EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE fleaBITE BAND

Written By Guest User
EWTJTFBB-FB.png

EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE FLEABITE BAND is a musical chat show for insects.

We came up with the idea over lockdown in New Zealand and decided to create a podcast-come-radio series.

fleaBITE (a drummer flea) travels round the country (by dog), stopping at small towns and auditioning insects for his new band. Each insect is keen to kick-start their musical career before their lifecycle comes to an end.

I collaborated with Shannon Williams from our respective home studios in Auckland and Wellington. Shannon is a voice artist who has featured on every fleaBITE album to date. You might have heard him on Don’t Sit Under the Poo Tree, or Fatty Ratty Party. He’s a veritable Gerald McBoing Boing of character voices who should be snapped up by The Simpsons.

Pictured above: Shannon Williams (left) and Robin Nathan (right).

Both Shannon and I have a background in radio. Shannon worked at Radio Active (student radio in Wellington) as a presenter, DJ, audio engineer, producer, and writer. He was also a founding member of legendary reggae/roots band The Black Seeds, and trained as an early childhood teacher after the birth of his first child. I worked at Radio New Zealand in Wellington as a producer for Access Radio, RNZ International (shortwave), wrote kids’ stories, and co-wrote/produced comedy shows (Don’t Touch That Dial) for Radio NZ National.

Once we’d agreed on the specific insects and their instrument of choice, Shannon wrote a succession of fun scripts. I did theme music and musical interludes. Shannon took the lead role of fleaBITE, we divvied up the other characters between us and invited Al ‘Frank Flash’ Kincaid for a cameo role.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE FLEABITE BAND became 13 short episodes, featuring a repertoire of delightful creepy crawlies. There’s Marama the Weta who plays smoky baritone sax from a garage in Hastings, Maggie the ukulele-strumming mite currently resident in a motel room pillow, and Walter the punk rock wasp.

Being stuck at home had its good points. It afforded Shannon more time for writing scripts, but it also made recording more difficult. Shannon had to give up his studio so that his partner could use it as a home office. In the dead of night, he would lug his recording gear into dimly-lit, unused corners and clamp-on headphones.

We were also racing a biological clock, as the mixing engineer’s partner was scheduled to give birth in a matter of weeks. The baby came before the recording was finished, so the project had to be put on hold until sleep-deprived Amos (from Showpony studio) could get back on track.

The moment EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE FLEABITE BAND was finished it was snapped up by Suzy Cato’s Suzy & Friends radio show (which broadcasts throughout NZ via 25 community stations). Our friend Lee Marzetti from 95bFM’s The Children’s Show ran with it, as did our great support in the USA, New York’s Double Dip Recess on WFMU.

If you’d like to play the series on your radio show please get in touch.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE FLEABITE BAND is available on:

Guest User
Previous

MEET THE KIWI KIDS’ MUSICIANS
Next

SNAKES ALIVE