What is it like to create music?

Discoveries, collaborations, and realizing a dream

Yesterday, I dropped my first single. 🎉 It’s a delightful children’s song called Yum, 2, 3! and it’s inspired by my new preschool board book of the same name. It feels absolutely THRILLING to say “I dropped my first single.” Like, what the —how did this happen?

Before I get into the hows and whys, you can listen to the single on Spotify and Apple Music (more platforms coming soon!). Be forewarned: it’s an ear worm. If you end up brushing your teeth to it in your head for the next five years, I’m sorry!

The Accidental Songwriter — Except there Are No Accidents

So how did I end up writing children’s music? Like all overnight transformations, it turns out that, in retrospect, this one has been on tap since childhood, in circuitous ignore-all-the-signs kind of way. This year, I just decided to let go and fully embrace it.

I chalk this breakthrough from flight-of-fancy to “it’s happening, people!” to a few key things: low-stakes musical involvement over a long period of time; 10 years of writing rhyming verse for kid; serendipity; and fantastic creative collaborators – Christian (Chano) Tizon, my musical collaborator and producer, and my sister and creative collaborator Eunice and the Hello!Lucky team.

So how did this happen? Let’s start at the beginning.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

As a toddler, I sang constantly. My mom has tape recordings of two-year-old me singing A Tisket, A Tasket! and Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star — I felt a deep longing for that little star, by the way. I also longed to be Snow White singing “I’m wishing for the one I love” (minus the Prince Charming rescue fantasy). A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes was my Don’t Stop Believin.’ So, let’s just say, there was a lot of musical longing from a young age (Thanks, Disney!).

Throughout school, I joined choirs and belted my heart out in musicals. I was an alto, so mostly got the supporting roles, like Domina in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. I was never encouraged to make music professionally. In high school, I was most definitely not invited to join the elite jazz band; I did not make the cut to join the super-cool funk band; and I crashed and burned at many a karaoke night (not the private room kind, the embarrass-yourself-in-front-of-a-room-full-of-hyper-talented-gay-men-who-sound-exactly-like-Barbra-Streisand kind).

In college, I started an a capella group with some friends — it was a life-line and these are still some of my besties. We were good, but mostly we loved singing. (Though my room mate, who was in the group, and I did kill Four Non-Blondes and Joni Mitchell at a couple of coffee houses.)

In business school, I performed in the musical and joined the student band, singing funk songs to lightly buzzed classmates. But once I graduated in 2002, that was kinda it. From 2002 - 2015 – what I’ll call the Bleak Musicless Period – I didn’t touch music.

Except I did, in little ways. When my twins were born in 2010, I sang to them at bedtime. My sister and I busted out a cover of Cee Lo Green’s Forget You on a tiny red toy piano at a mom’s talent show. I them to music classes. And I got involved with The Mosaic Project, a non-profit that creates original music for all its lessons.

I consumed a lot of music, too, including hauling my breast pump to an Aerosmith Concert at the Oakland Coliseum, pumping for my twins all the way there and back while driving in rush hour traffic (and ignoring sidelong glances).

Are you seeing a pattern here? Basically, while I didn’t do music “seriously,” it was always in the background.

From B-school to Band School

That changed in 2017. The organizers of my business school reunion sent an e-mail blast asking interested alumni to form a band to play at a reunion happy hour. A few of us responded, and pulled together a set of covers, which we played to an enthusiastic — though admittedly friendly — crowd.

Our soon-to-be-band at the Business School reunion gig!

Afterwards, we all had the same realization – playing music is fun! And, we really liked each other. We should keep doing this! So we did. Going on a decade now, we’ve met every month or so, scheduling around work and family, and gigging a couple times a year.

(Despite vociferous, outraged lobbying by my preschoolers to name the band MouseTrapDragonPants, we settled on the more staid Stinson Family Band.)

For the first five years, we mostly played covers. We were all learning. But then, after years of building trust in a friendly, low-key, low-stakes way, we started to play some originals. Turns out we had a lot of music in us!

Me singing at a gig - music is sheer joy! Photo: Zoe Larkin

How Do You Hear It?

My first song showed up in the middle of the night in 2016. I woke up to what sounded like a volume-11 serenade by heraldic angels. I tip-toed to the bathroom, and recorded a hushed rendition into a voice memo to an audience of moonlight and a toilet paper roll.

The next morning, I listened to the memo. It wasn’t half bad. I wrote up some lyrics, which came easily, since by that point I’d been writing rhyming verse of children’s books for a couple of years.

Since I don’t play any instruments particularly well (yet), my band mates added instrumentation and vocal harmonies. Soon, songs were showing up all the time — while I was driving, in the shower, meditating. Not unlike in my favorite movie, A Star is Born, where Bradley Cooper asks Lady Gaga, “How do you hear it?” I realized that songs are not something you make up – you listen for them.

I also realized that making music is collaborative. This can feel extremely vulnerable at first. But music requires multiple voices and instruments, so you need to learn to trust your collaborators and the process, while also staying true to how you hear it.

From Voice Memos to Polished Tracks

In February, my marketing team and I were discussing the launch of our new book, Yum, 2, 3! An Ice Cream Counting Book, when I blurted out, “This book needs a song!”’ and started to sing the song you hear on the single. I abruptly hung up and recorded a voice memo.

Yum 2, 3! An Ice Cream Counting Book, Abrams Appleseed, 2005

Earlier in the month, I jotted down a couple other children’s songs, also inspired by my books, and connected with Christian (Chano) Tizon, who I had met through The Mosaic Project, where was a resident musician and had contributed to their latest album. Would he be interested in collaborating? The answer was yes!

I began sending Chano voice memos, lyrics, and reference tracks (existing songs that capture the vibe of the music you want to compose). Within a few days, he sent back rough demos – often building on my ideas and adding his own. It was thrilling to have my sketched out voice memos transformed into polished tracks.

Next, I visited his home recording studio to record vocals. We also played the songs for preschoolers at Mustard Seed Preschool, where he is the resident musician – seeing the children’s responses was exciting, and they inspired even more music.

Chano and me at Mustard Seed Preschool

I’ve written about the art of creative collaboration – and how my sister Eunice and I have forged a productive creative relationship. This experience played no small part in my ability to instantly collaborate with Chano. For each of us, there has been no ego — just an openness to play, delight kids, and give each song whatever it needs to shine.

Garbage Trucks, Bananas, and Animation-a-go-go!

Yum, 2, 3! is just the first of many tracks we’ll be releasing this summer, including dance tracks (Potty Dance! Bananas for You!), and a song called Garbage Truck, inspired by Johnny and June Carter Cash, soon. Y’know, something for everyone – age 3 and under.

In addition, Eunice is working on an animated music video of Yum, 2, 3! (and will be animating all of our songs, eventually!). She is teaching herself frame-by-frame animation the old-school Walt Disney way. Here’s a quick clip of the initial sketch animation:

Our vision is to create a musical, joyful, space for kids to grow and play, one that amplifies the inspiring ethos our children’s books. We couldn’t be more excited!

Creative Detours and Discoveries

Have you ever stumbled into a new passion? I’d love to hear about your unexpected creative detours and discoveries. Share your tales in the comments!