We were lucky to catch up with David Reminick recently and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on has to be the album I’m currently releasing: Fun Intended – my first full album of children’s music.

For years, I had considered writing children’s music, but only began seriously after becoming a parent. Initially, I made the songs very simple because I assumed that was what kids needed. I thought the more rhythmically and harmonically complex music I usually wrote would be too much for them.

Then one day, while playing with my daughter, I started singing a complicated, heavily syncopated mixed meter idea, one far closer to my actual musical voice. Imagine my surprise when she, only 2 years old at the time, sang it back to me perfectly!

That moment really stuck with me. How vastly had I underestimated my child? And what message had I been sending by exposing her only to music I thought she could understand? Kids are incredibly intelligent, intuitive, and open-minded listeners. They are capable of connecting with music and art of considerable complexity and emotional depth. So then, why wasn’t I exposing my daughter to music like that? And why on Earth wasn’t I writing it?

That realization was the foundation for my children’s music project DadJoke and for my album Fun Intended. The album feels meaningful to me because it is at once a self portrait – a direct representation of my sense of humor, musical voice, and general weirdness – and, more importantly, a message of profound respect for children. I believe that in putting time, effort and love into creating thoughtful, deeply layered art for kids, we communicate to them how incredibly important they are and that they deserve our very best.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’ve been making music since I was 5 or 6 years old, and over the years I’ve been involved in an incredibly wide variety of music as a performer, composer, and educator. I’ve worked as a professional composer and saxophonist, taught university-level music theory and saxophone, and for the past 20 years I’ve been the singer and guitarist for the Chicago post-punk band Paper Mice.

So it’s a little surprising that that after all those years, I feel most at home writing children’s music. I like to think of my children’s music project, DadJoke, as “weird music for weird kids,” and I write songs that are funny, absurd, heartfelt, and musically adventurous. I try to make music that respects kids’ inherent creativity and intelligence, without alienating – or annoying – their parents.

I believe music for kids can be just as inventive and meaningful as any music for grownups, and I bring the same level of thought, intensity, and craft to my children’s music as I did as a composer of chamber and concert music.

What I’m most proud of is that when I hear my music, it feels honest and joyful. My new album, Fun Intended, reflects the love of music, humor, and curiosity that I try to bring to everything I create.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is connecting with audiences. As a creator of children’s music, I can’t fully put into words the joy I feel when a child sings one of my songs back to me. It’s incredibly moving to know that something I created has found a place in someone else’s life, memory, and imagination.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was a college student studying music at conservatory, I would always hear my fellow students bragging about how long they had practiced. Four hours a day was treated as the minimum if you wanted to be considered a serious musician. Music was my life, and more than anything, I wanted to be seen as serious.

At the school I attended, we had the month of January off from classes, and every student was expected to pursue an independent project. It could be anything. I wanted to prove to myself (and probably to everybody else) how dedicated I was to my studies, so one year I decided my project would be to practice eight hours a day, every day, for the entire month.

And so I did.

And it was miserable.

Eight hours is a very long time when you don’t know how to make use of it. I found myself more focused on filling time than on actually improving my playing. By the end of the month, I felt the project had been a complete waste of time. If anything, I had gotten worse.

But that failure came with an important realization: I had been practicing wrong my whole life. I began rebuilding my approach, centering it around clear goals, concentration, efficiency, and problem-solving instead of sheer duration.

By the end of the school year, I was accomplishing more in one focused hour than I used to in four or five.

That experience, however misguided, taught me one of the most important lessons of my career: discipline is not an end in itself. It has to be thoughtful and directed. Otherwise it is just performative struggle.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dadjokemusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dadjoke_music_for_kids
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-reminick-8ba95a281
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DadJokeMusicforKids
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dadjokemusicforkids

Image Credits

Images 1-4: Todd Rosenberg