Looking for a great new kids’ music album that inspires kids to find creative solutions to challenges big and small? To grow their emotional skills and be allies to others? To sing joyously about a nonbinary best friend? Here’s the album for you, by a trans-led band.
Children’s music group Ants on a Log is releasing its third full-length music album, Make It Myself, on March 31, with singles dropping today and twice more until the launch. Ants Julie Be and Anya Rose (who are also a music therapist and an elementary school science teacher, respectively), combine catchy melodies and rhythms with lyrics that are fun, clever, and sometimes surprisingly powerful.
The titular “Make It Myself,” whose single dropped today, encourages kids to think about what they can create for themselves rather than buy premade. It’s a terrific song for inspiring young makers and creators, and features Laura Foxx on sax and clarinet.
Another song on the album is “They’re My Best Friend,” which they say is the first song on national radio with all nonbinary pronouns. It’s a sweet song in which a friend’s nonbinary identity is just a part of who they are, and seamlessly accepted. Longtime Mombian readers and Ants fans may recognize that song from the Trans and Nonbinary Kids Mix album that Julie, who is nonbinary themself, created during the pandemic, bringing together 21 songs from a variety of musicians and genres. (Here’s my interview with them about it.) “They’re My Best Friend,” the Ants’ contribution to that effort, makes a remixed reappearance here. (If you like it, you may also like another song of theirs about gender, “Some Girls Have Short Hair,” from their previous album, You Could Draw the Album Art.)
Kid makers and nonbinary kids—what does that remind me of? I’m thrilled that the Ants are teaming up with Jeanette Bradley, author of Something Great, a wonderful recent picture book starring a young, nonbinary maker, for an event on March 18th in Philadelphia. It’s a combined musical performance, eco-creative reuse workshop, and book reading, aimed at ages 5 to 12. Pre-registration is recommended, since space at the maker tables is limited. If you’re in the Philly area, I hope you’ll check it out!
The other songs on the upcoming Make It Myself album highlight a variety of other themes:
- “Waiting in Line” keeps the creativity going with ideas for how to keep oneself entertained when things are taking a while.
- “When We Get There” helps listeners deal with impatience.
- “What Book?” reminds us to ask girls not just about their looks, but also about the things they do with their brains, like read.
- “King Midas” reveals that this monarch’s true passion wasn’t gold, but cheese. Let’s not judge people just by the stories about them!
- “Had to Stand Up” gives us the perspective of a White child deciding to take action when a Black boy is being bullied on the playground. It comes with a free anti-racism discussion guide.
- “I’m Not a Christmas Celebrator” is a call to respect and include the many different holidays that people celebrate, even Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.
- “Biggest Bite” is a mealtime appreciation song!
- “The EPA Song” is perhaps the only song about the Environmental Protection Agency and why we need it, but heck, there was a whole musical about a secretary of the Treasury, so….
- “Cuddle” teaches children both to be loving and to ask for consent.
- “Mosquito Lullaby” puts listeners in the role of a parent and child mosquito, with amusing results.
- “Dog of My Dreams” combines dogs, bikes, and pickles. Who can argue with that?
- “Charlotte’s Boring Bedtime Song” offers a child’s advice on how we adults can wind things down in the evenings.
You can preorder the whole album at Amazon, or wait to stream it if streaming’s your thing (though you can already listen to the dropped single above). The album marks Julie’s debut as an audio producer, and they share co-production credit on the album with Grammy Award winner Dean Jones.
And although the album stars original Ants Julie and Anya, Julie will be touring the East Coast in celebration of the new album this spring with a touring band that includes Mélissa Smith and Miles Crabtree, both multi-media artists who have previously collaborated with the Ants. Mélissa is the bassist/singer from Bee Parks and the Hornets, an indie pop-rock band for family audiences. She is also a theater maker and author of Insects & Me A-Z. Miles is a music therapist whose drumming is featured on the new Ants album. You can listen to a story from his childhood on The Moth Radio Hour’s “How You See Me” episode (starting at about 17:45), where he talks about growing up as a trans boy and trying to get a boy’s part in his school play.
The Ants combine fun, silliness, and creativity with a sense of social justice and a steady awareness of queer inclusion. If you’re not a fan already, I hope you’ll check them out. Visit the Ants on a Log website for information about tour dates, locations, and more.
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