Justin Roberts, I'LL BE YOUR POLAR BEAR
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[1:03]Justin Roberts is the author of All Be Your Polar Bear.
[1:07]Four-time Grammy nominee, Justin Roberts, is one of the founders of the modern family
[1:12]music scene.
[1:13]For 25 years, he has been creating the soundtrack to People's Lives, helping kids navigate
[1:17]the joys and sorrows of growing up, while inspiring parents to remember their own childhoods.
[1:22]His songs are kind of get stuck in your head, pop nuggets.
[1:25]The draw comparisons to Elvis Costello, fountains of Wayne and Paul Simon, rather than
[1:29]simple nursery rhymes.
[1:32]Along with his band, the not ready for nap time players, Justin has traveled the globe
[1:36]from Hong Kong to New York and Miami to Seattle.
[1:39]In addition to his recordings, he is also the author of three picture books, The Smallest
[1:44]Girl in the smallest grade, and The Great Henry Hoppin' Dower.
[1:48]And now, All Be Your Polar Bear, illustrated by Chuck Gronek.
[1:52]Giant-sized butterflies on my first day of school will be released soon.
[1:57]Welcome, Justin.
[1:58]Thanks so much for coming on Momstone.
[1:59]Have time to read books.
[2:00]So glad to be here.
[2:01]Thanks for having me.
[2:02]You are really here due to my daughter's love and obsession with polar bears related
[2:07]to your latest book.
[2:08]And I was like, yes, I have to interview.
[2:10]She loves polar bears so much and always has.
[2:13]Anyway, how did you decide to write a children's book about polar bears and then I want
[2:18]to hear about your whole career and all of that?
[2:21]So polar bears, my third picture book, and it's actually based on a song that I wrote
[2:26]many years ago that was on a lullaby record and my editor at the time had a newborn
[2:31]right when that album came out and they found themselves listening to that particular
[2:35]song over and over and it's a very comforting song.
[2:39]So she, after telling me how much she loved that song, she sort of said, hey, do you
[2:44]think that we could make that into a book if we changed it up a little bit and that is
[2:48]how it began?
[2:49]How did it become a song?
[2:50]It became a song.
[2:51]I just got this, I mean, the song usually begins for me with a couple of words and the
[2:57]idea, I'll be your polar bear, got inside my head and I just kind of love that as a comforting
[3:02]sort of big furry arms wrapping around you feeling.
[3:06]And I just started writing a song about, you know, being out in the wilderness and being
[3:11]a little afraid and having someone say, I'll be your polar bear, which seems like a parental
[3:15]thing to do.
[3:16]Although I wasn't a parent at the time that I wrote the song.
[3:20]More of me imagining a dwarf, remembering how I felt when my parents were like that for
[3:24]me.
[3:25]Yeah, I could use a polar bear, you know?
[3:27]Yeah, exactly.
[3:28]And then the course of a work day, I didn't think everybody could use that.
[3:32]How did you, well, back up, how did you become a musician, like give me a little background?
[3:37]Okay.
[3:38]I grew up in Iowa, Des Moines and went to college in Ohio at Kenyan college and played
[3:45]music since I was a kid and started a band there.
[3:48]And when we graduated, we moved to Minneapolis in the 90s.
[3:52]And I took a day job as a preschool teacher because I had had a little experience working
[3:55]at a co-op nursery on campus.
[3:58]And I became a Montessori preschool teacher.
[4:00]And they knew I was a musician and they said, why don't you play some songs with the kids?
[4:04]And you know, I was in my early 20s and a huge music fan.
[4:09]And while I like simple children's songs that are traditional, I was kind of like, what
[4:14]happens if I play them a Sam Cook song or, you know, what if I have play them a traditional
[4:19]Irish jig or whatever.
[4:21]And then I started writing songs specifically for them in the classroom and they really
[4:26]responded to it.
[4:28]And I sort of discovered that the songs didn't have to be very simple, especially if they
[4:32]told a story, kids would memorize really complex lyrics and they kind of respond to whatever
[4:38]you give them.
[4:39]If you play them a Ramon song, they'll dance around like crazy and if you, you know,
[4:44]I wrote this song called Giraffe Nightingale that I'd written for the band and I played
[4:48]it for the kids and it didn't have any repeating words.
