| Press Kit :: Movers Sign Disney Deal |
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| Movers Sign Disney Deal |
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New Orleans Times-Picayune - May 5, 2006
www.nolalive.com
MOVIN' ON UP
Those juice-box heroes, the Imagination Movers, sign TV and record deal with Disney
By Keith Spera, Music writer
As 2,400 grade-schoolers filed into the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner on a recent Tuesday morning, the four Imagination Movers warmed up in a backstage dressing room.
Amid the stretching, high kicks and jumping jacks, Rich Collins, Scott Durbin, Dave Poche and Scott "Smitty" Smith debated the pros and cons of short sleeves. Long-sleeve blue overalls are the popular children's entertainers' signature uniform, a brand identity known to thousands of local children and parents.
Unfortunately, their overalls breathe about as well as plastic, and the Movers are in constant motion onstage. Short sleeves might help, especially outdoors.
"Basically," Collins said, "we're trying to figure out how not to die at Jazzfest."
Today at 11:30 a.m., the Imagination Movers graduate from the Kids Tent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to the main Acura Stage. The promotion mirrors their status in the world at large.
In April, after a yearlong negotiation, the Imagination Movers finalized a deal to release albums through Walt Disney Records and create a television show for the Playhouse Disney channel. Given the marketing resources of the Disney empire, the Movers could well be the Next Big Thing in the burgeoning children's music industry.
Already, it's the only band in New Orleans music history ever discovered in the Kids Tent. That's where Nancy Kanter, the senior vice president of programming for Playhouse Disney, first experienced the Movers phenomenon in 2005.
"We sat in the hot Kids Tent and were just blown away to see the response to them," Kanter said. "We'd heard their CDs, but when you actually sit there with a couple hundred preschoolers and, in some cases, older kids, and see the way they react to the music, we thought, 'This is for us.' "
Mover mania
Mover mania won't sweep the rest of the nation until 2007, when the TV show is expected to premiere. Until then, they'll continue to hone an act already adept at winning over young audiences.
Soon after they hit the stage at the Pontchartrain Center -- at the decidedly un-rock 'n' roll hour of 10 a.m. -- hundreds of tiny bodies pogoed up and down like popcorn.
The four Movers leaped off the stage and raced through the aisles. Early in their history, they performed mostly to prerecorded tapes. Now, they take turns on live guitar, bass and drums. A year ago, they recruited Kyle Melancon to play additional drums onstage. So Melancon, who logged 10 years with punkabilly trio Dash Rip Rock, has effectively reversed his work schedule.
"Days gone by, I'd be getting home around now," Melancon said before the 10 a.m. curtain call. "Now I'm just hitting the stage."
For big shows, the Movers add a four-piece horn section borrowed from popular party band the Bucktown Allstars. Today at Jazzfest, Galactic guitarist Jeff Raines and jam-band keyboardist Robert Walter are also scheduled to sit in.
At the Pontchartrain Center, the Movers sang about the joys of leftovers, healthy snacks and cleaning your room. They formed a conga line to the Latin-flavored chorus of "take, take, take your medicine when you are sick"; moms and teachers join in.
During "The Wah-Wah Song," Smith, a firefighter by day, dashed to the back seats to find his firehouse captain, who was there with his children. Smith designated the captain a reluctant participant in the "wah wah wah" chorus -- and gave him a souvenir Smitty cowboy hat.
Then the Movers engaged all 2,400 youngsters in a sing-song chant: "Reach high! Think big! Work hard! Have fun!"
It is the Mover motto.
Idea takes hold
The seeds of the Imagination Movers were sown in 2003 at a Lawrence Welk-themed backyard birthday party for Durbin's son. A computer instructor at Isidore Newman School, Durbin had also spent several years in local rock band Clones At Play and appeared in television commercials.
At the party, he and some Lakeview buddies hatched the idea of a children's show that merged "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" with uptempo, contemporary music like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "It was one of those ideas that, instead of falling by the wayside, got momentum," Collins said.
