Genres Children's music Labels Aurora Elephant Music Members Chris Ballew Children Augie Ballew | Years active 2009-Present Website Caspar Babypants Spouse Kate Endle | |
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Origin Seattle, Washington, USA Music groups The Presidents of the United States of America (Since 1993), Chris and Tad, The Giraffes Albums Freaked Out and Small, Pure Frosting, The Presidents of the Uni, Lump, The Days Are Filled with Years | ||
Caspar Babypants is the stage name of children's music artist Chris Ballew, who is also widely known as the singer of The Presidents of the United States of America.
Contents
History
Ballew's first brush with children's music came in 2002, when he recorded and donated an album of traditional children's songs to the nonprofit Program for Early Parent Support titled "PEPS Sing A Long!" Although that was a positive experience for him, he did not consider making music for families until he met his wife, collage artist Kate Endle. Her art inspired Ballew to consider making music that "sounded like her art looked" as he has said. Ballew began writing original songs and digging up nursery rhymes and folk songs in the public domain to interpret and make his own. The first album "HERE I AM!" was recorded during the summer of 2008 and released in February 2009.
Ballew began to perform solo as Caspar Babypants in the Seattle area in January 2009. Fred Northup, a Seattle-based comedy improvisor, heard the album and offered to play as his live percussionist. Northrup also suggested his frequent collaborator Ron Hippe as a keyboard player. "Frederick Babyshirt" and "Ronald Babyshoes" were the Caspar Babypants live band from May 2009 to April 2012. Both Northup and Hippe appear on some of his recordings but since April 2012 Caspar Babypants has exclusively performed solo. The reasons for the change were to include more improvisation in the show and to reduce the sound levels so that very young children and newborns could continue to attend without being over stimulated.
Ballew has made two albums of Beatles covers as Caspar Babypants. "BABY BEATLES!" came out in September 2013 and "BEATLES BABY! came out in September 2015.
Caspar Babypants is a true do it yourself (DIY) venture with Ballew running the Aurora Elephant Music record label, booking shows, running the studio, and producing, recording and mastering the albums himself. Distribution for the albums is handled by Burnside Distribution in Portland Oregon.
Caspar Babypants has released a total of 11 albums as of August 12th 2016. The 12th album WINTER PARTY! will be released on November 18th 2016.
Partial discography
Songs
LumpThe Presidents of the United States of America · 1995
PeachesThe Presidents of the United States of America · 1995
Stompy the BearHot Dog! · 2012