Photo by Justine Ungaro

By Paul Freeman [June 2016 Interview]

For Lisa Loeb, reality definitely doesn’t bite. She’s a multi-faceted success, as both artist and businesswoman.

Many music fans know Loeb for her engaging work as a singer-songwriter. Before she even had a record contract, she had a platinum-selling, number one song, “Stay (I Missed You),” which was featured in the 1994 Gen-X hit film “Reality Bites.” A succession of appealing albums followed, including 1997’s Grammy-nominated “Firecracker.” In 2013, she released her first rock album in eight years, “No Fairy Tale.”

These days, Loeb has a whole new set of fans from her projects designed for children. Her latest album is “Nursery Rhyme Parade!” At her sing-along shows, she also includes material from her “Camp Lisa” record, as well as the book/CD sets “Movin’ and Shakin’” and “Silly Sing-Along.” If requested, she may add tunes from her award-winning “Catch The Moon” record and possibly even a grown-up number or two.

Loeb and her husband, Roey Hershkovitz, music production supervisor for “Conan,” have two kids, six-year-old daughter Lyla and four-year-old son Emet. But Loeb began making children’s music several years before becoming a mom.

Raised in Dallas, Loeb and her three siblings have all pursued music careers - conductor Benjamin Loeb, musician Debbie Loeb, and mix engineer Philip Loeb.

The entrepreneurial Loeb runs a successful coffee company, "Wake Up! Brew," and launched a popular line of eyeglasses.

A long-form video for “Nursery Rhymes Parade!” will be out soon. Loeb is also working on a family record and an animated series through Amazon. In addition, a grown-up album is on the way. She continues to take occasional acting roles and does voiceover work for cartoons and commercials.

Loeb has established the non-profit Camp Lisa Foundation, which helps underprivileged kids experience summer camp.

She took time out from her incredibly busy schedule to chat with Pop Culture Classics.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
Your current children’s music concerts, you have your current “Nursery Rhyme Parade!” album. What else might the set list include?

LISA LOEB:
Well, I draw from my five kids records - a bunch of sing-alongs from my summer camp record, called “Camp Lisa.” I’ll play some songs from my “Silly Sing-Along” book and my “Movin’ and Shakin’” book that comes with a CD. I might play songs from my “Catch The Moon” record, if people have requested that. Every once in a while, I throw in a couple of grown-up songs, if those are requested. Like, yesterday, I played a concert in Washington, D.C., and grown-ups requested my song “Stay,” so I played that also.

So I really play a lot of different things. Sometimes kids come up and they share music that they know from school or summer camp. They share it with the rest of the audience. I also have some bonus tracks I’ve released on the internet that are some fun, classic sing-along songs. So we do those, too.

PCC:
As far as the interactive element, the kids, are they always anxious to participate? Do you have to coax them into it?

LOEB:
Usually there’s a handful of kids who really want to get up. Yesterday, it was a huge audience, a handful of kids didn’t have a chance to come up and sing their songs, so afterwards, while I was signing CDs, they sang me the songs then. Although one girl was disappointed that she didn’t get to go back on stage to sing it on a microphone.

PCC:
It sounds like it’s a lot of fun for you, as well as for the kids.

LOEB:
Yeah, I mean, part of the reason I like singing along, it just feels good. It’s really fun to sing songs that I sang in my childhood, all the way through my teens, when I was at summer camp. And part of the fun of those songs is learning other people’s songs. Sometimes there are different versions of the songs you already know or they might have the same melodies, but different words. And other times, they’re just different funny songs that you don’t know.

PCC:
Are there fundamental differences, in terms of the rewards and the challenges, between performing for kids and performing for adults?

LOEB:
You know, it has more to do with the venue, than whether it’s kids or adults. I find that when I’m playing for kids in a more controlled venue that is more geared towards listening, like an indoor theatre or an outdoor theatre, they’re more likely to participate and listen. When it’s more of like a picnic style, like a big festival, outdoor style, it is a little bit like surfing and trying to lace your shoes at the same time.

It’s a lot of things to handle. Because also, my set list is constantly changing, depending on what I feel like the age of the audience is, and their interest in different types of songs. But that also happens with grown-ups shows, it’s just grown-ups have less energy and are usually a little bit more focused… maybe a little bit more drunk [laughs], which can either mean that they relax more or that they are busy during the show. But both shows sort of have a crossover in terms of how it works.

I guess there’s more energy in the kids shows, just because everything sort of moves at a faster pace. The songs are generally shorter. The kids’ moods can change more quickly. But both shows, I approach them in similar ways. I have a set list that I want to play. And then what I end up doing will vary, depending on what feels best with the crowd.

