Q&A with Banks and Wag - composers behind The ZingZillas - ANSWERS BACK

[RachelMumsnet]

We're joined this week by Banks & Wag, the award winning composers behind the CBeebies show 'The ZingZillas'.

Since playing together in bands in the Nineties, Chris Banks and Wag Marshall-Page have forged a varied career which has involved table tennis with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, karaoke with Busted, and jams with both Kevin Costner and Nelson Mandela. They've written music for shows including The X Factor, Walk On The Wild Side and ZingZillas, where they are familiar to all parents for introducing children to a variety of musical genres - from Bhangra to Bluegrass.

With the ZingZillas band set to make their festival debut at Glastonbury next weekend, followed by a number of other gigs throughout the summer, they are happy to answer questions on their life as 'the men behind the monkeys' as well as the importance of music in the development of pre-schoolers and how you can get your children interested and involved in music.

Send in a question to Banks and Wag before the end of the day on Tuesday 21st June and we'll be linking to their answers from this thread later the following week.

DS (2.1yo) and I both live Zingzillas :)
We have the CD for the car and he insists on listening to "oom pah pah" on repeat. He also has a toy Zac that he likes to try and feed bananas.

I second the nomination for Eurovision next year!

My question is around your method of composing. Does one of you do music and the other lyrics? Where do you start? How long does it take for a song on average?

Thank you :)

I'm back and I DO have a question. Any chance of ringing up your old pals Sophie Ellis Bextor and Busted and getting them to appear on the show?

My DD, 3, adores Zingzillas! She knows every song on the CD too (as do Dh and myself!!) I am impressed by how much musical knowledge she has picked up too. She was able to explain and demonstrate scatting for example whereas the much older children i have just started teaching music to had no idea!! (they know now!)

How do you decide who to have on as guests? Are there going to be more new episodes?

My ds is on the autism spectrum and Zingzillas has introduced him to a whole new world. I was never able to get him interested in music before which was a shame as his dad is a musician, but due to the international nature of the music covered we were able to link it to his obsession with flags and he now has a new obsession with music and musical instruments! (One we are only too happy to encourage...) My dd who is 3 loves to sing and dance along too.

I was wondering how you decide what music to write - do you find something that excites you and work on that or do you get told to cover x, y, z?

Also, do you know how they do the monkeys? Does one person play each character or is there a team of people who do different bits, singing and dancing and so on? I heard Panzee is based on Pink, are any of the others based on famous people? We think Zak looks a bit like Damon Albarn...

I think the music is genuinely good and the characters are strong and easy for the children to relate to...though I would like to see Drum having more musical input and behaving a bit more intelligently - the implication seems to be that she just comes up with all this rhythm intuitively, whereas you see Tang really practising, thinking, consulting, revising and so on. Is that just me?

Sorry for all the questions, we have seen the episodes over and over so I have plenty of time to wonder!

I've noticed that Drum barely speaks. The Wikipedia entry for the Zingzillas says that Drum is 'young at heart'. Is that a euphemism for having learning difficulties, is she actually supposed to be a lot younger than the others or is it just the way female characters are often infantilised?

Like all the different instruments though.

Is there a difference between composing music for adults, and composing music for children?

tethersend - Panzee is Sarah Jane Honeywell. Of Tikkabilla and Mighty Mites. The voice is a dead give away!

We love it! My favourite epsidode is Operatic Todd. My question is - is this from a "real" opera? In which case what is it and what is the piece called? (A bit by my question!)

Thanks for all your questions which we're sending over to Banks and Wag this morning. We'll be linking to their answers from this thread next week.

I love Zing Zillas and my daughter who already loves music loves them too. I would like to start seeing more children playing the instruments to show children of the same age that it's possible to learn and play the instruments just as well.

Is it too late to ask a question? There were 52 shows to date so 52 Big Zings (minus a few 'compilation' episodes). The CD only has 26 songs on it, so half the songs haven't been released yet. My question is - when are the rest of the songs going to be released on the second Zingzillas album?
(I suspect the answer is, in the run up to Christmas, as one of the episodes was a Xmas one with a Xmas Big Zing - which may be released as a single from the second album?)

The answers to your questions are now back and you can read the full transcribed Q&A here

Banks and Wag Q&A