Hawea singer-songwriter Anna van Riel embraces her inner child, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Anna van Riel has barely had time to savour the fact she's been nominated for not one but two national music awards.
Earlier this week, she was winding up a six-day stint at Invercargill's annual Kidzone school holiday event, at which she had been busy singing, swaying and ukulele playing as well as altering the visages of many youngsters.
"It's been a little bit mental as they found themselves short of volunteers, so I have been face-painting as well as playing two shows a day,'' the Hawea singer-songwriter explains.
That supply of energy has paved the way to the shortlist of finalists for the 2016 New Zealand Children's Music Awards: the Recorded Music NZ Best Children's Music Album (for Cooking Up A Song) and the APRA Best Children's Music Song Award (for the title track of the same album).
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Auckland on August 9.
"It's pretty mammoth,'' van Riel reflects.
"The first thought that crossed my mind was how brilliant it is that New Zealand recognises the importance of new music for Kiwi kids. So many other countries don't celebrate this genre as we do,'' she says, referring to the establishment of the award in 2008.
The mother of two is no stranger to writing and performing popular children's music at home and abroad, having won Best Children's Song of the Year at the 2010 Australian Dolphin Awards, and recently returning from a week of performances after being invited to appear at the Sydney Festival 2016.
"I have a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl so it's pretty neat to be able to create something that they and their little friends dig,'' van Riel said.
"I'm also on a play-group committee in Hawea and I often get asked to perform. I'd pull out ukuleles and things, but I got a bit sick of some of the music we had there. The kids didn't seem to be getting excited about it and, because I always have music swimming around in my head, I thought I could put some of those songs on an album.''
Released in August last year, Cooking Up A Song was recorded and produced in Wanaka, van Riel utilising the talents of sound engineer and musician Daniel Fairley, who also co-produced her third (non-children's) album, Whistle and Hum, which was nominated for New Zealand Country Album of the Year in 2013.
"I was able to pay Danny to produce Cooking Up A Song through crowdfunding. He is an amazing instrumentalist: he played banjo on one song, as well as bass and keyboards ... he hears things that other people don't.''
She says Fairley, who performs in electronica outfit Civilian Sol, can put his hand to anything, "from country to children's music''.
As for van Riel's instrumental palette, she plays guitar, ukulele and flute, as well as sings.
Oh, she is also a "kazoo extraordinaire''.
"I'm not kidding. The track Cooking Up A Song has one of my kazoo solos in it.''
An upbeat song that connects cooking with creating a song, and includes actions and dancing for children, is among 14 tracks that encourage interaction and singing.
"I love writing songs that get the kids interacting. I have lyrics such as, ‘Stretch high, bend down, wriggle and jiggle to the ground', which might be construed as telling kids what to do but they are participating together.''
Van Riel says it's also an attempt to facilitate interaction between parents and their children.
"People are so busy these days. So to be able to create something that parents can put on ... they then see how their kids are participating and it's fairly obvious how they could then participate, too.
"I have had parents tell me it's the only album they can have in the car that doesn't drive them nuts. I really appreciate that.
"My daughter Matilda sometimes asks: ‘What are you singing, Mum?' But as long as I look like I'm enjoying myself, they bounce off that. I think all children enjoy seeing adults having fun.''
Discography
• 2015 Cooking Up A Song
• 2013 Whistle and Hum (nominated for NZ Music Awards Country Album of the Year)
• 2011 Einey Meiny Miney Mo (EP) APRA album of the year
• 2010 Solar Panel, debut album
2016 New Zealand Children's Music Awards finalists
• APRA Best Children's Music Song: Cooking Up a Song (written by Anna van Riel and Daniel Fairley, performed by Anna van Riel), My Nana's Farm (written and performed by Anika Moa), Po Marie (written by Lucy Hiku and Jenny Payne, performed by Itty Bitty Beats).
• Recorded Music NZ Best Children's Music Album: Cooking Up a Song (Anna van Riel), Lay Your Head Down (Itty Bitty Beats), Lollipop Man (Peter Weatherall).
• A New Zealand Music Awards category since 2008, the NZ Children's Music Awards has been won by artists such as Craig Smith, Anika Moa and Levity Beet. The winner of Best Children's Music Song is awarded $1000 in prizemoney. This year's winner will also receive a NZ On Air Special Tracks grant of up to $10,000 to be spent on the production of an original song and a music video.
