Kids Imagine Nation’s New Concept Album Brings the Drama of a Broadway Musical to Kindie Rockers

30 Sep Kids Imagine Nation’s New Concept Album Brings the Drama of a Broadway Musical to Kindie Rockers

I’ve spent too long away from the theater, because the moment I heard the first track off California kindie-rock band — and Disney favorite — Kids Imagine Nation’s new concept album, I felt compelled to listen to the entire thing. And I’m an adult mom — not a kid! 

Best Day Ever takes the listener on a journey through a series of songs about the adventures of three friends (played by KIN performers Rachel, Aaron and Beatz) pursuing their passions in science, theater, music. Is today really “the greatest day”? What are the trio going to do outside? What will they do when they take a wrong turn (and need to break out the compass)? You’ll have to listen to find out.

Fortunately all questions and more are answered in KIN’s Best Day Ever (available on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon), a super-fun album made for family road trips. And if you get a chance to catch them live, do it!

[SEE RELATED: Kids Imagine Nation Swaps High-Energy Live Shows for a Virtual Music Program That’s Fun, Engaging and Whimsical]

We recently caught up with KIN founding member Aaron Bertram to find out more. 

Rockmommy: It’s been a busy year. Can you tell us how KIN came up with the idea for a concept album, a musical of sorts, that takes the listener through the adventures of the three central KIN characters as students? 

Aaron Bertram: This year HAS been busy! We have already performed over 600 shows at Legoland California just in 2021!  When we were ready to put this album together, we wanted to do something different than our previous musical endeavors. Over the years, Kids Imagine Nation continues to evolve, and we wanted an album that is the representation of that evolution with music, interactive elements, and most important, storytelling. What better way to show it than with a musical radio play!? We started with the songs, then wrote a brand new adventure around them, bringing in characters from our web series, and having prominent voice over artists playing some new characters!

Rockmommy: Have you performed this album? What were performances like over the summer of 2021? 

Aaron Bertram: We haven’t performed this album live yet, although we definitely plan to! We have performed some of these songs here and there in other shows; however, we plan to perform them all together, along with the storyline from this album. We can’t wait to bring this entire musical to a live audience one day.  

Performing live again after a year was one of those things… for us and for the audience, where you weren’t quite sure how to navigate everything at first. We were masked, and that was an adjustment initially, but as soon as we got the hang of it, it was super easy!   And it was a freeing moment, because on stage is where we thrive! We did 4-5 shows a day at Legoland. We’ve basically performed 7 days a week for the past 6 months, after not performing an in-person show for almost exactly one year! Talk about going from 0-60!
We wrote a brand new summer show just for Legoland that took advantage of their big stage and huge video screen above us. That included 3 brand new songs (“Summer Of Fun,” “Future Dinosaur,” & “Tyrannosaurus Rocks,” some of our new favorites!)

Rockmommy: You do so many things, from virtual learning performances to live shows. How do you continue to generate content that resonates with young listeners that feels fresh and relevant? 

Aaron Bertram: Thank you so much for your kind words. We are very passionate, ourselves, about the idea that we, as human beings never stop learning and exploring. We love to travel and to explore the arts in all of its many forms. We personally thrive off change and creation… so we feel like: finding new outlets for our love for music and theatre and dance and visual arts and video production keeps our own lives fresh and interesting… as well as provides our friends who come to our shows and consume our content with something new that we hope they can resonate with, or just have fun with.  

Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the founder and editor of Rockmommy.