Born from the imagination of singer-songwriter Owen Denvir comes Carubians, a brand new children’s music puppet show.
“Carubians” are musical puppets from the fantastical island of Carubia: a place where everything you touch turns to music.
Denvir is joined on vocals by Sasha Samara while the illustrations on the videos come from Thomas Bannon.
There is even a special guest appearance from comedian Matt Lucas.
Following the release of the album, we asked Owen to take us through each of the tracks and share some insights.
Land Ahoy!
How do you transition from releasing sad songs about heartbreak into songs about mashed potato and brushing your teeth? In the past few years my life has been primarily motivated by the joy from the little people in my life. I’m all for handbrake turns into different musical directions just to see what I’ll find. There’s a liberating persona you can adopt when trying to entertain a 3 year old, primarily based on not overthinking. This is an example of one man’s spiralling into “not thinking, just doing”.
So welcome to Carubia: the island where everything you touch turns to music. If an object exists, there should be a song about it. The first couple of tracks ease in with a bit of world building, with some wonderful narration work from Hollywood superstar Matt Lucas. We became social media pals over lockdown after he shared a cover I made of his “Thank You Baked Potato” song, and he very kindly agreed to chip in his talents to kick off the album!
As a general rule of thumb, any instrumental intro and interlude in this album “goes up”: it starts in one key and finishes in a higher one. Ramp up that excitement and go mad directions to keep my old composition teacher on his toes.
Welcome to Carubia
Bo Burnham’s “Inside” was a big inspiration for the shaping of these tracks into an album. I wanted to kick off with a genre-hopping “I want” song that would cover what our business is about here and properly signpost our voyage into silliness. This is the first track that the fantastic Sasha Samara appears on, guest-starring as “Tara”, best friend to fellow main protagonist “Big O”. These two best pals will be your tour guides through different genres and topics covering hard-hitting topics prevalent in the lives of 3 year olds.
Hangin’ out
I made this track with a Vampire Weekend vibe in mind – a little bit manic and sporadic but playful and optimistically upbeat. I threw every instrument I had at it and messed around with it to see what would stick. This was one of the first tracks and everyone has agreed, it certainly is on the album.
Brushing My Teeth
Dental health is very important and I am not afraid to hammer home that message. This track grew arms and legs while I was recording it. Originally it was about 45 seconds long, but I kept getting carried away in vocal takes and wound up writing the bridge spontaneously while seriously vibing about teeth. By the time I’d wrapped it all up it’d thankfully hit the 2 minute mark – the absolute gold standard for tooth brushing time.
Good Day
I wrote this on my drive to Sound Of The Shore festival, where I was playing my first original slot in a while after a short break. It’s a combination of vocal warm ups and excited anticipation of playing in front of a crowd again. Far more optimistic than any of my “Owen Denvir, depressed singer songwriter extraordinaire” material, it wound up as a Carubians track.
World’s Biggest Sausage
The World’s Biggest Sausage is adapted from a story I made up one day for my niece, who then subsequently requested it be retold 439857 times over the following 2 years. Name a more famous sausage. I’ll wait.
Bros Before Potatoes / Mashed Potato!
A silly little “Mario Kart race is about to begin” intro into a primarily acapella track about mushy spuds.”Chili Con Carne” by The Real Group was a big inspo here – which pops into my brain any time I’m cooking.
Laugh in the Bath
A do-wop song that was, again, around 45 seconds long originally, until I got carried away recording takes. This was one of a few tracks where I left the mic running on repeat for Sasha, who dropped some spontaneous sick vocal improvs.
This Looks Like a Job for… / Kapow! the Cow
The old bait-and-switch here, where I wanted the instrumental intro to drum up some Avengers-style anticipation. Accidentally, the first version of string parts I scored were the actual Avengers theme, so I had to rewrite and re-record. Woops.
The actual 60’s Batman style KAPOW track also featured a bit of plagiarism too originally, where I assumed that “Wipeout” by the Surfaris was a royalty-free guitar riff, synonymous with that era. Thankfully I realised and re-recorded that guitar solo before releasing the album. Also a special shoutout to Grease Lightning, which inspired the clapalong bridge breakdown.
Move Like a Movie
I wrote this song after waking up with it rolling around my brain at about 3 in the morning – probably as a result of overdosing on Chappel Roan. A late addition to the album and the only track featuring melodica, it’s the most straightforward actual 3 minute pop song on the album.
I See a Rainbow
…followed by one of the first tracks I wrote for the album. Rainbows are definitely in a 3 year old’s Q-zone, so it seemed an easy topic to visit for Carubians. Perhaps I got carried away by also mentioning “refraction” in there, but I find if you throw out terms to children, you never know what they’ll actually pick up. My nephew is 4 and knows far more dinosaurs than I ever knew. There’s also a deliberate attempt in this track to make the themes of a rainbow encompassing a warmth of acceptance, on behalf of our LGBTQ+ brother, sisters and themuns.
In Autumn
Gather together children, let’s learn stuff about Autumn. This one taught me that Autumn doesn’t actually finish until December, according to my research. Again, Carubians are skirting on the fringes of controversy, but we say what we want, so get used to it, society.
I Like to Play (In a Delicate Way)
An early track, written after considering the scale of chaos in my nephews and nieces. I don’t think I know any kid that doesn’t require at least one period throughout the day of going full-blown chaos goblin for a while, but this was a classroom-style way of trying to explain that not all friends you make will want to skirt on the limits of danger through most of their waking hours.
Soup or Superpowers
A little pun popped into my head about soup, and after some indeterminable period of daydreaming, this song came out the other side.
We Don’t Put People Down (We Pick Them Up)
Let’s go country, kids – grab your banjo and join in. Let’s learn about ethics and helping your fellow man – but don’t you dare stop in the middle of a hoedown.
I Vow to Thee Carubia
A little interlude drumming up a bit of hype before the national anthem mic drop. The narration is a parody of Churchill’s “we shall fight them on the beaches” speech, flipped into all levels of silliness. Nationalism and patriotism can be used as a vehicle for bigotry and division, so I wanted Carubia to have its core ethos focused on fun and community.
The National Anthem of Carubia
Shoutout to my boy Handel – I’ve ripped off your banger Zadok the Priest, just as the Champions League did before me.
I Love Soccerball
The fact that the immediate next track is about football is entirely coincidental and should not in any way motivate a plagiarism lawsuit.
We Don’t Kick
This was an early track – written in a panic brushing my teeth whilst late for work, for some reason. It didn’t help the situation, but the idea of “settling it like gentlemen” transitioning into politely voicing your concerns with someone using old Victorian english really tickled me.
Space Is the Best Place
Another early track that genuinely has a special place in my heart. What started out as a parody of Star Trek and Bowie warped into an analogy based on Pluto losing its planet status, and how its journey into obscurity makes it the most special celestial entity of all.
Gloria in Carubia Bro
Sticking with the theme of “let’s cover as many genres throughout history as possible” – this is a parody of “Gloria In Excelsis Deo” – 2nd century monk plainchant that we used to do in choir at school for various masses we had to perform at. This is very niche so if you “got” this one then congratulations – we had the same childhood.
We’re All Different
We’re all different, so we should be fighting with each other at all times, at any cost, until humanity is one day extinguished, with one person winning all of the world, which they will inhabit on their own, forever more.
Goodbye
We’ve made it folks – the end of the road. Chill yourself to sleep with a sentimental canon sung by Sasha and Owen, with a few recaps of various stops we made along the way. Please stow your tray tables, lift your blinds and buckle your seatbelts for landing. Thank you for visiting Carubia, and please visit again soon.
