Bonus Episode: Joy Ike - Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Welcome to The Neighborhood, a Mr. Rogers tribute podcast. I'm your host, Rick Lee James of rickleejames.com, and I run the Mr. Rogers Quotes Twitter account found @MrRogersSay. As we again walk into this podcast neighborhood, I want you to know that no matter where you are from, you are welcome here. I'm glad to be your neighbor. Every daughter, every son, every tribe, and every tongue, in the spirit of Fred Rogers and the life of welcome that he lived, welcome to the neighborhood. We have a special treat today. We are joined by artist Joy Ike. Joy Ike is a Pittsburgh-based singer and songwriter whose music, voice, and writing have drawn comparisons to female musicians like Nina Simone, Laura Nero, and Regina Spektor. —her polished, precise, and graceful music defies easy categorization. A write-up on NPR's All Things Considered says, "The depth of subjects she tackles in her poetic lyrics are perfectly complemented by a unique blend of neo-soul with just the right dash of pop. A truly compelling act to watch in person, with the ability to create an intimate setting in locations big and small." Well, recently Joy released a brilliant cover song and music video for the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood theme song, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" She has stopped by our podcast neighborhood for a visit today, and I am just thrilled to have her with us. Joy Ike, welcome to the neighborhood.

Rick, thank you so much for having me. I'm really honored to be here.

Well, we are certainly glad to have you, and so glad you had some time for a visit today in your busy schedule. And you know, it seems that everyone who I visit with on this podcast has a Mr. Rogers story. Of what Fred Rogers means to them or how he influenced their life in some way. I wonder if we could just start by finding out what is your Mr. Rogers story?

Yeah, I think you're right about that. I feel like, um, I feel like everyone I talked to has said whether they knew him personally or not, you know, there's, there's no one that can say a bad thing about Mr. Rogers. And it's like his reputation precedes him even now as he's no longer with us. Um, and for me, I, I never met Mr. Rogers. Um, sometimes in my mind I've somehow convinced myself that I have.

I know what you mean.

You know, I think for the imprint that he's left on me, I, I'm like, I'm sure I must have met him at some point for, for him to have such a— have, have had such an impact on me. Um, but I, uh, I grew up in Pittsburgh. Um, there pretty much my whole life. My family moved there when I was probably about 3 or 4 or so. And, um, and I am actually currently now living in Philadelphia as of 5 years ago. Um, but, um, I lived in a neighborhood called Squirrel Hill, um, which was actually the neighborhood that Mr. Rogers lived in. Um, and so you couldn't really go anywhere without hearing about Mr. Rogers. You know, he would always come up in conversations. And of course the show was still running, um, when I was a kid. Um, and to be very honest, I don't have many memories of watching the show as a kid. That I'm not sure if maybe I was too young to remember. You know, it's kind of that blurry, foggy memory of seeing the show as a child, but not remembering, you know, episodes. Of course, now, later on and after the fact, there's so much content online and things that I've revisited over the years. But I think the— when I think of Mr. Rogers, I— there's a feeling that immediately comes, you know, it's kind of like this warm fuzzy feeling where your heart just feels kind of understood or known. And every time I think of Mr. Rogers, every time I watch a video, both now and over the, you know, the past 30-some years of my life, I have felt this, there's this There's this kind of, I would probably describe it as this quality or this nature that he kind of was able to, there was a warmth that he was able to not only have in his own life and an understanding of his calling and what God had called him to do in his life, but he was able to allow that to pour through him and kind of be a conduit for that and into other people's lives. And I feel like he did such a great job of holding a place for people. And when I think of him now, I've been in so many conversations since the video came out, I always describe Mr. Rogers as someone who knew how to actually see people. Hmm.

He knew how to— Mm-hmm. Well, I'm so glad you said that, that he knew how to actually see people. And you also mentioned when you were talking about the way that he made you feel known. I think it's such a unique gift that he had, whether or not you can remember a specific episode. But his gift as a communicator, I have said many times, it almost made you feel like not only that he was talking to you, but that he was listening to you. Right, right. And I'm really glad that you brought that up because I, I do feel like that's, that's something that all of us feel like, even though we haven't met him, uh, many of us, that we feel like somehow we know him.

Yeah, everyone feels like they know him. Mm-hmm.

Well, that's a great, a great story, Mr. Rogers' story, and I appreciate you sharing that with us. Well, I love your music video for "Won't You Be My Neighbor." It's such a cool cover song, and there is just something so joyful and pure about you with a baritone ukulele dancing, leading children through Pittsburgh's north, north side. And the kids look like they are just having the time of their lives in the video too. Uh, tell us, tell us how you came to record this song and, and about the making of the music video for this cover of "Won't You Be My Neighbor." Yeah, for sure.

