 Skip's Animal Company
Animal Music Helps Endangered Species
First Published: April 2004
Last Update: April 2004
Author: E.von Heitlinger
Making music with animals
“We intended to be an Internet radio station but we ended up creating music with animals,” say Skip Haynes and Dana Walden, co-creators of Skip’s Animal Company and PETCDS.com. Skip, a hit songwriter and associate art director for the GRAMMYS® and Dana, a hit songwriter and award-winning producer were
neighbours in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. They began with the idea of creating an Internet radio station to be used as a platform for local creative talent. Their first CD, Stories >From Laurel Canyon, had nothing to do with animals and was intended to be the premier show of their radio station (Laurel Canyon Radio) but a chance thought and the GRAMMYS® changed all that. One of Skip’s jobs as an associate art director was to photomontage individual photos of winners into photo spreads for the GRAMMY® Magazine ala 1940’s MGM group photos of movies stars. The
idea is born“After several years of doing this I couldn’t help thinking these photos would be really over the top if I replaced the rock n; roll stars with dogs—with sunglasses and hats.” said Skip, an avid animal lover all his life. He bought a digital camera and began taking pictures of all the dogs in their
neighbourhood including his and Dana’s for a CD cover photo. This turned into their first animal friendly CD, Ugly Dogs need More Love. Skip produced the art and Dana produced the music and they both wrote and performed the songs with a little help from their friends. They manufactured a small production run and sold them at the local Laurel Canyon Country Store. These did so well that it led to their creation of a second animal related CD, Cat-A-Tonic, the formation of their first record label, the Laurel Canyon Animal Co. and a website,
www.petcds.com —. Both dedicated to selling only animal related music and helping fund people and organizations that help save and rehabilitate animals. Working
with a ParrotTheir third CD, I’m A Green Chicken! represented a quantum leap in that they. actually signed a green, double-moonfaced Amazon parrot named Carla to a contract. “We thought it would be fun to find a parrot with a snappy saying, record the bird, create a song around the recording and then register our parrot “artiste” with ASCAP as a writer and performer.” They were successful in creating the song but ASCAP told them — after they’d stopped laughing, that they couldn’t sign animals (no social security #). The project, although unsuccessful with ASCAP, was picked up by the Los Angeles Times and went world wide in a matter of days. “This certainly was a humbling experience for me,” Skip said. “You haven’t lived until you’ve sung a duet in a live performance with a parrot who doesn’t think you sing very well in the back room of the American Legion Hall in Culver City.” Carla, Skip and Dana were featured in several television specials numerous radio programs and interviews. Working
with a GorillaAfter I’m A Green Chicken, Skip and Dana looked around for their next artist and signed Koko the lowland gorilla who understands English and communicates through a variant of American Sign Language. (They didn’t actually sign Koko of course. Her artist royalties go to the Gorilla Foundation.) It took six months and the help of almost thirty people to write and produce their fourth CD, Koko – Fine Animal Gorilla (Koko’s name for herself) with the guidance and help of Dr. Francine Patterson, the Gorilla Foundation of Redwood City, CA (www.koko.org
) and Koko herself. “We had to change lyrics at one point because Koko didn’t like the phrase “Do you think I’d lie?” in one of the songs lyrics and we had to remove it at her insistence,” said Skip. “Everyone’s a producer — even gorillas!” At this time Skip’s Animal Co. began the practice of providing CDs to animal rescue/educational web stores. (The Gorilla Foundation has made thousands of dollars with Koko – Fine Animal Gorilla to date). Animal rescue/rehab/educational web stores selling any of Skip’s Animal Co. CDs can earn $7.50 plus per CD sold on their sites and are a very useful low maintenance tool in helping provide an alternate income source exclusive of donations. “Fine Animal Gorilla was an eye-opener for us. Working with Koko had exposed us to the possibilities of interspecies communication through music. It was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind for real. We were communicating with another species using computers and music,” Skip said. “The obvious next step was finding a Dr. D
oolittle to help us create music with animals that didn’t communicate using English!” Songs
to make Dogs happySkip’s Animal Co. contacted Dr. Kim Ogden, an intuitive animal communicator from Chicago (www.kimogden.com ). Over a period of 9 months under her guidance Skip’s Animal Co. created Songs To Make Dogs Happy, the first ever canine approved musical CD for dogs—which was released this January. Canine focus groups selected from over two hundred dogs from all over the country were assembled and questioned by Dr. Kim. The resulting responses from the dogs were used to create and adjust the music and lyrics resulting in a CD that dogs enjoy listening to. It was at this time the company was renamed Skip’s Animal Co. Dr. Kim was a milestone in that she was the first human being Skip’s Animal Co. had ever signed. Singing
with DolphinsSkip’s Animal Co. newest musical adventure to benefit animals, Music Of The Pink Dolphins involves mounting a musical/video/animal communications expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River in the rainforests of Peru to create a musical CD with Dr. Kim and a group of the unique pink river dolphins that live only there. Skip’s Animal Co. is working on a live camera online website to follow the entire process and create a unique worldwide interactive first time Internet musical event. They hope to show people how creating music with dolphins (or any other animals) with the help of an animal communicator is possible and at the same time publicize the need for help in protecting this very important part of the world — not mention the possibility of creating some amazing music and video opportunities. Skip’s Animal Co. is working under the guidance and with the help of Roxanne Kremer, founder and chairman of the International Society For The Preservation of the Tropical Rainforest and P.A
.R.D. (Preservation of the Amazon River Dolphin)
www.isptr-pard.org. “We discovered that we are better suited to using music to help people who help animals than helping animals directly ourselves (although we naturally take in any strays that we encounter)”, says Skip. “And,” adds Dana, “we have to say some times it’s much more fun co-creating music with animals than it is with some people we know.” Meanwhile both of them say they can’t wait to go to Peru because it’s the only place in the world where they can find a focus group of wild Dolphins to create music with. It’s another way to show people that all animals are sentient and should also open a portal to some amazing new experiences. While they are waiting to begin Music Of The Pink Dolphins Skip and Dana are finishing up a Christmas CD called Animal Holidays that will be released on June 14, 2004. For more information contact: Skip Haynes at
skip@petcds.com or visit www.petcds.com and hear sound samples.
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