”