Um, that's probably the, the funnest project I've ever done, the most fun I've ever had. And, um, I— so the idea for this project started back in early 2018. I was approached by WQED, which is the PBS affiliate here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I had been preparing to release my latest album, Bigger Than Your Box, and they reached out. It was probably early spring of that year asking if I would be interested in being part of their Sweater Sessions series, which is a video series they were doing with having artists who were from and/or living in Pittsburgh do their own version of the Mr. Rogers song or writing a song that was a tribute to his life and legacy. And I was so honored to be asked to do that, but it also happened to be an incredibly busy season with the forthcoming release of my album at that time. And so I wasn't able to devote the attention that I really had wanted to to the project. But at the same time, it just planted a seed, and within a few weeks I had already finished the arrangement of my version of the song. And I think even though the moment had passed, by the time the conversation went back and forth, it was probably close to the end of the summer and the moment had passed for the Sweater Sessions series, but I sat on the song and probably about a year, a year later, I said to myself, okay, I really need to do this. And between the time they had asked me to do it and the time that I actually had recorded it, I'd probably watched the documentary a few times and it kind of just was one of those things. I was like, there's no way I can't record this song. And, you know, the prevailing thought in me over that time frame was, you know, there was this deep appreciation for the peaceful presence that Mr. Rogers brought to everything he did and to children when he was spending time with them. It's kind of funny to me, especially when I was watching, you know, the clips in the documentary of him spending time with kids. Kids have so much energy, and I think that he was really great with that energy, but he also had a way of pacifying things. Not in a way as if he was squashing things or trying to minimize or make children less than who they were, but he was able to, you know, bring just a presence of peace to every kind of situation. And it was like watching that, I saw children kind of entered into that and found a home in that. And, um, and it was really beautiful to be able to think of him in that way. And so as I was working on this project, I thought to myself, gosh, Mr. Rogers brought so much peace to people's lives. Um, but, and at the same time, there was so much joy. Like, kids took so much joy in spending time with him and watching his show. And maybe it's because my name is Joy, but I thought to myself, it would be really great to create a version of the song you know, the song had already been written, but a video of the song that parallels the peace of Mr. Rogers, the peaceful presence that he brought, with the joy that he also brought to so many people's lives. And so I knew I wanted it to be an energetic audio recording. I knew I wanted it to be an energetic video where kids were just fully free to be themselves, to express themselves, to have fun. With no restrictions. And really, in some ways, I think of it as a version of art therapy, which is something that I've been spending a lot of time thinking about, thinking about what it would look like to use music in a more art therapy and music therapy capacity and give children space to fully be themselves and express themselves. And I think that Mr. Rogers did the best job at that than anyone I've ever known.

Yeah. Well, let's talk about these children in the video a little bit. My son has just turned 7 years old, and again last night we were just finishing up dinner and I pulled out my iPad and we brought up your video again. And he was really taken by the children in the video, and especially the parts where they're dancing and just having a great time. And he got up and tried to impersonate them a little bit. And bless his heart, he's like me. He's gonna hopefully be a musician because he can't dance worth a lick. But he just loved it, and there was this real joyfulness about it. And he would say, "Whoa, that kid's good!" You know, watching the one do the floss and different things like that. But it's a really special connection that you seem to have with the children. Who are these children that are in the video? Are they kids just from the surrounding area, or are they people that maybe, you know, family members and friends, or I'd love to know more about them.

Yeah, it's both. And I had— I just feel like this whole video has been such a huge gift because, you know, ever since I started making music and before I started making music, there's been something about being around kids that has always made me feel fully myself and fully free. And I think that it's really just kind of pricking at that kid in me that's always wanting to come out. And so when I started brainstorming the video project, I was thinking, okay, well, I'll backtrack a little bit thinking about who I wanted to work with, the videographer that I've worked with a number of times before, you know, making sure that every part of the project was Pittsburgh infused. So Pittsburgh videographer, my bassist who lives in Pittsburgh, and a drummer friend who also is in Pittsburgh. And then I basically went to my Pittsburgh fan base and I sent a message, you know, and I started playing out in the Pittsburgh area back in 2005, I believe. So it's been about 15 years now. And, and so I just reached out and I said, I'm working on a project. I didn't tell anybody what it was, but I said, I'm working on a project and I need a lot of kids, especially kids who love to dance. And that was like, that was literally all the only requirements. Must love to dance, must be kids. And so there were a number of people who reached out and showed interest, but what was most exciting to me was that, you know, the people who have been following me since day one have been close friends. And so probably about maybe 30 or 40% of the kids that were involved in that project were kids of close friends that are still in Pittsburgh and were, you know, I was able to spend more time with while I was, when I myself was still living in Pittsburgh. My best friend in Pittsburgh, her 4 kids were able to be involved. A good friend from a church that I was attending when I was still in Pittsburgh, her 2 kids were involved. And so it's just traces like of that over and over again through the video. My 2 kid brothers, my family, my parents adopted about 9, 10 years ago, so I have my two 9 and 10-year-old brothers in there. That's terrific. Yeah, so it's just like there's— it's full of so many memories that I'm going to cherish, you know, for the rest of my life. Just seeing people, you know, I can't imagine, you know, 10, 15 years from now when these kids are all grown up, seeing them in this video, and hopefully for them it's this memory that they always have to hold on to.

