We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael De La Torre a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
the most meaningful project I have ever worked on is our newest endeavor, the Jelly of the Month Club Music Academy. It is online cartoon music lessons for kids disguised as fun filled cartoon episodes complete with original songs about musical concepts like rhythm, notes, rest and scales. Over the last 10 years we have performed at schools all over California and seen first hand the decline in funding fo the arts in public schools. Once we realized we couldn’t reach enough of them we thought of a way to get in every classroom that would have us, any time they wanted: by making a cartoon version of our show! The program comes complete with Guitar Hero style play-alongs that young cadets can jam with using their computer keyboard to control the digital instruments. We all know how small the window is for first impressions, we need to get kids excited and inspired by music as a means to have fun and to express themselves. This is exactly the kind of musical experience I wish I had when I was a kid.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Michael De La Torre, I perform under the stage name Mic Dangerously. I am the singer and co-founder of the Jelly of the Month Club, a traveling musical troupe that champions family entertainment, plays every genre and writes songs about life lessons and music education. our latest endeavor with the Jelly of the Month Club Music Academy (JMA) is the culmination of everything we’ve learned about family entertainment rolled into an educational effort to teach kids all about music. We have already seen the amazing impact it’s had on the kids who’ve taken our course and we are all very excited to make more and more JMA courses down the line.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Our goal is to ultimately build more JMA courses so we can offer to give away our Music 101 program to any school that wants or even needs a music program.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part for me is watching people become happy at our live shows, especially kids. Children are such an honest audience, and they can smell a phony a mile away. Performing for kids has really taught me a lot about truly being present and enjoying life!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jmalearning.com
- Instagram: jellyofthemonthclub
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/JellyOfTheMonthClubMusic
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@JMAlearning
- Other: www.micdangerously.com
Image Credits
Jose Corona