Source: Radio New Zealand
When musician Steph Brown’s son Freddie was having a battle learning how to spell a tricky word, she invoked the shouty power of the Ramones to help.
“I was like, oh, I’ll just write you a song to remember it. And he really liked the Ramones at the time, so I wrote him this chorus that was like B E C A! U! S! E! It was like this Ramones-y thing.”
Soon Freddy was spelling ‘because’ without any trouble, she says, thanks to the song ‘Because’. He wasn’t the only one who loved it – the tune also won the APRA Children’s Award for Best Song for Primary Age Kids.
.
Spellodies the family band was born – and they’ve recently released an album for children called If You Can Yell It, You Can Spell It!
It’s a genre-rich collection traversing Broadway, reggae, Americana and death metal with titles such as ‘First Thirst’, ‘Again’ and ‘Night Light’.
Steph Brown, pictured in 2019.
Supplied
“We just kept going, anytime he had a word that he didn’t know, we would write a song. And it worked, and it worked for my three-year-old as well.”
The eventual album happened to coincide with the introduction of structured literacy in schools, Brown says.
“I actually think the way that they’re teaching it in school now, structured literacy, is really good.
“It really makes sense that they break it down into steps so that you can sound out words. It just so happens that in English there are always exceptions to the rule.
Steph Brown on Spellodies’ songs for kids Music 101
“And so those are the tricky words, those are the sight words and those are the words we’re tackling with our songs.”
Brown and Ikner have called in some favours from their numerous musician friends to contribute to the songs.
“Ben Sinclair [The Beths] came and played saxophone and then we had Jimmy Garden [The Turtlenecks] and Jake Krishnamurti who also came in and layered themselves to make the band.”
One song ‘Little’ needed a trumpet solo from someone who could just “blast through,” she says. They happened to be in Tuscon, Arizona when husband Ikner had an idea.
“Finn said, ‘I know just the guy’. Finn used to play in this band, Calexico, which plays sort of desert indie rock music. And they have this fantastic trumpet player, Jacob Valenzuela.
“So, he came over to our Airbnb and my kids, who were two and six at the time, were playing outside in the gravel garden because nothing grows in Tucson. I just remember hearing Jacob just blast this amazing solo.”
Her favourite Spellodies number is ‘Night Light’, which is designed to help with those pesky IGH words.
“When we were thinking about it, those words, fight, right, night, light, it was like, ooh, okay, this has to be a hair metal song about fighting for your right to a night light. It just sort of wrote itself.”
Play video Pause video This video is hosted on Youtube.
Steph Brown on Spellodies’ songs for kids Music 101
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
