It's been a couple of months since I've posted
the song contributed to TP!FKP by Spanish band
Zipper. Now Maria and David are back with their answers to '5+1=6 questions for...'
The Pop! For Kids Project: Hello Zipper, nice to have you back here! What have you been up to recently?Maria & David: In 2010 we've released three singles: a CD-single in Glasgow for
Bubblegum Records, a 7" vinyl in Miami for
Cloudberry Records and another 7" vinyl in Madrid for
Elefant Records. The three of them have different and new songs, though
Last chance and
Lunes por la mañana have the same music but different lyrics (in English and Spanish, but different meanings). This year we've played at the first
Madrid Popfest and we're going to play at the
Indietracks festival, at the
Contempopranea festival (Spain) and at the
Glasgow Popfest.
TP!FKP: What are your earliest musical memories?M: I remember having sung all my life. I loved and knew all the typical children songs and my mother says that I used to sing a lot when I was little. I attended piano lessons when I was around 4-5 in a house where the family owned a little monkey. The monkey is the only thing I remember from my piano lessons (I moved from that town and my parents didn't sign me in any other accademy...). I was very good at flute in school because I really loved music and I used to have the little casio keyboads everywhere at home (the one with the lights that you had to follow was my favourite). Then, when I was fourteen, I learnt how to play the guitar and formed a band with some girls at school where I changed into the bass guitar player because I had a bass at home from my sister. Finally, at the university, I met David and Oscar and decided to form Zipper.
D: I had an older brother who showed me Spanish 80's bands. He's 14 years older so I was influenced by his bands and he also had a band so, when I was around 6 or 7 I started taking his guitar and learnt how to play it. I knew Oscar from the high-school and then, at the university he presented me to Maria and another girl and started Zipper.
TP!FKP: Do you think good music is important for young children?D+M: Definitively yes!! I think it makes you more imaginitive, sensitive and happier. I think children who sing (although they may not sing well) are happier than the ones who don't.
TP!FKP: What's the best bit about being a musician?M: You can express youself. For example, I'm very shy and the only place where I don't feel so shy is when I sing, I feel more confident.
D: It feels good when someone tells you that they like your music.
TP!FKP: Do you have any favourite children's songs?D+M: When we were little, we grew up with the Spanish bands
Parchis and
Enrique y Ana. I think they were the best. I can't think of any like them nowadays. They were also children and they sang about typical children themes, funny, easy to learn, easy to sing...
TP!FKP: The song you contributed, Tamagotchi, is a live recording. Do you think we'll ever see the song released as a studio recording?M: Tamagotchi is one of our first songs, probably from 1996. I've loved it since David wrote it, but we've stop playing it 5 or 6 years ago. It's not very likely that we'll record it again, though I might convince David to start playing it again and perhaps, we change our minds. But I don't think it may be in a close future...
TP!FKP: Thanks Zipper!
When I first contacted Auckland, New Zealand duo The Gladeyes about The Pop! For Kids Project a year ago, I quickly learned the band was soon going to go on hiatus, because Jade would move far far away to Sweden. Thankfully, Gwen then decided to try to record something on her own, and today you can be witness of how well she succeeded! Lullabye is a lovely, dreamy song about the magic of dreaming, and about how everything is possible in your dreams. And if you dream hard enough, in real life too, of course.
