Todd & Tina
Children's Music Duo & Family Entertainers

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:03.47) Today's guests are Todd and Tina, a Minnesota family-friendly music duo making fun, goofy songs for the young and the young at heart.

Suraaj Parab (00:14.004) Welcome, Todd and Tina, to The Artist Conversation.

Todd 'n' Tina (00:17.528) Thanks so much for having us today. Yeah, hello to you.

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:20.972) Great to have you guys. We're going to have a fun conversation. I want to start with your origin story. You two have known each other for years and first worked together on a car wash jingle, if I'm not mistaken. But the band really took off during the pandemic. What was it about that specific moment that turned this from a fun idea into something you both wanted to build for real?

Todd 'n' Tina (00:52.764) Well, that car wash commercial only lasted about 30 seconds! Todd was writing commercial jingles, and we just seemed to click musically. We can both tolerate each other's personality defects, which definitely helps whenever you're working with somebody. Tina is a teacher, and Todd is a songwriter and musician. It just progressively evolved into a shared direction.

During the pandemic, not being at school, not being around people, and lacking a creative outlet was tough. Todd called Tina one day and said, "Hey, I wrote this really unusual song about a dermatologist who also wants to be an astronaut. Would you come over and sing it just for fun?" Tina said, "Sure, I'd love to do something creative right now." We recorded that one song, and then Todd said, "I have this other one about French toast, too." One song just turned into another, and all of a sudden, we had ten songs recorded. We wondered what we should do next. Todd’s big philosophy in life is to just throw things out into the universe and see what happens. So, we came up with our band name, which was easy because Todd is Todd’s real name and Tina's full name is Christina.

We put our music out there to see what would happen and started playing a couple of small shows around the Twin Cities—farmers markets, just playing for anybody who would listen. We actually got paid in fruit at one of our first farmer's market gigs! At first, it was funny because we were always in the children's music genre, but when you play a farmer's market, the regular crowd doesn't know what to expect. People would come up and say, "I thought you were some Dada-esque philosophical performance artists with a hidden intention." And we’re like, "No, we're just singing songs about dermatologist astronauts and panda bears." Neither of us expected to be where we are today with this project, but it's still going, and we're still having fun writing and performing.

Sandeep Kulkarni (03:29.518) That is amazing. It must be so fulfilling to keep doing what you love and see it accepted and respected, not just by the kids, but by their parents as well.

Todd 'n' Tina (04:01.356) Yeah, because kids aren't actively searching for us on their own; grownups are the ones bringing the music to them. A parent came up to us after a show and said they have an 11-year-old and a 7-year-old, and we are the only music both kids and the parents can agree on in the car. That is incredibly flattering when an older kid, a younger kid, and the mom can all enjoy it together. We are currently entering our fifth summer. We went from being ignored at farmers markets to being completely booked up for the summer by April.

Suraaj Parab (04:43.542) You actually lived the barter system! You sang for them, and they gave you fruit. That's fantastic. Todd, you came from a jingle-writing background, and Tina, you work in elementary music education. What did each of you immediately recognize in the other that made this creative partnership click?

Todd 'n' Tina (05:35.128) Todd is the core songwriter; he comes up with the raw song concepts and sends over the basic demos. In fact, right before we got on this call with you, we were working through a song idea that hit Todd in the middle of the night. Todd is the idea guy, and Tina is the editor. We mold the material to fit the children's music genre. Todd usually gives Tina the lyric sheet along with a red pen. He doesn't get too attached to the initial draft. Tina is a teacher, so she's used to grading!

Todd can be very wordy, but in children's music, you need a repetitive, accessible hook. That’s where Tina's elementary music background comes in; she knows exactly what kids will be able to remember, sing right away, and get stuck in their heads. Tina's students at school absolutely love Todd 'n' Tina. They get so excited when we have a new song or a video.

