Regurgitator, Dan Sultan among rockers reaching a younger audience
Inspiration for Dan Sultan's most recent album came from a most unexpected place and has won the soon-to-be father a whole new, far younger audience.
Like rock royalty Jimmy Barnes, whose recent children's album Och Aye the G’Nu introduced one of Australia's most famous voices to a vastly different audience, Sultan's album Nali & Friends has proven to be hugely popular with the children of his earliest fans.
Rock band Regurgitator, who have had a bunch of top 10 albums in their 25 years together, and former Lemonheads band member Nic Dalton are among those making children's albums, and not only discovering new creative outlets but lots of new fans along the way.
Sultan, who is awaiting the birth of his first child in the next few weeks, was in Africa in late 2017 as an ambassador for conservation charity The Thin Green Line Foundation when he witnessed "a little baby gorilla with its mum, and mum was trying to have a bit of a rest and the baby gorilla was messing around and keeping her up", he said. That moment took place in Bwindi in south-west Uganda and Bwindi the Windy Gorilla is now among the many characters in Sultan's tale of unconventional animal friends.
"I got the spark for making these songs over there in Kenya at an elephant orphanage, where a baby giraffe had been taken in," Sultan says.
"Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been amazed by gorillas too, so seeing that baby gorilla with his mum ... it was just amazing. So a big part of making Nali & Friends for me was about doing something different, changing things up, and this was a great way to do that, it’s been a lot of fun."
Regurgitator's Quan Yeomans has two children and says it wasn't such a massive leap from making albums like their enormously popular Unit from 1997 to their latest, The Really Really Really Really Boring Album, part of Regurgitator's Pogogo Show project.
"I can share my work with my kids and that’s a nice little bonus," Yeomans said. "The best kind of songs, whether they're specifically designed for children or otherwise, are ones that kids can listen to and the parents don’t lose their minds listening to. That’s essentially what I look for in a kids' record and while our fans probably forced our music onto their children ... this stuff is probably a little more palatable for kids.
"Children have a strange way of focusing, at least my kids do anyway, they can focus on one track for a long time and develop a relationship with that song. They're kind of like cartographers getting a very detailed map of the song, working out every little detail in their brain."
Sydney-based musician Nic Dalton was in underground darlings the Lemonheads in the early `90s, making the popular It's A Shame About Ray and Come on Feel the Lemonheads albums with founding member Evan Dando, but more recently Dalton's band the Sticker Club is all about appealing to fans of similar age to his own children.
Dalton formed the Sticker Club with former members of indie rock bands Smudge and Faker, among others, and proudly says they're "quite rock'n'roll" compared to other kids' bands. The Sticker Club recently released debut album Scratch 'n' Sniff and are building a fan base, particularly among the toddler scene.
Like global sensations the Wiggles, Dalton and fellow rockers Yeomans, Barnes and Sultan have all thrown themselves gleefully into their kids' music projects and the results have included chart success as well as smiles all round for their newest fans.
"It is a very strange record," says Yeomans of his latest Regurgitator music, but adds "we’re the kind of adults that like to have fun with entertainment" and creating music for a younger audience simply felt like a natural progression for the band.