Photo by Justine Ungaro

PCC:
The reactions of the kids must be gratifying.

LOEB:
Oh, yeah. It’s really fun. It’s fun, just like with grown-ups. When you can make that connection, it’s really fun. It’s not just about performing, when you’re on stage. It’s about connecting.

PCC:
Getting into children’s music, was that a result of having kids of your own? Or did the music precede motherhood?

LOEB:
It was before I had kids of my own. My daughter, my older child, is six-and-a-half. I started making kids music 10 years ago. So yeah, it preceded it by quite a few years. I just have always been interested in that sort of entertainment. I noticed it a lot in the 70s, when I was a kid, there were even things like Bob and Ray, that was from a much earlier era.

There’s a certain amount of entertainment that was probably for grown-ups and some for kids, made by grown-up artists and comedians and actors, like “Free To Be You and Me” or grown-up things like Steve Martin or kids things like the old “Sesame Street,” the really old “Sesame Street,” that really appealed to everybody. There was a silliness to it and there was a cleverness to it. And there was something that was smart about it. And with a lot of heart.

And I always wanted to create some things like that in kids music. Kid music and musicals right now seem like the best places for me to do that. And so we end up with kids music and musicals that appeal to grown-ups. Even when I play kids songs at grown-up shows, there’s just a connection that grown-ups feel with it that takes you out of that sort of love song, singer-songwriter mode.

PCC:
With you and your sister and brother all ending up in music, was this something your parents encouraged - to be involved in creativity early on?

LOEB:
We had a pretty typical Jewish upbringing. School was very, very important. We all did very well in school. But our extracurriculars were the things that we were also most interested in. And so we all spent a lot of time honing our skills, taking dance lessons and music lessons, all kinds of lessons in the arts. Also, having extracurricular interests outside of the extracurricular interests, creating things on our own - writing music, creating businesses, thinking in an entrepreneurial way. So my parents just encouraged us to follow what we loved doing… and hopefully make a living, too.

PCC:
Are your kids playing instruments yet?

LOEB:
They play around on instruments. My daughter started violin school, in kindergarten last year. She just finished kindergarten. And they both love music so much. They know a lot about music and different artists. We have a lot of instruments around the house - drums, piano, guitars, basses, electric guitars, percussion, keyboards. We have all kinds of stuff that they can play whenever they want.

Like I said, they’re really interested in listening to music and picking out the music that they want. And we’re encouraging them. We’ll probably take some piano lessons with my daughter. And my son, as he gets older. And they have a lot of music in their school, as well. They learn different instruments, they sing, they perform.

PCC:
From your perspective, what’s the importance of music in any child’s development?

LOEB:
I think it’s important for kids to be able to express themselves and have fun. If they end up becoming professional musicians, that’s great, but otherwise it should just be like part of your daily life, just like walking outside. You shouldn’t have to think of walking outside as exercise. Or playing with your friends as exercise. You should think of playing and walking and exploring and expressing yourself and making noise, making sounds and singing along, as not always being about the exercise or the performance.

PCC:
Your kids must get a kick out of hearing your children’s albums and seeing you as a character in some of the children’s books.

LOEB:
Yeah, they think that’s pretty cool. They’ve got their own music tastes and they definitely listen to a lot of grown-up music. So it’s kind of like my music is its own world. They don’t listen to it, just like I don’t listen to it at home, mixed in with other music. I listen to it, when I’m working on another record. Like I have a new record coming out in October for kids. So I’ve been playing some of the songs for that. But that’s kind of like a different world. It’s like that’s my work. And they only listen to real music [laughs], from different playlists or different albums or CDs that they have.

PCC:
What kind of stuff are they listening to?

LOEB:
They both love Michael Jackson and Daft Punk and Foo Fighters, Beatles. My son likes “Imperial March” from “Star Wars,” the Minions version of “YMCA.” My daughter loves Purity Ring and Haim. My husband [Roey Hershkovitz, music production supervisor for “Conan”] works in music, too, so they hear a lot of the new bands that are out.

PCC:
When you were their age, were you listening to the pop music of the day? Or were you listening to the children’s artists?

LOEB:
I was listening to a lot of different things. I was listening to the pop music of the day. I was actually just in the car, listening to some old Elton John. I listened to a lot of Elton John, KISS, Queen, Led Zeppelin - a lot of things that we consider to be classic rock now. I listened to a lot of soft pop in the 70s that was on the radio - Bread, Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, Barry Manilow, The Bee Gees - just great melodic music and songs that were performed really well. And then my parents also had a lot of classical music in the house. We did listen to nursery rhymes. They would read us nursery rhymes and sing those to us.

