[DRUMS PLAYING]
Take note.
[RUDIMENTARY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
You are listening to the Music is My Life podcast from Berklee Online.
I'm your host, Pat Healy.
And a few months ago, I spoke with Leo Flynn, a Berklee grad and the brand
manager for Vitamin String Quartet, a group known
for classical interpretations of popular music and part of the CMH Label Group.
Now ordinarily, I would have no interest in featuring the same company twice,
but the chance to interview the vice president and creative director
of the CMH Label Group arose.
Now, you're thinking, big deal.
Who is the vice president and creative director anyway?
Well, you want to know who it is?
It's none other than Lisa Roth, who is also the younger sister of Van Halen
singer David Lee Roth.
So I said to myself, well, I'll bet she has
had some pretty interesting musical life with that guy growing up
down the hall from her.
And as you'll hear, that life took a lot of twists and turns,
not unlike a ballerina.
And music ended up being a big part of it in a few unexpected ways.
But what makes Lisa Roth so special on our podcast
is that she's not a conventional musician by any means.
But that doesn't mean you can't lead a musical life,
as we learned a little bit in the Leo Flynn podcast, am I right?
So Lisa Roth is also one of the creators of the Rockabye Baby
series, which features lullaby renditions of popular music.
She serves as a brand manager and executive producer of Rockabye Baby.
And on August 18, CMH Label Group releases the Rockabye Baby,
Justin Timberlake edition.
And sometime in the autumn, the Bruno Mars Rockabye Baby.
So let's hear what it was like growing up in the rock house.
And as you'll learn, it ain't quite the Brady Bunch.
I grew up in a house with lots of music.
My parents played music all the time--
a lot of musical theater.
My brother was blaring music from behind his closed door as far back
as I can remember.
So I remember hearing everything from Petula Clark to the Beatles
to Bob Dylan to Led Zeppelin.
But the one song that knocked me out was Smokey Robinson, Tears of a Clown,
which I think I heard at a friend's house on the album Make it Happen.
I hope that's right.
And then I think a couple years later the single came out.
And I took every penny that I saved from my allowance,
and I went to Canterbury records in Pasadena, California.
And I bought that single.
And I dance "The Pony" to that single for the next year
and wore that baby out.
And to this day, it's one of my favorite songs.
[CHUCKLES]
What age are we talking here?
Oh gosh.
You know, I don't remember the years, but I
think I was probably 10 years old, around there.
Yeah.
And what is the age difference between you and your brother?
Three years.
Three years.
He's three years your senior?
Yes.
Need you ask?
[LAUGHS]
All right.
Just clarifying.
[CONTINUES LAUGHING] Yes!
Well, we're talking via phone, so I'm not making any judgments.
And you sound younger.
You sound younger.
[CHUCKLES]
I am.
[LAUGHS]
That was all that was in your family, you and your brother?
Or were there any other siblings?
I have a younger sister who is 8 years younger than myself,
11 years younger than my brother.
And what was the musical exchange in your family?
As far as I know, you said your parents were
playing stuff, and your brother behind his closed door.
But was it a fairly open family, and your brother saying, hey,
Lisa, check this out, or your parents saying the same thing?
I don't remember my brother ever saying to me, check this out, as a child,
being the younger sibling.
My parents kept their music library open to us.
And so I had a huge selection of albums to put on the Marantz turntable
and listen to-- again, everything from musical theater to Up on the Roof.
So they were very open.
And we shared music that way.
I honestly don't remember anybody saying, check this out.
But it was in the air.
And we could utilize the stereo and play the music whenever we wanted.
And then we started collecting our own music, of course, as we got older.
And was anybody a trained musician at all?
My mother was a violinist.
She came from a number of classically trained musicians in her family.
I played trumpet.
My brother played guitar, saxophone--
I'm trying to think what else he was really good at at that time.
So we all had music lessons at some point.
Right.
Was there any sort of family, Friday night jamboree or anything?
Not even.
[LAUGHS]
Yeah.
No, that didn't happen.
It was a pretty busy family.
My father was a very busy surgeon at that time,
so he was often gone doing emergency surgery.
The three kids were into different things.
It was pretty busy that way.
Right.
Yeah, I remember when I saw Van Halen live and your brother was talking
about living in Boston for a spell.
And so when did that move come?
Well, my brother and I were born in Indiana.
My father was in medical school.
And then we moved to the East Coast while he
did his residency and fellowship.
So we lived several places in Massachusetts--
Brookline, Swampscott.