We knew we had something special during our very first summer of recording. One of the first tracks on our album was called "Silly String," about a kid spraying silly string at school, and the hook was incredibly catchy. Tina played it for her students during a freeze-dance game, and by the end of the song, every single kid was singing the hook. We realized this was going to be something unique that kids would genuinely enjoy. We complement each other well. Tina is a very positive, energetic, and highly likable person, which completely carries our live interactions. Kids always want to come up and hug her or invite her to see a salamander after the show, while Todd is just in the background tearing down the gear. It helps to have a genuinely likable front person for a kids' group.

Sandeep Kulkarni (08:04.814) Oh, absolutely. But she's also the singer, so normally the crowd gravitates toward the vocalist. I've been a singer all my life, so I know exactly how that goes! Your songs are wildly silly on the surface but incredibly clever and catchy underneath. How do you write material that makes kids laugh while providing enough wit and craft to keep the parents engaged?

Todd 'n' Tina (09:16.676) We don't dumb down our lyrics for children. You really captured the essence of what we try to achieve. We are writing funny, high-energy songs for kids, but we intentionally maintain an element of wit so that grownups listening closely can appreciate the cleverness. If a track is too simple and straightforward, we lose interest as creators; if it's too complicated, it won't connect with anyone. It's a fine line.

For example, our song "Hot Dog" is about a game of hide-and-seek, and we threw in a bridge about finding a guy inside a wall who had been there for a year. We thought that was hilarious. We don't explicitly say he died, but if parents are paying attention, they go, "Wait, what happened to that guy?" He was just the greatest hide-and-seek player ever! Having each other to bounce ideas off of prevents us from getting stuck in a vacuum, and that collaborative friction keeps the writing sharp.

Sandeep Kulkarni (10:35.79) What does the actual collaborative process look like? Todd, do you send over a file with a vocal line and melody, or do you sit down and jam together traditionally?

Todd 'n' Tina (11:05.794) Todd usually sends a quick, rough demo recorded on his phone. He's learned not to get too detailed with the initial instrumentation because the arrangement always switches anyway. He plays the basic song structure, hands over the lyric sheet, and Tina will evaluate it and say, "Okay, it has potential." Then we bounce it back and forth. The longer we've done this, the more back-and-forth there is because we both have to perform it and love it. Todd focuses on the overarching concept and catchiness, so he's happy to let Tina handle the specific structural tweaks.

From there, we look closely at chord structures. We try to find ways to alter standard progressions so they sound distinct from the basic three-chord patterns everyone plays. Children's music relies on simplicity, but the puzzle lies in making that three-chord foundation stand out from everything else out there. The challenge is making something familiar feel entirely new, catchy, and entertaining.

We are currently working on our fifth album. On our first record, we wrote 11 songs; the second had 12 or 13; the third had 15. Now, Todd has a running list of about 40 raw ideas that we are whittling down to a final 10 because we refuse to repeat ourselves. We have to keep ourselves creatively interested.

Sandeep Kulkarni (13:15.886) Do you typically record the songs first and then test them live, or do you play unreleased tracks to gather real-time feedback before heading into the studio?

Todd 'n' Tina (13:55.94) Initially, we recorded everything first, finished the album, and then went out to perform. But as we evolve—especially with this upcoming album—we are recording tracking blocks in the studio while giving the songs a live trial run this summer. Sweating through the tracks in front of a live crowd helps us get comfortable with the arrangements and gives us a solid idea of what works, what falls flat, and what needs to be tweaked before we finalize the master cuts. Live feedback completely shapes the final product.

Sometimes we write a lyric we think is brilliant, like in our song "Not Another Dinosaur Song," which we filmed at the Science Museum. Live, the kids don't always track dense lyrics as quickly as their parents do, so we have to analyze if changing the musical arrangement would make it hit differently. The goal is to capture the kids' ears musically while capturing both groups lyrically. We definitely play our recorded songs differently live to maximize the performance value. Even if a track is officially finalized on an album, we will structurally tweak it for the stage to make it more entertaining.

Suraaj Parab (15:34.039) There is something special about having Tina's students as a built-in test audience with zero filters.