My Dad had fun playing piano and he would play a lot of the jazz standards and sometimes focus extra on songs - I might make a record of them - on songs that felt like kids songs, but were grown-up songs, like “Mairzy doats and dozy doats” or “You Are My Sunshine,” Americana songs. We listened to a lot of musical theatre in the house. And we had access to playing our own records on the turntable, so we could listen to The Mamas and the Papas and things like that. So we would listen to all kinds of music. We had control over our own record player.

PCC:
Your kids, having heard you singing in your living room or their bedrooms…

LOEB:
I don’t really play at home a lot. I’m usually busy doing things like putting them to bed, reading to them, making them lunch. I rarely play music. My husband plays a lot more music. He likes to play bass and guitar for fun. So he plays a lot more music. If I’m playing music, it’s usually on stage or when I’m out working or in the studio, but I don’t have a lot of time to sit and play music at home.

PCC:
But is it is strange for them to see you performing for strangers in large venues? Did they have to get used to that?

LOEB:
No, they’ve been with it since they were born, so it’s not totally strange. My daughter’s starting to be aware, like, “You know, my friend likes your music” or “My teacher likes your music.” And so it sort of exists in a different way. But it’s always been that way, ever since she was little. Maybe a babysitter or a preschool teacher or somebody mentions it to her, but we have more of a lifestyle like I grew up with, where, even though I’m a working mom, when I’m at home, I’m making lunch or making the bed after they wake up or helping them get dressed or cleaning up breakfast dishes.

PCC:
You mentioned a new record coming out in October…

LOEB:
Yes, it’s coming out with Amazon. It’s more like a family-friendly record. Some of the songs that I wrote for the record, they don’t quite feel like kids songs, but you’ll have to hear it and check it out.

PCC:
Any plans for another grown-ups record?

LOEB:
Yeah, I am actually working on another grown-up record. I should buckle down, but I have so many different projects happening. I just thought, “Okay, we’re going to put the next children’s record out.” I just put the “Nursery Rhymes” record out in December. A long-form video, we made like 30 videos, will be coming out soon. Some of them on the internet. But it’ll also be all put together as a long-form video. And I’m also writing music for an animated show called “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” that also happens to be with Amazon, a different department, but the same company. And I have a bunch of other projects. And I tour a good deal.

So I realized I had to just focus on one record at a time. It was just too much to be doing, writing the music for the grown-up record and the kids record. So we’re finishing up the kids record now, within the next couple of weeks, and then finishing up the artwork. And then it will be time to work on the grown-up record, which will be out next year, but if you come to any of my regular shows, I usually play a couple of the new songs, too.

PCC:
The businesses you’ve established - the coffee company, the eyeglasses, are those still going strong?

LOEB:
Yes. In fact, we just put out a tween line for young girls at Costco. They’re really cute glasses. And even petite women can wear them.

PCC:
And you still do voiceover work, too?

LOEB:
Yes, I do. For animation. And for commercials.

PCC:
So how to you juggle everything and manage to make the schedule work?

LOEB:
I just try really hard [laughs]. I’m still working on it. It’s complicated, because every day is different. Other than the kids’ schedules, that are very regular, we keep those very routine, I’ve got a lot of variety in my schedule. And I’m constantly trying to prioritize and schedule and get it all straight.

PCC:
So keeping that busy, is that exhausting or can it actually be energizing?

LOEB:
It depends on the day. It’s exhausting when deadlines come at the same time as other deadlines that are unrelated to each other. That’s exhausting. But when we know in advance what the plan is, that makes it a little easier.

PCC:
What you’ve accomplished with Camp Lisa, that must be very gratifying.

LOEB:
It is. I’d still like to grow it further, but what it is, is, when I put out my summer camp record, “Camp Lisa,” the whole mission was to spread the summer camp experience and to share that with people. And grown-ups who went to summer camp love hearing the songs, people who liked summer camp. And kids of all ages also have a similar experience.

I realized it was important to also share that experience with people who normally wouldn’t have that opportunity. And I found an organization in New York called SCOPE [Summer Camp Opportunities Promote Education, Inc.] and they send underprivileged kids to summer camp, some kids who’ve never been in nature at all. And they’re great camps. So we donate our money usually through SCOPE. Although every once in a while, I’ll do a fundraiser for a particular camp. But I just love being able to help send kids to an experience that’s different from school, where they can really boost their confidence and ability to collaborate and work with other kids, hang out with other kids. Camp challenges them, lets them try things they’ve never tried before. And allows them to just sort of be out, away from their typical home, in a safe place.

For the latest news and concert dates, visit www.lisaloeb.com.