We moved from Massachusetts to California I believe in '63, '64
and basically have been here ever since.
So I'm a California girl by now.
It's interesting to talk to you through the lens of what
I know from listening to Van Halen for all of my years and, you know,
associating them with California so much,
and picturing the Ross household as you described it.
And it all does seem to fit together.
I would love to be able to see how you picture the Roth household.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
I don't think you can even conceive of the Roth household.
I guess I picture like a freewheeling Brady Bunch kind of thing.
A freewheeling-- hm, interesting.
I don't know.
Shag carpets everywhere and--
No.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Hardwood floors.
[LAUGHS]
Yeah, that's why I was asking about the jamboree
because I guess I just imagine--
well, you know, your knowledge of music is so expansive,
judging from all the CMH releases you supervised.
And your brother's output is so expansive, judging from the hard rock
to the whole like ragtime things every now and then.
Ah, the musical theater influence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So tell me a little bit about when your brother was starting the band.
And being three years his junior, was it something that you thought, hey,
maybe I'll try to get involved, or that's just Dave's thing, or?
I did not have a dream of being in the music industry.
The closest that I came to that was I wanted
to be a professional ballet dancer, which involves music.
However, I grew up in a house of music.
I love music.
But no, I never said, oh, I want to do that.
And my brother's music career evolved slowly over a very long period of time.
He was playing in groups when I was too young to care.
Really?
Interesting.
So yeah, Van Halen wasn't the first group he played with.
And yeah, so it just sort of evolved slowly.
So it wasn't like, oh, my brother decided he wanted to play music,
and bam!
He's famous.
Not at all.
Yeah, those guys pounded the pavement for years.
And they played every wet T-shirt contest,
every bar in every county in Southern California, come rain or come shine.
So they truly beat the pavement and earned their way.
And people have to remember this was long before social media and YouTube,
where the way you got discovered was showing up, and playing, and playing
again, and playing, and driving, and playing, and playing, and driving,
and accruing fans that way.
Right.
So I wonder though, you say you were too young to care.
Was it the sort of thing-- you know, my brother's nine years older than me,
and I had to sit in the car while my parents took him to sporting events--
was that the same setup with you, being lugged everywhere?
Or did he at least have people driving him?
No, you know what, I don't remember him involving my family at all.
It was an interest of his.
Him and his friends formed a group.
I think my father provided a rehearsal space for them
in his office, his very first band.
But aside from that he pretty much got places on his own,
made things happen on his own from the beginning.
It was his thing.
And I was doing my thing, you know.
I was a young girl who was not that interested in watching my brother
rehearse with his friends.
[LAUGHS]
Right.
At this time, where are you pursuing ballet?
Yeah.
I studied ballet for many, many years.
OK.
Yeah.
And what was your first introduction to that?
I don't know if any listeners will know what The Ed Sullivan Show was.
Oh, come on.
Of course they will.
I was very young.
The Ed Sullivan Show was on.
And there was a ballerina doing a piece from Swan Lake.
And I looked at that.
I think I was six years old, and I said to my mother, I want to do that.
And started taking ballet class, and continued
to study straight for the next 12, 15 years,
and then off and on different kinds of dance, thereafter.
Oh, wow.
So were you part of a company?
Well, a nonprofessional company at first, here in Pasadena.
And in the summers I would travel to Chicago
and live with family there during the summer fairly regularly.
And I studied with a small company there called the Ellis-DuBoulay Company.
OK.
It was a school, and they had a small company in the loop in Chicago.
And it became apparent fairly quickly that I was never
going to be a prima ballerina.
My point wasn't good enough.
My turnout wasn't good enough.
But I loved doing it.
I was a very shy person, very sensitive.
And it was a form of expression and release, probably.
And to this day I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
It's superhuman.
I don't think there's one thing in ballet
that the human body should be doing.
I think the training it takes to make it look the way it does
is huge and just beautiful.
That's great.
And so during this period, so you said for 12 years--
so that's to get you into your 20s.
And what are you doing for work around that time?
Well, I studied dance in college.
And I studied the life sciences-- physiology--
in college.
And let me backtrack.
OK.
My father, like I said, was a doctor.
He also happened to be an actor and a writer.
And he owned an equity waiver theater in Pasadena
where he produced, directed, and acted in plays.
So again, the family, it was a balance between the science, the practical,
and the creative.
My mother was an artist, and she was an aesthete.
It was how everything looked, what a color looked like.
And my father was the scientist/artist.
So it was a very balanced household that way.
However, my father would have loved for one of his kids to be a doctor.