[4:52]But they like memorized the whole song and sang it for their parents on an open house.
[4:56]And I was just kind of like, you can do anything for kids like sort of open my mind.
[5:01]That happened to me yesterday.
[5:02]I was literally sitting with my son.
[5:04]I was helping him like do the sticker book thing just to have like something bonding to do.
[5:09]He has like a Siri thing, like the, what do you want to call the Siri ball that listens
[5:15]to him.
[5:16]Anyway, he would put a song and then I was like, why don't you play son of a preacher man
[5:20]or like sister Christian or like just some of these old songs, like I knew he'd probably
[5:24]never heard before.
[5:25]Right.
[5:26]By the end of every song, he was like singing along and then we sometimes we played
[5:29]a second time and he would remember all the, I'm like, how is he doing this?
[5:32]How does that happen?
[5:33]Yeah.
[5:34]Memory part is the craziest for me, like watching my son memorize words and knowing what
[5:41]track number everything is and all of that kind of stuff.
[5:44]It's just like, where is this coming from?
[5:47]How old is your son?
[5:48]He's four and a half.
[5:49]Nice.
[5:50]Awesome.
[5:51]Okay.
[5:52]So you were the preschool teacher.
[5:53]You started playing cool new music.
[5:54]Yeah.
[5:55]And then I basically I left the preschool because being a preschool teacher and playing a night
[6:00]clubs at night wasn't really the best combination.
[6:04]So I took a, you know, a temp job and ended up getting into tech, but I still was playing
[6:11]in the band and I found myself still writing songs about my cat and things like that.
[6:16]And so when the band broke up and I was heading off to graduate school in Chicago in
[6:21]something completely different, I had these kid songs and my friend Liam Davis, who I'd
[6:27]known for a long time from college and was a producer in Chicago said why don't we record
[6:31]these songs just to have them and so we made my first record and I went after graduate
[6:36]school thinking that was the end of that and it got reviewed by some national publications
[6:44]with no publicist.
[6:45]I mean, I was in graduate school studying Sanskrit and the next thing I know people were ordering.
[6:51]This was kind of pre-internet and people were sending checks to my PO box to order CDs
[6:56]and I sort of started rethinking what I wanted to do with my life.
[7:00]Wow.
[7:01]And now you've built a whole thing around it.
[7:03]Yeah.
[7:04]And now I have 16 albums.
[7:06]Amazing.
[7:07]Been doing it.
[7:08]Yeah.
[7:09]Since the late 90s.
[7:10]That is unbelievable.
[7:11]Wait, whatever happened to your love of Sanskrit.
[7:13]Did you end up pursuing that in any way?
[7:15]Well, I finished a masters at the University of Chicago in Divinity and it would have been
[7:21]to go on to a PhD and I was studying Buddhism at the time but at the same time I was performing
[7:27]these kids songs and I would have some of the professors from the college be like what
[7:31]are you doing?
[7:32]Why are you here?
[7:33]So I'm thinking maybe I should do something else.
[7:37]I might not be as good a lecturer as I am at writing kids songs.
[7:41]Wow.
[7:42]So now that you have this whole sort of over and now you have the child to sing it too.
[7:46]Does it change things?
[7:47]Like has it inspired a new font of information?
[7:51]I would say it's different all the time when you're trying to be creative, you're kind
[7:55]of looking out into the world and trying to pay attention and watch for things and look
[8:01]through your own memories and try to remember things that are meaningful to you and find
[8:06]connections.
[8:07]But I have an immediate source of whether he likes or doesn't like a song which I didn't
[8:12]have before.
[8:14]I've watched him a lot and how he responds to the world.
[8:17]There's a song on my latest record called Give Me a Fire Truck and we were walking around
[8:22]our block one night and he was in a really grumpy mood and this fire truck came out of
[8:27]the station and his eyes lit up and he just kind of smiled in his face and his mood changed
[8:32]entirely for the rest of the walk and I was just like how amazing there's things like
[8:37]that in the world that can change your mind and like put you in a new place and I started
[8:42]thinking it's not just fire trucks you know it's like your teacher or your mom and there's
[8:47]all these things we have in our life that do that so I wrote a song about that so you
[8:51]know if things like that happening for sure.
