Friday, December 08, 2006

Interview: Gwyneth & the Gooney Bird Girls.


Gwyneth & her daughters, Camille (8) and Chloe (4), have their very own children's music radio program on Live365.com. It's called Gooney Bird Radio! How cool is that?!

1) What made you decide to start up Gooney Bird Radio, & give it that name?

We started our musical journey in Ralph's World. After a year or two there, we felt that, while we really enjoyed living there, it might be fun to venture out and expand our horizons. After listening to "Spare the Rock" for a while and then stumbling across Live365, I figured it could be a cool homeschooling project for us...I wanted to give my girls a chance to hear themselves on the radio. I struggled with the name ... I'm not a fountain of creativity. My family nickname as a kid (well, now too) was Goonie Bird, so I went with that. I though it had a nice ring to it. I'm not sure why I changed the spelling. Had someone already claimed it? Or did I want to distance us from "The Goonies"? The reason escapes me now.

2) You must get a lot of CD's. How do you choose what gets on the air?

I was really shocked the first time someone offered to send us a free CD. It wasn't something that I had even considered might happen. At this point we've settled into a certain format, but we are evolving, so it might be different next week. Right now, we update the station once a week. We have a few featured artists, and we work our way through their latest album, playing a few different tracks each week. We also have some themes, based on something we saw or did that week. Themes like colors, trains, pirates, etc. There's also our weekly favorites, which the girls and I pick. I try to pay attention to what CDs they listen to during the week, and I also try to pull out a few that we haven't listened to in a while. We spend a lot of time in the car and thus end up listening to quite a few CDs each week.As time goes on, I'd like to have the girls do more "announcing", recitations and storytelling.

3) Camille & Chloe, what's it like being home schooled? Do you have to sit across from mom while she lectures all day long?

Chloe's answer "Does he have a lot of questions? Too much questions!"

Camille's answer: "No , we don't; my mom helps me pick out good books at the library. I like to read fairy tales and history books. It's fun to be homeschooled; I get to read lots of history books, and sometimes do some math. Because I'm homeschooled, I get travel around the world. I've been to Scotland and France. I take a Latin class."

4) You seem to be driving all over the country. Is that a perk of home-schooling or do you live in a car?

It is definitely a perk of homeschooling. The girls are used to being in the car, and we have lots of great music to keep us entertained on our trips.5) Gwyneth, what kind of music did you listen to when you were a kid? Does it influence your taste (or life) now?As a young child, I listened to music that reflected my parents' values. "Free to Be", Peter, Paul & Mary, musicals, classical music, campfire songs. It certainly influenced the first music that I bought for my kids, but as a family, we've moved a bit away from there. I don't know that the music itself influenced my life, but it was one part of a whole style of life that made me become who I am.

6) What do you think about the indie kids music scene?

I think its great fun, at least from where I sit. By getting to know various artists, either personally or through their music, we've had opportunities to go fun places

7) Chloe, are you married?

Chloe said: "I don't want to answer that."

8) Camille, what's it like being a big, very mature, incredibly smart older sister?



Hmmm. My sister and I enjoy playing games and doing projects together, but sometimes she can get a little annoying.



9) Gwyneth, what do you want to do when you grow up?

A grandparent?

10) How is Internet Radio (Live365) different from AM,FM or XM Radio? Are you actually spinning discs 24-7? When do you sleep?

We take shifts. Camille is a night owl, so she's on 8pm-4am. I like to get up early, so I'm on 4am-noon, and Chloe gets noon-8pm. Right? Okay, not at all. We spend a couple hours once a week picking out tracks and uploading the mp3 files to Live365. The set list (usually 3-4 hours long) that we create from those tracks is then a continuously playing rotation.
Thanks Gooney Bird Gals!
Check out the great music:
Live365 broadcast
GooneyBird Blog

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