And I came closest by studying the life sciences, which I loved,
but I did not want to go to medical school.
I, at the time, didn't have what it took to commit myself.
And my grandmother-- my father's mother--
came to this country in the early 1900s through Ellis Island as an immigrant
from eastern Europe.
She earned her high school degree here in the US and was extremely proud of it
and didn't go beyond that with her education,
but she was a very, very bright woman.
And I feel like if she had been born several generations later,
she too would have been a doctor of some sort.
And her interest was nutrition.
And she would have ongoing communications with many different food
companies back in the day.
She would write to Land O'Lakes and go, why
is your butter more yellow this year?
She would write to the cottage cheese company
and ask why they switched from glass to plastic.
She would write to Dr. Pepper because she
was very suspect of the ingredients.
[CHUCKLES] And they, in turn, would respond.
And there is a stack of letters that exist between my grandmother and food
companies.
And she was very interested in how nutrition affected the body.
And she was way ahead of the game when it came to preventive medicine,
in a way.
And my father, in turn, was that kind of doctor.
He was a doctor who believed in preventive medicine.
So I thought what she talked about and how she felt was of great interest
to me.
So that's what I pursued and eventually started my own practice
in Pasadena, and then later part-time in New York, a nutrition practice,
for almost 20 years.
So again, not in the music business.
[LAUGHS]
Right.
Right.
Well, to backtrack quickly--
the theater that your father ran-- were you and your brother and sister
in the plays?
My sister was.
My sister was a wonderful actress.
And I helped build the theater, helped to produce and that kind of thing.
My sister was the actress.
And my brother was always doing his own thing.
Always.
OK.
Tell me, do you have plans to publish that amazing stack
of letters between Dr. Pepper and your grandmother?
You know what, that is a freaking amazing idea.
It would be such a cool book.
[CHUCKLES]
I have an idea, actually, for a memoir that
would have some very practical information in it
as well as the memoir aspect.
And that would fit perfectly in there.
Yeah.
Thank you, sir.
Is that mine to do, or do I owe you something?
Just a thank you in the acknowledgements.
All right.
But tell me a little bit about, so was CMH your first musical venture?
Yeah.
I went from nutrition to working in television
as a segment producer for Discovery and National Geographic programming.
And I did that for about five years, which wore me down.
Yeah, I'll bet.
And then fell into a job here at CMH, my first music job, indeed.
Right.
So what was your role when you started, and how long between that time and you
saying, hey, I've got an idea for lullaby renditions of popular artists?
[CHUCKLES]
Well, my first role here, the owner of the company, David Haerle,
hired me to do nutrition lectures for his employees, which I thought
was really cool that the owner of a company would offer that.
So that was my introduction to this company.
And I did that--
a series of, I think, three talks.
And then the owner's business partner at that time
asked me if I wanted to work for the company.
And I had no job title.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I asked later why I was hired, and David, the owner,
said we just liked you, and we thought if we hired you
good things would come from it.
So, lucky me in that way.
And the idea for Rockabye Baby came in the first few weeks I was here.
I was shopping for a baby shower gift for a dear friend.
And I really didn't see anything that was adult-friendly that I
would be proud to give as a gift.
And I went back to the owner, and I said,
I think we have to get into the baby business.
And we started conversations here--
development conversations about a potential series.
And my coworker at the time, Valerie Aiello,
presented an album concept, "The Lullaby Renditions of Metallica."
The series was green-lighted.
And Valerie, along with our creative team,
became the primary artistic creator the first year and a half.
And I took over about 10 years ago.
And me and my team have continued to develop it into a full-fledged brand--
internationally-known brand.
And it's still going strong.
Yeah.
So when you did come up with that idea, was CMH already
doing the Pickin' On series or?
Oh, yes.
The Pickin' On series came long before I was there.
This company was started 45 years ago as a bluegrass classic country label.
It was started by David Haerle's father.
And when Martin Haerle passed away, David took over.
And one of the things they started doing were bluegrass covers of rock songs--
the Pickin' On series was born.
And it became very popular and is still going on today.
And then, the next big series was VSQ, the Vitamin String Quartet,
which you spoke to my coworker, Leo Flynn, about.
And then we have Rockabye Baby.
Those are our three main brands.
So are you walking around and checking in on studios every single day?
Or describe your day-to-day at CMH.
Oh, day-to-day.
Well, there's all kinds of things going on here.
I have my hands in various decisions related to all the brands.
So I participate in many aspects of each brand.