[8:54]So now that the song has become a book do you feel like you want to take many more of
[8:58]your songs and turn them into books or how did you like the book process?
[9:03]I love it.
[9:04]Yeah this is the third book that I've done and I have a fourth one coming out and all
[9:09]of them all except one are based on songs and you know I learned pretty early on that
[9:14]you can't just take the lyrics of a song and throw it in a book as good as you might
[9:18]think the lyrics are they just don't fall on the page in the right way and so it's a process
[9:24]to learn you know what works in a picture book and what doesn't and thankfully I've
[9:28]had really amazing editors that put them that have guided me but the first book that
[9:32]I wrote was based on a song called Billy the Bully and there's a character in that
[9:37]song named Sally McCabe and I just always kind of wanted to know more about her because
[9:42]she's just briefly mentioned she's the hero of the story but she just kind of comes and
[9:45]goes and so you know I just started telling the story from her perspective from the beginning
[9:52]to get to know her and I think with a book like polar bear there were little images that
[9:57]I love from the song that I wanted to preserve.
[10:00]some of them did work and some of them didn't when it got down to thinking about what was going to happen on the page.
[10:05]And you know, you have to arc it a little bit differently than you do in this song. There's something about melody that just.
[10:12]Takes things that are somewhat mundane and makes them feel more sacred or something like that on a page.
[10:18]It's a little more naked, which I think is what's beautiful about it. Yeah, just getting the workflow right is in the page turns and all that is such a.
[10:27]The process of editing even a picture book that doesn't have a lot of words. It can just be kind of take forever, but then you keep wanting to change it and change it and change it and then you find they're like, okay, I think it's there.
[10:39]And then I'm always like, I could change that too.
[10:43]I read a children's book that came out from Pangaroo in a mouth called princess charming.
[10:47]And I look at it now and I'm like, oh my gosh, why didn't I just like, why did I take that piece of advice on that page?
[10:53]I should have kept that or I should have changed this and then I'm like, I can't even look at this anywhere.
[10:58]Same thing happens to me. And I mean, I think I always feel like I'm whittling it down when you're editing it and then you're like, I could have whittled it more.
[11:05]Like yeah, or whittled some parts less. You know, yeah, right. Exactly. I'm like, but where was even my voice there? You know, yeah, no, it's it's very interesting.
[11:14]And what was your collaboration like with the illustrator?
[11:16]Incredible. I've gotten amazing illustrators throughout the years.
[11:20]My first book was Christian Robinson who did last up in Market Street and then Deborah Hocking and
[11:25]then Chuck Runick for polar bear. And the thing I love about it is you really have no direct
[11:33]connection to the illustrator. They get what you send them and they send drafts through the publisher
[11:39]and you talk to the publisher. But in a lot of ways, you kind of have to let them have the freedom
[11:43]that they have because they're telling the story too. And that's the best part about it to me.
[11:48]It's like such a surprise and something's worked so much better because I find what's happening
[11:53]on the page to be so moving and and Chuck, I think just it's just gorgeous paintings in general.
[11:58]But he captured kind of all these little moments in just perfect ways. I don't know.
[12:04]There's an image where the polar bear is kind of underneath the water always present and it's
[12:10]so like translucent and it just looks gorgeous. And the thing I think I realized reading the book
[12:16]the first time was he tells a story with color just the color changes over the course of the book
[12:21]tells the story in its own way and just seeing that it's incredible to like, I mean, I'm like stick
[12:27]figures and like that's my level of art. I can't do anything. I was just thinking like that is a
[12:32]skill I would really like to have. Yeah, exactly. I look I have such respect when people just like
[12:36]look at something and turn it into something else in the page and I'm like, okay, here I am drawing
[12:41]a toaster. Again, not that anyone. Exactly. But that's what I got it right when I was 10 and I'm
[12:46]going to keep doing my toaster. Exactly. Something got cut off after that. Yeah, exactly.
[12:51]89 for me and I really can't do. That's a house the same way. It's no improvement at all. None.
[13:00]Zero growth. Oh, well, I guess you have to really put your mind to what you want to work on right.
[13:04]I mean, exactly. Anyway, that's funny. So what is your next book?
