Photo Credit: Adam O’Regan
Irish musician, DJ and broadcaster Graham Smyth has released his debut album Music For Babies To Rave And Sleep To via Practise Music.
A truly unique album, ‘Music For Babies To Rave And Sleep‘ To is designed to be enjoyed by children and adults alike, featuring two distinct sonic palates with a toy piano on Side A and a toy kalimba on Side B. Both sides of the album feature music for raving and for sleeping with interludes between for the build up and come down.
Graham Smyth says: “The whole concept of this record is for parents and their little ones to enjoy it together and what better way than sliding a wax record out of this beautifully designed cover by Max Halley and letting the needle drop on a world of sonic fun.”
The record has been pressed by Anthem Vinyl, the new vinyl pressing facility that was recently opened in Co. Kildare. Smyth says: “Having a physical version of this record ties in with my intentions for the album to be listened to by parents and their little ones together. It is fantastic to have a vinyl pressing plant back on Irish shores. It is the icing on the fairy cake!”
‘Music For Babies To Rave And Sleep To‘ bridges a gap between parents that are ‘really into music’ and their children’s nascent taste to serve as a gateway into other music they love. Smyth sets out to create music that parents would feel comfortable introducing to and experiencing with their children.
“It’s widely reported that the key to keeping young children happy is undivided attention (The Laughing Baby, Dr. Caspar Addyman), so I’m hoping that they’ll listen and interact with each other,” Smyth says, “and his use of tried and tested structures from lullabies ‘that have been used for hundreds of years’, alongside modern production techniques, make it equally enjoyable for adults and children to listen to.”
The album is preceded by two singles from the album – a ‘rave’ track from Side A, ‘Toy Pianonono (For Raving)’, which you can listen to and download here, and a second track titled ‘Kalimbarama (For Sleeping)’ taken from side B, redolent of ambient greats like Hiroshi Yoshimura and Brian Eno – download here.
Smyth is currently developing a live, interactive show that will see him take Music For Babies… on the road.
“Through my research I have found that most playful interaction with sounds can improve a toddler’s communication, social skills and emotional development (Ruokonen et. al, 2021) so I have an idea in my head for a live show called ‘Music To Interact With’ where stripped back versions of the songs from the album are played and some parts of the music are hooked up to effects pedals, oscillators, resonators and all sorts of interesting knobs and faders that the audience can play to change the sound of the music in real time with the performance.”
Starting piano lessons at age seven, Smyth was quickly hooked on music and went on to become a classically trained pianist, drummer and percussionist. After a few false starts with his music career as a young adult, he fell out of love with music, leaving the bands he was in and giving up the music producer dream he had started to become a management consultant.
That could have been that. But somewhere inside him, Smyth realised that he was going down the wrong path. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do, but he knew it had to be something more creative. With beginnings as a live DJ (and still an active one) he worked his way into becoming a broadcaster at RTE 2FM through radio and documentary work. At some point during this time, for one of his birthdays he was given a toy kalimba which served as the catalyst for Graham rediscovering his love of creating music.
Becoming an uncle really gave him the motivation to create music that could nourish children’s development. He started making demos using these instruments – after the success of the toy kalimba, he had gone on to collect toy synths and instruments – and natural percussive sounds like claps and taps.
The demos were sounding encouraging, but still missing something so he reached out to ambient producer and composer Gareth Quinn Redmond who he was already “a massive fan of. He makes really lovely ambient music and has worked with the likes of Villagers, James Vincent McMorrow, Ye Vagabonds, and lots more on the Irish scene.” With Quinn Redmond’s help, Smyth was able to transform it “into something amazing,” adding not just texture to the music, but helping bake in the context. It was through their chats that they decided to include a build up to the raves and come down to the sleeps.
Smyth wanted to get an expert involved to check that his vision was more than just a hunch and had some basis in science. He consulted research studies in the area and confirmed these with a music psychologist. Through his research he discovered that “babies’ heart rates are about 50% faster than ours so the music should reflect that” (The Laughing Baby, Dr. Caspar Addyman), hence the fast-paced drum & bass influence on ‘Toy Pianonono (For Raving). It was noted that “when you observe children with any object, they don’t just use it in the ‘traditional’ sense” (Jacob L. Shchatz et.al, 2022).
“For instance,” says Smyth, “if you hand a baby a keyboard they won’t just try to play the keys. They will hit it, throw it, bang it, rub it, maybe even try to eat it so all the sounds (apart from the eating!) from interacting with the instruments in these ways are also included in the production of the album.
“The likes of They Might Be Giants and Imogen Heap have done amazing work creating music that adults and children can both equally enjoy. With this project I am trying to achieve something similar but for those parents who like electronica and ambient artists such as Aphex Twin or Burial but may feel that type of music is too mature for little ears. Side A is definitely geared more towards young children and Side B skews towards older ears.”
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