Kids Again

The new CD is finally out! “What A Heart Is Beating For” hit store shelves a few weeks ago and I’m excited for people to hear it. I'm so excited, I feel like a big kid! In fact, if you already have the CD, listen again to the song “Kids Again” (track #12) and notice the ‘trumpets’.

The fact is, they’re actually not trumpets. It’s me, making trumpet sounds with my mouth.

Weird, I know. But here’s the story:

Not too long ago, my producer recorded some songs for his daughter’s elementary school class, songs written by the kids. They needed someone to sing the songs, once they were arranged and recorded, so I happily joined in and became the singer for these recordings. The songs turned out to be really fun and honestly beautiful. (Don’t tell anyone, but I actually teared up singing one of the songs, and almost didn’t get through the vocal take!)

But on one of the songs, a song about three monkeys, I improvised some fake trumpet parts with my lips that ended up being pretty cool. Which brings me back to my new CD.

As we were recording “Kids Again” for my new CD (WAHIBF) I made the comment to Monroe, my producer, that it would be great to have a trumpet section to add to the light-hearted arrangement. Without thinking, I demonstrated one of my trumpet ideas using my mouth. Suddenly, Monroe said, “You ought to do the trumpet parts like that!”

I was a little hesitant. Then he said, “You did it on the monkeys song, and it was great!”

I was convinced!

So we tracked and stacked dozens of ‘mouth trumpet’ parts throughout the song, and it turned out to be a fun element, especially for a song reminding us all to be ‘kids again!”

You’ll have to give it a listen. Maybe I should start marketing myself as a ‘faux trumpet player’ too. Who knows, there may be big money in faux trumpeting one day!

Not to toot my own horn, or anything. (get it?)

“Ok, everyone get outside and play,
Give the sun a chance to kiss your face,
Oh, let’s play chase, and let’s pretend.
C’mon, grab another hand and skip along
Laugh the way we did when we were young,
C’mon, c’mon, let’s all be kids again!”