Talking Children’s Music and More with Will Stroet
How much time do you spend trying to convince your children to eat their veggies? And how much time do you spend trying to brush your preschooler’s teeth every day? Award-winning children’s entertainer Will Stroet may just have the answer for you. He’s launching his new DVD Will’s Jams at his two shows at this year’s Vancouver International Children’s Festival on May 30 and June 3. The DVD features nine music videos (plus one bonus in French) geared towards healthy living, with songs like “Full of Beans” and “Hygiene and Eugene”.
Doing it Right
We recently caught up with Will to talk about his music and his upcoming shows. A former French immersion teacher, he turned his dual passions for music and education into a career. He says his musical style is evolving. “It probably started a bit more folky for me, and then in the last couple albums we’ve gone a little more rock and bluesy. Kindie, I guess you could call it.” He adds, “The great thing about writing music for kids is that the style almost doesn’t matter. It’s more writing stuff that kids can relate to and get into. You kind of know when you’re doing it right just based on how kids start responding to the songs.”
In honour of Food Revolution Day, you can currently download “Full of Beans” for free from Will Stroet’s site. But get on that, because it’s only available until May 25, 2012. If you want to bop along to the beat, you can also check out the video on YouTube. But consider yourself warned, this song has serious earworm potential – you’ll find yourself humming it even when there are no kids around.
Keeping up the Tradition
Will Stroet is excited to be part of the Vancouver children’s music scene. He says, “It’s relatively small but it’s pretty strong. Bobs and Lolo in particular have set the bar really high. I think it’s a great thing for the kids’ music scene here because it’s given extra motivation for everyone to do the very best they can with their music. I would say Vancouver and BC has the best kids’ music scene in the country. There’s a history of kids’ music with Charlotte Diamond, and of course Raffi lived out here for a long time as well. I feel blessed to be keeping up the tradition of good kids’ music from this part of the country.”
If you’d like to see Will Stroet live, there are still tickets available for his performance on June 3, 2012 at the Children’s Festival. And if you’d like your own copy of Will’s Jams, visit his online store. We got a review copy, and we succumbed to the beat almost immediately. We’re just full of beans, too.
Will Stroet