Todd 'n' Tina (15:54.356) It provides a safe space for us because of Tina's strong relationship with the kids. They aren't afraid to look at us and say, "That song was kind of weird." You can't force a song down a child's throat; they don't care if music reviewers think a track is clever. If a song hits them, they love it; if it doesn't, they check out completely. It's always interesting to see which tracks they latch onto. We thought "Transylvania Town" was wildly clever and it's fun to play live, but it never built up the momentum we expected because it's simply too wordy. It doesn't hit you instantly the way a song about a panda bear does.

But "Jellyfish Chicken"—everybody loves that song! We also have a slower, highly repetitive track called "Aquaphobic Scuba Diver," about a scuba diver who is terrified of water. The music video features Todd walking around town in a full scuba suit, and the students absolutely adore it. However, from an algorithmic perspective, calling it "Aquaphobic Scuba Diver" was a technical mistake. On YouTube, nobody searches for the word "aquaphobic," so the algorithm doesn't suggest it to anyone. If we had simply titled it "Scuba Diver (Afraid of Water)," it would have performed much better. We have to think about those logistical search elements now. No kid knows what aquaphobia means!

Sandeep Kulkarni (18:26.668) It’s a crazy world of algorithms and digital optimization. Your song concepts are delightfully absurd—"French Toast Day," "Baby Python," and "Spooky Cat." When a ridiculous idea strikes, how do you differentiate between a joke that's funny for five minutes versus a concept with real staying power?

Todd 'n' Tina (19:23.484) "Spooky Cat" is the perfect example. It was around Halloween, and Todd came in saying, "Hey, I wrote a song called 'Spooky Cat'." He sang a snippet of it, and Tina was skeptical, thinking it was a bit too unusual. A week later, Todd came back and said, "I've been humming it around the house, and now my kids are singing it constantly and can't get it out of their heads." The hook was just: Spooky cat, spooky cat, spooky cat. Tina realized, "Okay, that's a hit." By the third listen, it was stuck in everyone's head. We recorded it, and it became one of our favorite tracks to play live. The moment we start strumming it, even if the kids have never heard it before, the entire audience is immediately chanting along.

The exact same thing happened with "Jellyfish Chicken." Todd was cutting up a raw chicken from Costco, and he randomly started singing a blues line in the style of Robert Johnson: "I want a jellyfish chicken in my home, because I don't want them chicken bones." He wrote a song on the spot about merging chicken DNA with jellyfish DNA to create a boneless chicken, wondering if it would just end up stinging you. The next morning, Tina was highly doubtful about it, but it turned into a massive hit. Todd generates these absurd concepts, Tina rolls them around in her mind for a few days to process them, and if Todd keeps fighting passionately for the track, we record it.

We had a track called "Chicken Pot Pie" with a simple, driving chant: Chicken pot pie, chicken pot pie, chicken pot, chicken pot pie. Tina thought it was horrible. Then we went out to New York to play a showcase, and a professional radio announcer marched right up to Tina and chanted, "Chicken pot pie, chicken pot pie!" Tina had to admit she was wrong and should have listened to Todd on the first pass instead of the third! Over the years, we've developed an immense amount of trust in each other's creative instincts.

Suraaj Parab (24:04.24) You have successfully built this entire project while maintaining demanding full-time jobs and managing families. You record on weekend mornings and shoot music videos on practically a zero-dollar budget. What has this DIY lifestyle taught you about creative discipline?

Todd 'n' Tina (24:32.772) It is a difficult balancing act because our schedules are packed. Both of our families have teenagers who are involved in endless extracurricular activities, and only two of our four kids can drive, so we spend a lot of time playing chauffeur. Tina handles all of our video production and editing. To make it work, she has to set rigid deadlines for herself. It is incredibly easy to give in to excuses like being too busy or exhausted, so strict deadlines are the only way the work gets finalized.

Todd, on the other hand, lives and breathes music constantly. He doesn't sit around watching television; any spare block of time is spent down in the basement writing or tracking. He's been doing that since he was 13 years old with an old four-track recorder. He reads about music at lunch and listens to it constantly. Luckily, as the kids grow older, they require less constant supervision.