Collins worked in online journalism, Poche as an architect, Smith as a firefighter, but all had dabbled in music. At brainstorming sessions, they developed a concept and look. They paid dues: clearing dog droppings from an Old Metairie park before a performance. Rocking out for eight children at a living room birthday party. Surviving an assault at New Orleans Country Club by youngsters intent on re-enacting "Lord of the Flies." They opened for the puppet Elmo at the Louisiana Children's Museum.
They constantly re-evaluated and tweaked their show to best capture short attention spans.
"The whole idea is to keep the kids into the show and moving," Smith said, "We don't want them sitting there looking for bugs or something. We want them having fun.
"It took us a long time to get the show to where it is now. As much as we may want to play other songs, we wind up going back to a core group that has the kids bouncing around. The trick is, you've got 45 or 50 minutes, and then the littlest ones will lose interest. If we add something, we've got to take something out."
And never condescend to the audience.
"You can't play down to the kids," Smith said. "You can't play 'Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.' The kids want to bounce around and have fun. Children listen to the same things their parents do."
Tested by Katrina
That the Movers connect with their audience so effectively impressed Disney's Kanter.
"It's not about, 'Gee, we didn't make it as grown-up rock 'n' rollers, so we'll take a step down and play to kids,' " Kanter said. "They're really making music for kids. And they have a wonderful, empowering message that comes across in their songs and their characters."
That message has struck a chord. In 2004, Collins quit his day job to nurture the growing Mover movement. They have sold about 30,000 copies of their first two CDs and a DVD, as well as thousands of T-shirts. They've earned awards from national parenting organizations. XM Satellite Radio broadcasts the Movers. The same high-powered Los Angeles firm that handles actor Martin Lawrence and rockers Limp Bizkit now manages the Movers.
Like most New Orleans musicians, the Movers did not escape Hurricane Katrina unscathed. Three of the four lost their homes in Lakeview. Their Bienville Street office also flooded, destroying thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, instruments and stage props. Smith rode out the storm and joined the search-and-rescue operation.
Just before Katrina, the Movers had finished recording their third album at Collins' home studio. Collins evacuated with the iMac computer containing the music files strapped into a car seat next to his children.
Weeks later, they added another song, "We Got Each Other (The Evacuation Song)," inspired by the trauma. The CD's title, "Eight Feet," refers not only to the level of water in Lakeview, but the musicians' collective eight feet that will carry them forward.
'Done their homework'
Their success in the local market did not go unnoticed. Several companies engaged in a bidding war over the Movers.
Finally, on April 7, they signed with Disney. Dino Gankendorff, the local attorney who negotiated for the Movers, said the deal "represents probably one of the more significant entertainment deals in this region in some time.
"And it's unique in that you're dealing with an entity that owns TV networks and radio stations," Gankendorff said, referring to Disney. "It's hard to get your material on radio and TV. When you own it, it becomes easier."
As part of the deal, Walt Disney Records bought the Movers' catalog of three albums. The company will likely cull the best material for a single CD, to be promoted nationally.
The hope is that the record will provide momentum -- and income -- while the Movers spend months developing their TV show. They met with a Disney executive Thursday, working on ideas.
"They've done their homework," Kanter said. "They know what they want their show to be about, and that's a tremendous help as we try to bring that to life. We're not planning to reinvent them. Each one has a distinct personality. They're very smart guys who understand who they are and what they're good at.
"TV is a funny business, and audiences are hard to predict. But we wanted to get in business with them to see if we could . . . bring the Imagination Movers to kids all over the place."
If they succeed, the Movers hope to stay true to their original mission.
"We've always thought of kids as creators instead of consumers," Durbin said. "If this works out and it becomes successful, consumerism takes over. But whatever we create, we hope it's meaningful.
"Moving the imagination and encouraging creativity in children -- we want to uphold that, whatever we become."
Keith Spera can be reached at kspera@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3470.
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