I work very closely with the owner of the company,
whether it's a business decision or a policy decision.
I am involved in hiring people.
I am involved in the creative aspects of the company.
I'm involved in big-picture talks about where
we're going, where we're going with each brand, where we're going as a company.
And then for Rockabye Baby, I sit with James Curtis, my coworker here.
And we listen to the Rockabye Baby albums that are in the pipeline.
And we make notes and send the notes back to each producer who's
working on each album.
We go back and forth like that.
And hopefully within three months--
three, four, five months-- we produce a new Rockabye Baby album.
That's a whole process.
So each day is varied and busy.
And it's a pretty cool job that way.
Yeah.
What kind of feedback have you gotten from the artists themselves?
I have only ever heard anything positive.
I know Steven Tyler wrote the liner notes for our Aerosmith.
Joe Elliott wrote for Def Leppard.
Elton John, I read several interviews with him
where he mentioned our series when his children were babies.
I heard Kirk Hammett mention our Metallica CD
when it first came out many years ago.
There's a few.
There's been many more, but mostly positive.
Yeah, it's interesting because you've been doing it long enough
that in the next few years-- probably maybe five or six years--
you'll start hearing from like actual musicians who used to listen
to it as babies themselves, right?
Oh, that would be fun.
Wouldn't it?
Oh god, you're right.
[LAUGHS] That's funny.
I always dreamed of doing a thing where I'd play it for my child, for my son,
and never play the original versions for him until he was like a teenager.
[CHUCKLES]
And see what happens.
[LAUGHS]
So he'd be like wait, I know this.
But I jumped the gun and got too excited about showing him the real versions.
Oh, as you should.
This is a temporary bridge between parent and child.
I always think of it as a bridge between the adult that existed pre-baby
to the adult that we become post-baby, and having something
that a new parent feels comfortable sharing with those innocent, gentle
little ears of an infant.
So, yeah.
But I also know adults who use it in yoga classes, so--
[LAUGHS]
OK.
I guess it has many uses.
Right.
What are some of your favorites over the years that you've been most proud of?
Wow.
I am proud of the ones that were the hardest
to translate, like something like Black Sabbath, which
is a lot of minor chords.
It's not easy to translate into a lullaby version using
Mellotrons, wood blocks, and chimes.
[CHUCKLES] But it has become a little bit of an art form
that our producers and myself and James Curtis have figured out.
And it's where the challenge comes in.
So that's fun.
And then some of my favorite artists--
I love Kanye.
I loved, of all artists, doing Eminem because he was kind of divisive.
And I love the irony of creating instrumental, lullaby versions
of his songs.
Doing my Van Halen--
I waited six years to do that album because I tend to not
like to mix business with family.
Right.
But we got a lot of requests, so I did it.
And that was a challenge because it was important to me
that we do the best we could and retain the original intention of those songs
somehow.
Yeah.
How did you actually present that to your brother?
You know, did he know it was in the works for a while?
Or was it just--
He actually said to me, you should do one.
OK.
And that was like, OK, I'll do it.
Right.
I didn't want to ask.
And I just wanted to steer clear until it was the right time.
And to me, that was the right time.
And I think he gets a kick out of the series.
And I think he respects how seriously I take it.
We are first and foremost a record label that's been around for 45 years
and that takes very seriously the production of all our brands.
And we treat the Rockabye Baby series like we would any artist.
And the production is of the utmost importance.
And that's what makes us stand out.
And we treat it like a full-fledged brand from the graphics
to the verbiage to the way we market it, all of it.
And again, relating back to musicians and my brother
and wanting this to be respected, as much as a lullaby series can,
I take great pains to make sure we do the best we can in all those areas.
It is to me an homage to artists, having witnessed what my brother went through
to get to where he is--
the hard work and the dedication and the seriousness behind it.
I would never want this to make fun of any of that.
I do the best I can to create an homage with regard and respect.
Yeah, it's interesting that you say that, the making fun thing, because it
never would have occurred to me, even.
Have there been any reactions of people thinking it's that?
No, I don't think so.
I think parents are thrilled when they hear about it.
Maybe someone who's not a parent or is older now
or whatever might go, well, who cares?
Which I get.
Who does care?
[BOTH LAUGH]
But if you do care, I want to produce the series for you that is
well-produced, and that has something for the adult,
that serves up a well-produced sense of irony--
not a "ha-ha," making fun, but that ironic factor,
which is what I think makes it click.
Lullaby renditions of Tool--
that to me is just awesome.
[LAUGHS]
Yeah.