[13:10]The next book is based on a song that I wrote called Giant Size Butterflies and the book is
[13:16]called Giant Size Butterflies on my first day of school. But the song is something that's very
[13:21]close to my heart and it's been like one of those songs where I get notes from parents where
[13:26]they have been playing it every single day. Their kid starts school even like as they got older
[13:32]and like went to high school and stuff like that. They would always play this song as a ritual to
[13:36]begin the school year. And I kind of vividly remember my first day of kindergarten and it didn't go
[13:42]very well in terms of the separation experience. And so I think in some ways I tapped into that.
[13:50]But as I was writing it, I'm always trying to write kid songs that I can relate to as an adult.
[13:55]And I love finding those connections between like childhood experiences and things that happen to us
[14:01]as adults. And so in the song and in the book, the mother to comfort the child who's
[14:08]worried about their first day of school says, you know, I remember the moment you were born and
[14:13]that was the first day for us. Like, and we were nervous and we were scared. But we were excited.
[14:18]And like, and trying to draw those connections that everyone's kind of going through first
[14:22]day is all the time. And that's what being alive is about. And the illustrations in this case are
[14:28]Paulo Escobar, who's a Colombian artist. And she is so incredible. And she captured it just
[14:33]beautifully. There's just these little fragments of butterflies following the main character throughout
[14:38]the book. And it's just really heartbreaking and beautiful. And I read it to my son. And there's just
[14:42]so much going on in the pictures that is fun to talk about. And that's the thing I love about picture
[14:46]books. It's not just the words. It's like discussing what's happening on the page and seeing it
[14:52]new every time you read it. As my editor said, like, no, you have to leave room for the pictures
[14:57]to be telling part of the story all the time. Yeah, hard to hear. It's the part I'm not going to write.
[15:02]Yeah, exactly. But there's this part both in the song and the book where the mother says
[15:08]if there were some kind of magic spell that could protect like a turtle shell, everyone would be
[15:12]wearing one on their first day. And she drew this picture that's a big cityscape. And there's
[15:18]all these people with turtle shells literally on their back. And it's like a guy holding a flower
[15:23]who's like clearly going on a first date and like all these little things. And you have to kind
[15:27]of figure out what kind of first day they're having. And it's just totally beautiful. It's totally
[15:31]her idea. So great. Yeah. That is great. Yeah. I know when you were talking about the butterflies,
[15:37]I was like, you could just adapt that for like weddings. You know, we're going to wedding season here.
[15:42]Oh my gosh. I've never had her butterflies in my life. Like, you know,
[15:47]a conservatory of butterflies. Anyway, exactly. Yeah. Anyway. And what about your next
[15:54]updates for the music side of things? Yeah. So I just put out my last record in July, which is
[16:01]space cadet. And it was nominated for a Grammy award. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Which was great.
[16:08]And I'm currently working on a brand new record, just starting the writing process. And I'm also
[16:14]working on a record with another artist. So our R&B artist out of Chicago named Megan McNeil,
[16:20]that I'm co writing some songs with for a record she's putting out, which I'm excited about.
[16:25]And for always writing new book manuscripts, which is kind of a continual process.
[16:32]Oh, well, just so great though, like what an inspiration for people when you're doing,
[16:39]you're making a living like well of what you love to do and that so many people love to do,
[16:44]like writing songs and singing. It's just amazing. So great. And it's like a child's dream.
[16:49]I mean, it is. It was it was probably my dream when I was a kid. Just hoping it was your
[16:55]well, you wanted to be like a Buddhist mug or something. But other people wanted to be one of those
[16:59]ways. Other people wanted to be safe. So there you go. Anyway, yeah, no, it's well congratulations
[17:09]on polar bear. Are you my polar bear? So great. My daughter took it and you know, she took it
[17:15]away. So like everything she steals, I can't even find it for when I need it. But there you go.
[17:20]But it made it made her very happy and therefore me. So thank you.
[17:24]Yeah. Well, at some point, I can next trip out to California. I can visit your new bookstore.
[17:29]Yes. Please do. Please do. That would be great. That would be incredible. Well, thank you so much.
[17:36]All right. Thanks a lot. Bye bye. Bye bye.
[17:40]Thanks for listening to this episode of moms don't have time to read books.
[17:43]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and at moms don't have time to read books.
[17:48]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibi Owens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots
[17:53]of authors on zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound for
[17:58]the Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and
[18:03]now trim music.