Kat Raio Rende: Sesame Street composer, vocalist, producer, mother

Today’s guest is the Emmy-winning songwriter, singer, producer and composer Kat Raio Rende. Together with her husband JP Rende she has a successful songwriting and production company Earworm Music company. This episode is a fascinating window into the world of music for children’s tv shows, jingles, working with celebrities, and music production in general. We talked about writing for Sesame Street, including “Friends with a Penguin” featuring Billy Porter and “We Don’t Walk Alone”, Baby Shark, how to write for characters as opposed to singers, her big break that led to singing backup for big stars, the benefits and challenges of having ADHD, advice for setting up an inexpensive studio and learning production tricks, family/work balance, parenting, and most importantly, expressing emotions through music to help children.Kat’s infectious delight in music, composition, and singing as well as her personal story and perspectives as a parent will fascinate listeners everywhere.

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Like all my episodes, you can listen to this on your favourite podcast player, (search Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman) watch the video on YouTube, read the transcript, and navigate with the timestamps: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/kat-raio-rende

Here are some videos we talk about during the episode, that Kat wrote the music for with JP Rende (her husband and colleague at Earworm Music https://www.earwormny.com/ )Billy Porter in Sesame Street's Friends with a Penguin, EMMY winning song: https://youtu.be/f-YxjLUnnP0?si=PPElVWAiKYR2Chie Sesame Street's We Don't Walk Alone: https://youtu.be/LNlAHNzd6WY?si=KHhBhHIA1pDKsWeX
Cardi B in Baby Shark Does the Seaweed Sway: https://youtu.be/NHFLk7937dI?si=wyKbLWcN-uD6SQdN
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:23) writing for Billy Porter “Friends with a Penguin” for Sesame Street
(06:56) clip from Friends with a Penguin
(07:50) writing “We Don’t Walk Alone” for Sesame Street
(10:43) clip from “We Don’t Walk Alone”
(12:14) writing for Baby Shark, working with Cardi B
(18:01) working with husband JP Rende, creative process
(21:31) please support this independant podcast
(21:47) writing songs for specific characters, creative process
(25:39) Kat’s musical influences, singing backup and demos, SUNY Purchase
(30:24) writing for Sesame Street, starting Earworm with JP, writing jingles
(32:56) getting big breaks, singing backup in New York
(39:05) benefits and challenges of ADHD, writing jingles, musicologist Sandy Wilber
(47:26) parenting, kids shows
(51:57) having to pitch, producing, advice for setting up an inexpensive studio
(01:02:02) family/work balance working from home, helping kids learn music
(01:11:00) Kat’s childhood music education
(01:14:23) vocal producing and directing
(01:21:31) expressing emotions through music to help children