One of the greatest perks of this project has been actively involving our families. Our kids frequently star in our music videos. A friend recently told us how fun it has been to watch our children literally grow up on screen through the progression of our music videos. It provides a permanent creative archive of our time together. It is also a powerful message for our teenagers to see us as adults writing ridiculous, goofy songs and finding pure, unadulterated joy in making art simply for the sake of making art. We aren't doing this for fame or fortune; we do it because we love the craft, and showing our kids that you can retain that sense of play as an adult is incredibly rewarding.

Suraaj Parab (27:57.203) A quick question outside of the music: I'm highly intrigued by the art hanging on the wall behind you, Tina. I notice a recurring theme of dome structures. Is there a story there?

Todd 'n' Tina (02:23.615) Yes! A couple of years ago, my husband and I took a vacation to Italy. While we were walking through Palermo, Sicily, we found a beautiful little art shop. We bought a collection of architectural prints and had them shipped home. They are illustrations of various historical cathedrals throughout Sicily.

Sandeep Kulkarni (28:41.166) No way! My wife and I are actually traveling to Italy for two weeks this June. We've booked our flights and are finalizing our hotels right now. Which areas do you recommend?

Todd 'n' Tina (29:10.692) You are going to have the trip of a lifetime; it is absolutely amazing. Florence is our personal favorite city. You're going to have an incredible time.

Sandeep Kulkarni (29:16.942) We actually interviewed an incredible Italian maestro and pianist named Roberto on our channel. He's based in Milan and told me to visit his studio for coffee if we are ever in the area, so I'm definitely going to take him up on that! It's amazing how many incredible people you connect with through this platform. Going forward, we are expanding The Artist Conversation beyond music to include professionals from all corners of the art world.

Your music videos and your live sets carry an identical, high-octane energy full of costumes, absurdity, and spontaneous interactions. How intentional are you about constructing an entire, cohesive "Todd 'n' Tina Universe"?

Todd 'n' Tina (31:09.442) We love the concept of a "Todd 'n' Tina Universe"—we need to look into building a themed amusement park next! In reality, the videos originally started out of pure necessity. Children primarily consume modern music through digital video formats. We had a production budget of exactly zero dollars, so we had to figure out what we could pull off. Our earliest videos, like "French Toast Day," were shot on an old, basic video camera. You can visibly track our learning curve as the video quality and editing techniques advance across our channel.

Tina actually picked up her video editing skills out of necessity while teaching online during the pandemic, and iMovie became her primary creative tool. We are highly intentional during pre-production; we outline the script, plan the specific frames, and structure the narrative flow. It's like a giant puzzle, matching the perfect visual shot to the exact musical beat of the track. It’s incredibly satisfying when that final piece clicks into place.

Sandeep Kulkarni (33:13.356) It is pure visual storytelling. You aren't just cutting arbitrary transitions; you are building a narrative arc that keeps kids and parents locked in.

Todd 'n' Tina (33:34.276) Todd completely stays out of the video editing side; he just provides the performance eye-candy! Tina writes the scripts and gets intensely focused on set. When we shot the video for "Not Another Dinosaur Song" at the Science Museum, we had a strict three-hour window. Tina was directing, telling Todd exactly where to stand, how to play, and what facial expressions to make. We respect each other’s distinct lanes. Todd owns the songwriting, Tina owns the video production, and it works beautifully.

Suraaj Parab (34:45.686) You have now played well over 100 live shows, and the Star Tribune labeled you as definitive staples of the Twin Cities children's concert scene. What have live audiences taught you that a basement studio never could?

Todd 'n' Tina (35:10.66) There is nothing more rewarding than looking out from the stage and seeing kids actively singing your lyrics back to you. When we first started, we were completely anonymous and nobody was paying attention. Now, we have families that follow us to multiple community venues every single year. The first time Todd noticed a group of kids singing along, it blew his mind.

Live music possesses an unmatched energy. Knowing that families are listening to our records at home and memorizing the words is a beautiful feeling. We create this music in an isolated vacuum in our basements, so it’s thrilling when it connects with the public. We always hand out branded eye patches with our website printed on them as a marketing trick. At one show, a kid ran up to the front row already wearing an eye patch from a concert we had played months prior, begging his mother to drive him out to see us again.

