The Parenting Panel with WaxFeet
WaxFeet grew up in Minneapolis and was an active member of the explosive Minneapolis music scene. Now living in Santa Cruz, after stop-overs in NYC and LA, he formed WaxFeet, the groundbreaking downtempo/chill/lo-fi outfit. WF has released two albums and an EP in the last two years, and just released a new video this September.
Take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25l3u70QS4
Without further ado, let’s get to the Parenting Panel:
How many children do you have? And what are their names and ages?
Son John and daughter Thea are now in their late 20’s. Thea expresses her creativity as a chef and has built a wonderful business adventure based on feeding families in Silicon Valley and Sana Cruz. Son John is a serious guitar player and tree farmer.
In what ways has parenthood helped your creativity, if any?
Many times over the years I have written music and prose that was inspired by things that my children have said or done, and driven by a need to send messages to them. There is power in writing for a real person that you love dearly. Some of my best songs have come out of this rooted inspiration. The kids are always sending me cool new music to listen to, they are my musical scouts. Pretty funny really as they grew up devouring my music library and established their musical taste in the process. We have a lot of cross-over favorites that we share.
What has parenthood taught you about yourself, your music, or your creative process?
I am still slowly learning that the whole world does not revolve around me and that the members of my family need me to be quiet and give them lots of room to say what they have to say and to be heard.
Has the pandemic taken away or added to your creative flow? Are you taking good care of yourself these days?
The pandemic has been an amazingly good thing for my creative flow and our family life. My studio is on our property and insta-cart brings the groceries. I don’t get out much but I have written and released two new albums, a six song EP and two singles, and six videos since the covid bug started doing its dance. (visit: www.waxfeet.com) And, my son and daughter started spending a lot more time with us at home, and that gave us the time to be together and re-connect with them as adults. They both went away for college and developed themselves as individuals away from home. It has been a pleasure to just have lots of time to hang and get to know these maturing young adults. Turns out - I like them ;-). Thank you covid.
What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before you became a parent? Any advice for others?
Every kid is different, and they are not going to be a clone of you, so don‘t try to make them into something they are not wired to be. Love them and accept them as they find their own path.
Do your children inspire/inform your music?
My daughter is my best scout for new music to listen to. And she has introduced me to many talented musicians from her social adventures. It’s fun to hear my son’s songs developing as his guitar playing excels. He co-wrote a song for an album we released last year.
Have you ever written a song for or about your kids?
I wrote a song about the toddler age of my kids and it comes out in early november.
I also wrote about pregnancy with my first. I never released it out to the world but when the doctor told me that she could come any day I quickly gathered a group of musicians, learned it and filmed within like 2 days. It was thrown together but I wanted this song for her before she was born. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpQDIjph3I
Have you ever written a song for or about your kids?
I have written many songs inspired by and for my children. In fact WaxFeet’s new video/single “Everything is Everything” was written in part for my daughter and her friends.
You can see the video on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25l3u70QS4
The video tells the story of my daughter’s friend circle getting together at a Santa Cruz beach party in a post-covid world and features hugs and kisses and no masks. The art direction rocks. It’s a dream for a time that hopefully comes sometime soon.
Find Waxfeet via:
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