ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Record producers made a Malibu, Calif., lake their studio to prove the existence of a ``frog renaissance.''
Tired of raunch 'n' roll, angry rap and music of serious striving, attitude and angst?
Some hoppy-go-lucky frogs are here to take you away from all that as they ribbit along with easy-listening rock, country, Latin and surfing songs on a new CD. They're delivering novelty, fun and danceable beats, without a hint of a message, not a word about ecology.
While the people who put ``The Frogs of Summer'' together would like it to sell a million copies, they don't expect their amphibians to jump ahead of hip-hop with teen listeners.
Real frogs are heard here, insists Guy Maeda, who had the idea. He and his co-producer, Robert Irving, took recording equipment to a lake in Malibu, Calif., and waited for the frogs to tune up.
``If you're standing 20 feet away from a bunch of frogs, their ribbiting noise is really loud,'' Maeda says.
Some of the taping was done in-house. Maeda owns two female frogs, bought from a pet store - lead croaker Froggus ``Bud'' Lewis, an African pixie bullfrog who weighs about 7 pounds, and a tomato frog who weighs less than a pound and has a deep voice. She was named Whizzer by Maeda's son Adam, because of what she does in his hand when he picks her up.
Adam was Whizzer's handler in the studio, rubbing her back to inspire her vocalizing.
Maeda also got some frog tapes from friends who specialize in recording nature sounds in the wild.
Often the froggy chorus is used as back-up to human voices. Sometimes the frogs carry the tune, such as in their version of ``In the Good Old Summertime.''
Maeda admits that he and Irving didn't hang around the Malibu lake until they heard frogs really croaking a melody.
``We put the records of the frogs into a computer, then get it translated to a keyboard, over a certain amount of notes,'' Maeda explains. ``You can play that note on the computer and it registers to the frogs.
``You can control timing and pitch pretty well. Certain sounds are better for certain notes, depending on the length of the ribbit and the other weird sounds frogs make. It all depends on the length of that sound as to where we can fit it in.''
Radio stations have been sent a single from the CD, the Village Frogs covering a 1978 Village People disco hit, ``Y.M.C.A.'' Another cut, ``Do the Froggus Lewis,'' which has been developed as a dance by Incahoots, the country line-dance troupe, was sent to country line-dance clubs.
Other songs on the CD include ``She Ain't Your Ordinary Frog,'' by Amphibiama. When Alabama had its hit, they sang it ``She Ain't Your Ordinary Girl.''
Elvis Frogsley, who has been sighted at different ponds, sings ``Don't Be Cruel.'' ``One little, two little, Macarena'' is attributed to Los Leap Froggos.
The Beach Phibs ride ``Surfin' U.S.A.''; Froggus Lewis and Gloria Esterfrog do ``The Frogs of Summer,'' for which a conga-line dance is being developed, and Frog Spring-steen and 225 Hoppers swing into ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game.''
Maeda and Irving composed ``Do the Froggus Lewis'' and ``The Frogs of Summer'' for their amphibian friends.
Usually, Maeda records solo piano albums of romantic music with names such as ``Dining by Pianolight'' for Macola Records Group. Last fall, when he was thinking what to record next, somebody brought in a stuffed frog which croaked ``Jingle Bells'' when you pressed its foot, suggesting that for the next album.
Maeda laughed, decided it wasn't a bad idea, and set out for the lake with recording equipment. ``A Froggy Christmas'' hit stores late but sold well. So, Maeda thought, there should be a follow-up.
``I wanted to do something fun. Most of the music out there now is not really fun,'' he says.
``We made arrangements of the music, got a synthesizer, guitar player, percussionist and real singers. I play piano on it and my boys, Adam, who is 8, and Andrew, who's 11, sing on it.''
Maeda doesn't expect the human performers whose names are similar to some of the frogs credited on the CD to be upset. He says Robert Goulet was tickled when Ribbit Goulet was billed on ``A Froggy Christmas.''
Donald MacMillan, president of Macola, released a statement: ``These frogs want everyone to know that they aren't just for dissecting tables or fancy French cuisine anymore. They can do a wide range of things.
``What we're seeing here is a frog renaissance.''
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Record producers Guy Maeda (left) andby CNBRobert Irving pose with Froggus ``Bud'' Lewis, the lead croaker on
the new CD ``The Frogs of Summer.'' Froggus is an African Pixey
bullfrog who weighs about seven pounds. The CD contains such songs
as ``She Ain't Your Ordinary Frog,'' ``Do the Froggus Lewis'' and
``Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'' color.