Tina has a coworker with a four-year-old and a five-year-old who play "Todd 'n' Tina" in their basement, staging mini-concerts and arguing over who gets to be Todd and who gets to be Tina! They both want to be the lead singer, obviously. Hearing stories like that makes the entire live experience worth it.

Sandeep Kulkarni (37:36.856) It’s all about entertaining the parents too. If the parents are miserable, they aren't going to load the kids into the car to come see you.

Todd 'n' Tina (38:12.42) Absolutely. We explicitly weave classic rock covers into our live sets purely for the adults. We do a seamless chord mashup of Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Denver’s "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The chord structures are identical, and the moment the parents recognize the progression, their eyes light up and they lock into the performance. We will drop a random Wham! hook or a Whitney Houston chorus right into the middle of our high-energy dance tracks. It gives the grownups a familiar anchoring point. It’s a double-layered show. The kids are running around in a mini-mosh pit with egg shakers making noise, and the parents are singing along to the hidden pop references.

Sandeep Kulkarni (39:33.229) Looking back at your extensive catalog—from Todd Parr Songs to The Color Weasel—what keeps you motivated and excited about the future of this journey?

Todd 'n' Tina (40:03.044) The ongoing challenge is keeping the project fresh for our audiences while ensuring it remains structurally manageable for our personal lives and careers. Todd's creative engine never stops; he is constantly writing and sending over new material. We have settled into a sustainable release cycle of dropping a new record every other year, which gives us adequate time to properly script the videos, market the singles, and balance live performances. We genuinely feel that our songwriting is getting better with every record. Tapping into that raw creative excitement and watching the immediate dopamine hit of kids dancing outside in the sunshine is the absolute best. And if we happen to go home with a basket of fresh farmers' market vegetables at the end of the day, that’s just a great bonus!

Suraaj Parab (41:39.959) Your description of a kids' mosh pit reminds me of the Rockabye Baby! lullaby renditions of Metallica tracks that came out years ago, turning heavy metal into accessible infant music.

Todd 'n' Tina (41:58.104) We are definitely going to look that up, that sounds outstanding! Playing for kids is an beautifully unpredictable event. Children will randomly wander right behind the stage equipment mid-song, and Tina has to expertly wrangle them back into the crowd without breaking character. We invite heavy audience participation, asking the kids what they ate for breakfast and instantly weaving their answers right into the live lyrics. It keeps us completely on our toes.

Suraaj Parab (42:55.114) You are doing phenomenal work for the next generation, and you have our deepest respect.

Todd 'n' Tina (43:15.0) Thank you so much. Coincidentally, Tina was actually teaching a lesson on the $6/8$ time signature to her fifth-grade classroom today, and we used Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" as our rhythmic example! Unless they have a parent playing classic metal at home, most modern kids don't know Metallica, but there’s always that one kid who goes, "Hey, I've actually heard this riff before!" It’s a great open-string guitar song for beginners to learn basic intervals.

Suraaj Parab (44:09.834) Thank you so much, Todd and Tina, for sharing your time and your vibrant joy with us today. We deeply appreciate your commitment to making music that treats children with respect without ever talking down to them.

Todd 'n' Tina (44:27.183) Thank you, that is incredibly kind of you.

Sandeep Kulkarni (44:31.422) This conversation stands as a gorgeous reminder that pure silliness can still be profound art when it is crafted with genuine heart. If I am ever out in Minnesota, I am absolutely coming to a live show—I'll be the guy walking behind the stage gear! Have an amazing time in Italy, guys.

Suraaj Parab (45:12.918) To everyone tuning in, thank you for being here. Please subscribe to Todd 'n' Tina’s YouTube channel, stream their records on Spotify and Apple Music, and follow their updates on Instagram. Share this episode with a family who loves great music, and we will see you next time on The Artist Conversation.

Sandeep Kulkarni (45:48.962) Take care, everyone.