Are there a bunch of nieces and nephews in the family or anybody
directly who's benefited from this for you guys?
In my immediate family, none.
Yeah.
Zero.
OK.
The Roth family, we don't do marriage or children, evidently.
OK.
[LAUGHS]
Another ding to your Brady Bunch household.
I know!
[LAUGHS]
But I have extended family and friends that have benefited.
And I have given it as a shower gift many, many, many times over.
So it has served its original purpose.
Tell me, do you have any anecdotes from any of the artists you paid tribute to
and their kids listening to it?
No.
You know what, I don't.
I wish I did.
I feel like there's no way North West has not listened to the Kanye versions.
Well, I remember when she--
I think it was for a baby shower--
a number of the Kanye CDs were ordered.
I don't know if they were used as gifts.
I don't know if the music was played.
But I am certain they heard it.
And I really only hope that it was enjoyed and entertaining.
So going forward, I guess, how do you brainstorm what artists to cover next?
I mean, at some point are you worried you'll
run out of the formative artists?
Or will there be lesser artists to turn to or?
I guess, tell me about entering the creative meetings.
Yeah.
First of all, I'm never worried about running out of artists
because new generations are always coming up.
What's old is new again.
What's new becomes old.
There will always be artists.
And the series started as a rock series.
And since then, it has started dipping into other genres
because I always say every genre has its rock stars.
And there are artists who I think of as rock stars
that I wanted to be in our lineup.
So you know, the field is broad, so the choices are many.
And the way we choose is, we keep our audience in mind--
the parent, music fan, someone who has a sense of humor.
And of course, the greater the irony an artist's name brings, the better.
It's more fun to say things like lullaby renditions of Metallica
rather than lullaby renditions of James Taylor, although I absolutely love
James Taylor and someday hope to do a James Taylor Rockabye Baby.
Right.
But we have polls in our social media.
We meet as a group and talk as music fans here.
We read what's going on out in the world.
We stay on top of things because it's our job as a record label.
And we combine all that data and come up with a release cycle--
a year in advance.
And sometimes that changes if something big comes up, but that's how we choose.
And sometimes we hit on something quite by accident.
Like we announced our Beyonce release I think
two days before she announced her pregnancy this year,
so that was like, wow.
That was great marketing-- unintended, totally.
But that's how we come up with our release schedule.
And I love that we're broadening our scope.
How many different producers are you working with generally?
We have three producers that we have been working with for years--
Stephen Boone, Andrew Bissell, and again, Leo Flynn, who you spoke to.
Right, right.
Yeah, and over the years, as a team, we've
sort of come up with and worked out our Rockabye Baby palette and sound.
But that evolves.
The way it started 11 years ago has evolved
and continues to evolve into the sound that it is today.
But we've worked, again, as a team on that.
And they are Rockabye Baby family, these producers.
And here you are.
And you were questioning whether or not you were appropriate subject
for a podcast called Music is My Life.
What do you think?
Is music your life?
Let me say this, music is in my life, big time.
I love music.
And I have it on pretty consistently.
And yeah, big part of my life.
And I feel like I'm lucky to have the job I have.
It's varied and challenging and interesting.
Great.
And so now, let me let me ask you a question.
Do you still think my family is the Brady Bunch?
No, not at all.
[LAUGHS]
[LAUGHS]
Well, what TV show is it more like?
The Munsters?
[LAUGHS]
No, I'm kidding.
I'm so kidding.
I don't think there is a TV show.
I think there is yet to be a TV show.
OK.
It was a family unto itself.
OK.
I mean, but it sounds like music was everywhere.
It was.
I mean, it seems like your brother was kind
of the typical teenager with the door shut
and maybe giving his little sister noogies every now and then.
Yeah, major.
Yeah.
[BOTH LAUGH]
Yes, well, thank you again for your time.
Well, thank you for your interest.
I love what you're doing.
[DRUMS PLAYING]
[RUDIMENTARY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
And we love what Lisa Roth is doing as well.
The Justin Timberlake Rockabye Baby is out on August 18,
and the Bruno Mars Rockabye Baby is out this autumn.
And I will talk to you next month.
Look for us at online.berklee.edu/takenote,
and be sure to visit the site on the 11th of September at 1:00 PM Eastern,
as I interview Josh Ritter in our Berklee Online Live Songwriting series.
Have a songwriting question you always want to ask Josh Ritter?
Now you can.
Just use the hashtag #berkleeonlinelive on any of the major social media
channels, and we'll try to find an answer for you.
Talk to you soon.
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