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Roof-less Interrogator
Monkeying around with Shoshana Sperling of
SHO, MO and the MONKEY BUNCH!
by PKelly on Apr 19, 2005
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I’m back again! The Roofless Interrogator. And consider it a threat because this week I’ve outdone myself. Again. I’ve been plying my presumptuous paw-work all the way over in Canada. And you wanna know what I’ve come back with? I mean besides a case of Molson’s and a touch of frostbite? I've found the craziest bunch of bananas I’ve ever seen and they each come with their very own monkey attached. They’re called SHO, MO and the MONKEY BUNCH and right now I’m talking with Shoshana Sperling––Yup, you guessed it! She’s SHO! So, without further adieu let’s get this SHO on the road!
 Shoshana Sperling and her swinging friend
RI: Hey there, Sho! Let’s start off with an easy one––if twenty monkeys run after one banana, what time is it?
SS: Twenty to 1? Time to split?
RI: Oooh,Wowf! I'm gonna have to be careful with this one. She's sharp as a tack!
Okay, we’ll get serious now. I’ll admit it. I’m a smart dog but even I was confused. So, you got to tell us who is (are?) Sho, Mo and the Monkey Bunch, why kid’s music, and how did you all get together?
SS: Well Oliver I'll tell you that even very very smart dogs have trouble keeping track of monkeys. Two years ago, Mo (Maury LaFoy) and myself (Sho, Shoshana Sperling) had no money to buy presents for our nieces and nephew for Christmas so we thought we might make something for them. (much better than buying) We have a little studio in our basement so we did it there. Just three short songs but then all their friends wanted copies of it and soon requests were coming in to do more songs and so Sho, Mo and the Monkey Bunch were born.
In answer to your other question Oliver, the other monkeys are Graham Powell, Ali Eisner, Teresa Pavlinek, Mia Sheard, John Obercian, Mark Mariash, Dave Matheson, Davide Direnzo, Paul Neufeld, Ian Lefeuvre, Dan Bryk, Sarah McElcharen, Kevin Fox, Kathleen Schratz, Kurt Swinghammer and 30 kids from a grade 4 classroom.
RI: That's quite a tail! You know, your CD has the coolest cover! How did you choose the songs for it?
SS: Thanks about the cover. We love it too!! We picked the songs from songs that my mom used to sing to me when I was a kid and some of them we wrote ourselves!
RI: You wrote some of them?
SS: Some are originals and some aren't. One of them (Love Bird) I wrote when I was just a kid about my cat who died. I was very sad it and it really helped me to write that song. Some people think that the song is too sad for children but I was a kid when I wrote it and I hope that it helps kids understand things like when a pet dies.
RI: That one really choked me up, actually. I mean, I'm a pet myself, though I hate to admit it. So, who does your artwork?
SS: Monkey Kurt Swinghammer is the artist on the cd art and on our video. He's amazing!!
RI: I have to agree. But, WHOA Nelly! You guys really live way up in Canada! Tell our readers something about where you live.
SS: Canada is a wonderful place. I think that some people in other countries think we walk around in snow shoes and live in igloos but that's not true at all. Well, not in Toronto Ontario where I live. There are children everywhere and a lot of people have dogs. That should make you happy. Right now it is April and the flowers are coming up all over my front yard!! I hope to go out and play in them later.
RI: Sounds good to me. Can I come? By the way, do dogs really have their own houses there, or are they all reserved for the monkeys?
SS: Some dogs have their own houses. I call that a dog house. Go figure.
Monkeys can go wherever they please!!
RI: Something seriously whacked about that!
So, Sho--I pawed my way over to your Fab-U website
TheMonkeyBunch.com and had a great time. Not only could I listen to great music but I got to watch a cool video of your group singing while a bunch of monkeys bounced up and down on a bed! I want to hear about how you made the video. Was it fun?
SS: The video was very fun to make. Dancing around with all the kids and all those monkeys!!
RI:Was it expensive?
SS: Videos are always very expensive but we were lucky enough to get some people and our friends to all help out so it ended up being cheaper than we thought.
RI: Cool. And do bed-bouncing monkeys ever bite?
SS: I got nibbled the day of the shoot but it tickled more than hurt.
RI: Nibbling's okay. I do some of that myself. Your song Honk Honk has become one of my all-time favorite songs! I keep hearing it on KidMixRadio.com and I didn’t even know it was you! I love that song and I can’t stop singing it! But, really––what’s it about? Honk, honk, rattle, rattle, CRASH! beep, beep?
SS: Oliver!! I'm so glad you like the song!! We love it. You should see us do it with the actions. The first two verses of the song are from some old camp song but then we wrote our own third verse about an electric car because we believe that the environment should be very important to everyone and kids are the people who are going to save the world from smoke and garbage and car pollution.
RI: I'm with you 100% there, Sho! Do you perform live often?
SS: We perform a couple of times a month so far. We're really just starting to perform. We have played a craft show and some cabaret nights but that was difficult because there're weren't kids or dogs there. On Saturday we played to about 100 kids of all ages and they loved it but we loved it the very most. In the summer we will be playing children's festivals.
We love performing live because kids are the best audience in the world. If they don't like it they walk away or fall asleep but if they like it... they love it. They say wonderful things and sing and dance. Not like some grown-ups who are afraid to look silly having a good time if you know what I mean.
RI: How many monkeys are there in your bunch?
SS: Well, on the album there are about 15 big monkeys and then about 30 little ones. But when we perform live there are usually only 4 of us. Lyle Molzan is our newest monkey to join the bunch and we love to watch him gobble up bananas. (he opens them from the bottom!)
RI: Hee-Hee! Lyle! What a character! Hey, do you all live in the same tree?
SS: Lyle lives a couple of trees over but three of us live in one tree and it's crowded. Hey!! Get off the bed already! Didn't ya hear the song!!
RI: Boy! Not all the nuts are on the trees, are they? Why so many of you?
SS: You can never have too many monkeys.
RI: Uh-huh. Sho, Mo and the Monkey Bunch seem to have a really different idea about the kinds of music kids will love. What do you think makes your music different?
SS: I think our music is different because it talks up to kids instead of down and because it's fun for grown-ups too so kids like that. Also, some (not all) of our music is about something important like the environment and animals and that's important to kids too. Mostly, it's fun without being boring and that' really because we're just bigger kids making music that we like for ourselves and so it's not us trying to figure out what someone else will like but just being true to us.
RI: Sorry, I can’t resist––How do monkeys get down the stairs?
SS: Swing?!
RI: Uh-uh. They slide down the banana-ster. What did the banana say to the monkey?
SS: Yo monkey! Watch the peel or I'm going to split!
RI: Actually, that’s funnier than the real answer, so I’m not going to tell you what the real answer is. Okay, okay!––I’ll stop. Seriously, I love you guys! Do you have a new CD in the making?
SS: Oh Oliver! You're so sweet. A very nice dog indeed. We are trying to make sure everyone has this one first. Then... soon. We're already adding new songs to the set so who knows. Maybe Oliver knows.....
RI: Bye, Sho! Come back soon!
What a babe! I'd probably have tucked myself into her suitcase if I wasn't still picking icicles out of my toes from my last visit to Canada. ;-) But check these guys out, okay? They're FAB!
If you enjoyed this Roofless Interrogator interview perhaps you'll also like The Marla Lewis Interview
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