I\u2019m listening to the latest Stephen Spencer song when suddenly I burst into tears. Was it the falsetto vocals? The swirling harmonies? No, it was the lyrics: \u201cWhat did Apple-the-Stoola say? He said \u2018I love you\u2019 twenty-sixty times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spencer, you see, has a unique lyrical collaborator: his three-year-old daughter. Over the last four months, he has been posting short songs online based on her stream-of-consciousness stories. There\u2019s a smooth soul number about \u201ca regular rabbit, who has regular ponytails just like me\u201d. A song called Funchy the Snow-woman that could fit easily on to a 1975 album, but for its lyrical message about using a litter tray in the forest. And a festive tune about a Christmas cat called Harda Tarda, who hopes that Taja (\u201ca funny way to say Santa\u201d) will bring her \u201ca doggy, a puppy and a ninja-bread man\u201d.<\/p>\n
I think the songs resonate with the parents of children who miss the days when they were three<\/p>\n
When he started posting his songs, Spencer had 36 followers. \u201cThey were really just for my mom and her book club.\u201d He now has more than 250,000 and his songs have been listened to an astonishing 23m times on Instagram and 5m times on TikTok. There have been demands to turn these minute-long mini-masterpieces into full-length versions for an album. \u201cI\u2019m hesitant to try to stretch them in a way that might spoil the magic of those captured moments,\u201d he says. But there are plans to release something in longer form. A Spotify release of Regular Rabbit is set for this week.<\/p>\n
On first listen, the songs are funny and cute, a welcome respite from the tumult in the world. But they\u2019re also absolute bangers. Spencer \u2013 who was in a funk band at school in Ottawa and is now professor of composition and music theory at Hunter College in New York City \u2013 is incredibly adept at crafting hooks that won\u2019t leave your head. But what about the crying? Because I really did not expect that.<\/p>\n
Allow Instagram content?<\/p>\n
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the songs resonate with parents of children who are no longer three,\u201d says Spencer, by video call. \u201cThere\u2019s something fleeting about those first few years. I\u2019ve always had a sense of wanting to bottle it because I know it will disappear soon. Music is my way of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This makes sense. My daughter is nine now and, although she still writes charming stories, the surreal character names and dream-logic plotlines have been replaced by more sensible tropes. Hearing Spencer\u2019s songs takes me straight back to that giddy toddler period.<\/p>\n
But is it more than nostalgia? Spencer, 35, has noticed another surprising response to his work. He\u2019s aware of the inherent humour in the contrast between his daughter\u2019s flights of fancy and his meticulous approach to performing them seriously: the way he turns to the camera to sing passionately about, say, a dinosaur called Pasghetti is reminiscent of Flight of the Conchords. \u201cBut what I didn\u2019t realise,\u201d he says, \u201cis how that would land, for so many people, as an act of love. Listening really closely to a child, taking care in understanding, trying to get the words right, no judgment, no correcting \u2013 that turned out to be really moving for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, fans love the fact that characters in the songs goed somewhere rather than went, or flied instead of flew. \u201cSome people have said that the songs touch them because they were never deeply listened to as a child,\u201d says Spencer.<\/p>\n
While listeners compare his work to yacht rock, Spencer says his influences are jazz and classical<\/p>\n
The comments under his songs on Instagram (@_stephenspencer) can be as moving as the music. Under the one about Apple-the-Stoola (an apple man who is granted wings by a fairy so he can fly away and find his lost mum), a listener has posted: \u201cI wish I could still tell my Mom I love you twenty-sixty times. She \u2018flied away\u2019 nine years ago. So if you still have a mom that is in your life, tell her \u2018I love you\u2019 twenty-sixty times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this tendency to interpret her words in a profound way,\u201d says Spencer, who chooses not to give his daughter\u2019s name. This is not entirely accidental. Spencer picks out phrases from the stories he thinks have the potential for deeper meaning and uses them for chorus refrains. In the Christmas cat song, Santa responds to present requests by saying: \u201cI\u2019ll give you everything.\u201d Watching Spencer sing this, from the heart with his eyes closed, it\u2019s clear that, although these are his daughter\u2019s words, he\u2019s really saying them back to her.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not his only clever musical trick. While listeners like to compare his work to yacht rock and other breezy 1970s genres, Spencer says his influences are jazz and classical. \u201cIn my theory classes, we often look at Beethoven. There might be a chord change in the development of a sonata where he will modulate to a foreign key. I try to use that same technique for my pre-choruses and bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Has the growing audience added pressure and expectation to something that started out extremely pure? \u201cI have to forget about that side, because what makes them work is how it\u2019s about just hanging with my daughter and not taking life too seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
The songs normally come together over a couple of afternoons. Spencer will record her stories on his phone and, occasionally, go back for more details if he feels the verses need an extra syllable here or there. It\u2019s a genuine artistic collaboration. So what does his lyricist make of the results? \u201cIt\u2019s maybe a little disappointing as an answer,\u201d he says, laughing, \u201cbut from what I can tell, she couldn\u2019t care less. Let\u2019s just say she\u2019s more focused on the process than the product.\u201d<\/p>\n
A true artist then! \u201cExactly. I\u2019ve told her 20 million people have listened, but that\u2019s not really a meaningful number to her. Put it like this: she thinks I\u2019m seven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regular Rabbit (Living Room Version) is released on streaming platforms on 17 February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m listening to the latest Stephen Spencer song when suddenly I burst into tears. Was it the falsetto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-300935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}