NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty years after the release of his career-defining debut album, “Get Lifted,” John Legend is breaking new ground.
On August 30, the R&B pop singer will release his first children’s album, My Favorite Dream, on Republic Records: Kids & Family. Produced by chamber pop universalist Sufjan Stevens, the album is lush and centers around universal themes of love, security, family and dreams on nine original tracks, two covers, a solo piano piece and three bonus covers of Fisher-Price songs.
Legend, who is a father of four with his wife Chrissy Teigen – Luna is 8, Miles is 6, Esti and Wren are both toddlers – made it a point to write songs that are appropriate for adults, too. Some will even resonate with those who may not have kids. These are soulful John Legend songs with a capital J and a poignant message.
“I wanted the parents to like it,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “I wanted the same standard of quality and musicianship that I want on all my records.”
The album had to stand on its own.
“Creating a children’s album with so much depth and artistry, while finding the unique balance of making it fun and warm for the little ones, is a true art,” said Bree Bowles, Republic Records Senior Vice President: Kids & Family. “The work is so authentic that you feel part of their world and family.”
This interview, in which Legend talks about “My Favorite Dream,” first single “LOVE,” and his family’s role in the creative process, has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: Why children’s music and why now?
CAPTION: I’m in the thick of parenting, and we have a couple of young kids – two kids under two, and then our older kids. And you know, music is such an important part of our lives. And music is such an important part of the way we interact with each other.
It all started when I was just playing a version of one of the songs that’s on a Fisher-Price play mat: The song is called “Maybe,” which a lot of parents of toddlers know very well. I learned to play it on the piano so I could sing it to Esti, one of our babies, and Chrissy recorded me learning the song and singing it to Esti on the piano. She posted it on her Instagram. And all my fans were like, “John, you need to do more kids’ songs. You need to cover all the Fisher-Price songs.” And so a lot of people asked me to record kids’ music. And I saw it as kind of a challenge to not just cover some songs that kids already knew and loved, but to try to create something new. So I wrote nine new original songs and made a whole album out of them. And it was fun just thinking about all the messages that we tell our kids and the things that I want to sing to them.
AP: Do you need other skills to write family music?
LEGEND: Well, it’s interesting because I’ve been writing for Broadway recently, too, and I feel like I’m kind of tapping into a similar skill set in that. It took me out of myself a little bit and allowed me to approach the music a little differently than I would on a normal John Legend album. But the difference between this and Broadway – and what makes it more like a normal John Legend album – is also that I really thought about my own life, about my own communication with my kids, about the messages I want to convey to them, and then I put that into songs.
AP: Sufjan Stevens produced the album, and you can hear that throughout the album – many of the songs on it are directly reminiscent of his typical, quirky style, a kind of baroque songwriting style.
LEGEND: He sings a lot in the background and is such a genius. I’ve been a fan of his for about 20 years. When I was writing these songs, the first thing I thought of was who should produce it: Sufjan, because I love how dreamy and whimsical he can make music and how much character he has in everything he does. And I just felt like it would be the perfect energy for a kids’ album: to mix my songwriting with his production, his arrangement and his playing. You just hear his influence all over the album and I love it.
I was so glad he said yes because you never know when someone will want to do a children’s album with you and we had never worked together before. We had never met before we started working on it.
AP: The first single, “LOVE,” features your wife and two of your children, Luna and Miles. How did that come about?
LEGEND: I’m so happy they’re on board. We brought them into the studio to sing with us and it’s really cool.
Chrissy is on “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the cover I did for the Christmas project, and Luna speaks on that track. That’s the first time Luna and Miles have ever sung on anything. I love that song because it really sums up who I am, what my philosophy of life is, and what we want to teach our kids: just being a light in the world and letting love guide you and dictate the way you treat other people and the way you think about the world. It really influences my politics, my philanthropy, my music, everything I do – I think about spreading love and looking at the world with love and empathy and recognizing each other’s humanity. And that’s what this song is about.
AP: How did your children inspire you to make the album?
KEY: My kids have music lessons. My toddlers have music lessons with other toddlers. They play little shakers and the teachers come and sing with them and play guitar. I wanted the first half of the album to feel like that music lesson, more upbeat, a big sing-along. And the second half was meant to be for falling asleep. So that’s how the album is structured. The first half is more fun and upbeat and like the music lessons the kids have. And the second half is more like how you would play it if you wanted to get them to settle down for the night.
AP: The album consists mostly of original songs, with the exception of two cover versions: “Three Little Birds” and “You Are My Sunshine” by Bob Marley & the Wailers, without the bonus tracks. Why these songs?
KEY: I just thought a lot about different covers… and I wanted to make sure that whatever I covered, I could do a version that was different from other people’s versions. And those are the two I really settled on.
Of course, I’ve known Bob Marley’s music for a long time and I thought this song fit the spirit of the first half of the album. A lot of these songs encourage kids to look at the positive side of life and when you’re sad, to connect with what makes you happy, the people you love and all of those things. “Three Little Birds” captures that energy in all the right ways.
And then “You Are My Sunshine” is a sad song in a way because it’s about how much you appreciate someone, but also how much you miss them when they’re not there. And I think we feel that a lot in our family. I think most families feel that: how much you care about them and love them, and also how much you miss them when they’re not there.
AP: What do you hope listeners of this project will take away?
LEGEND: I want them to feel the love that I put into it and I want them to be able to pass that love on to their own families and loved ones. I think the messages on the album are ones that we would like to share with our children and I feel like a lot of parents would want to share them with their children as well and it would make me happy if they were able to do that.
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