Sure. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I wonder, because this really, this cover song, I mean, it's such a great cover song anyway, but it is quite different from a lot of the material you've released in the past. I wonder what kind of feedback and reactions you've been receiving from it.

Yeah, it is definitely very different. I'm a piano player primarily, and so, and so I don't, I would never tell anyone that I play the ukulele professionally because I don't think I don't think that would be fair to all the wonderful ukulele players out there. But I started working on— when I first started working on the arrangement of the song after I was originally asked, I thought I was going to write it on piano, but it just didn't make sense. I just— and I wanted to do it on ukulele, but I knew that it wouldn't come as easily, and I'd kind of have to dig for it a little bit if I really wanted it to be something unique and different. Kind of with where I was in my skill set with it. And but at the same time, the more I thought about it, I was like, this is a kid's song and the ukulele, there's no, there's kind of no better instrument for that than the uke. And so I think, you know, people love when things are different. And I think the feedback has been wonderful. It's just been cool for people to, to see something that one, they didn't expect all my videos have been very different than this, and I've always wanted to do a project with kids, and so this is the first project I've ever done with kids, and so just by default, it's completely different than anything else.

Well, so there's no changing of your name in the future from Joy Ike to Joy Yuk? No, terrible joke, I shouldn't have even made it.

It's not the first time I've heard it though.

Oh, well, you know what though, I think it was the right choice because it really It really makes, I think, even the COVID songs stand out. I've heard a lot of Fred Rogers covers, and a lot of them are piano-based, I think, because he was such a great piano player himself. But it's kind of intimidating to sit down at a piano for one of his songs because Johnny Costa was, you know, such an amazing piano talent. And so I think a lot of times when musicians will sit down at the piano to try to play a Fred Rogers song, it's almost like, I could never match what Johnny Costa did, you know. Um, and so I think what you did is, is it was, it was wise and it's unique and it really makes it such a fun pop song in a way that I think we haven't heard that before. Uh, well, let's talk a little bit about your musical style outside of this particular cover and, and the video, because your musical style really likes so much great art. It's hard to categorize, I think. You've been called a jazz artist, you've been called a gospel artist, you've been called an R&B singer. I, I wonder, how do you categorize your music?

Hmm, yeah, that's, um, you know, I kind of have my three, my three words that I throw out there every time when people ask me that question. I kind of, you know, I throw out soul, folk, and pop, you know, a fusion of those three things, um, because it does have all of those, uh, elements, um, and I think that different things, uh, different different parts of my, you know, performance style and my singing style lend themselves to each of those words in different ways. I think my voice kind of captures that soulful sound, and also that there's a, you know, the vocal inflections, and there's a jazzy nuance to how I sing that definitely finds itself in my music. But when I kind of strip it all away and kind of take it, get rid of the genres, I always like to describe myself as a singer-songwriter and storyteller. Which I think sometimes makes my music fall into a folk category more than anything else. I find that the spaces that I most enjoy playing in are the ones where I get to spend a lot of time talking and sharing about the story, how it came to be, what were the things that were influencing the songwriting, whether those were internal things or environmental things, the things that are kind of like outside of me and things that I'm observing.. And there's, there's never any shortage of source material. You know, there's always something to write about. And, uh, and so I'm finding that, you know, I always, I always worried when I first started songwriting that all my songs would sound the same, and they would— people just get bored of them, and that I most importantly would get bored of them. And somehow I think because there's just so much source material, you know, there's so much to write about so many things happening in the world. Every song is somehow a byproduct of relationships, you know, and the brokenness of relationships and the beauty of relationships. And because every day is new, you know, there's always new material, I think that's lent itself to every song being new. And I've always been just intrigued by how you can listen to a song, a love song for example, you can listen to a million love songs by a thousand different artists and still somehow they're all different. One, they're all uniquely different from the other. And, um, and that's always amazed me. And I think that's probably why in some capacity I'll always, I'll always be songwriting. Yeah.

Well, especially over this last week as I've been getting ready to, to have a visit with you here on the podcast, I've really been enjoying your album Bigger Than Your Box. And I, I think that that title alone sums you up very well as a musician, because, you know, a lot of times what musicians don't want is to be put into a box with their music. And I think you've proven that you can do that successfully, you know, to get outside the box and try some new and different things. I want you to, if you don't mind, as we get close to the end of our conversation here together today, maybe talk to us a little bit about what's next for you. Any projects that you might be working on, and where people can find you online, your website and places they can stream your music.

Yeah, well, this is a very interesting year for me. You know, there's a lot of pressure on 2020, I think, for everyone. You're just like, gotta make it count. But for me, it's a very weird year. I had shared in a recent newsletter that I had a project that was really going to be going to kind of map out the next several years for me. And as of right now, that project is on hold. And so I'm kind of reevaluating what I'm excited about doing, how I'm excited about making music, and where I'm excited about, about making music. And I have over the last few years been really pushing for quality over quantity and playing a lot less. And being a little bit pickier on the spaces that I'm excited about playing in. And so I guess I can first and foremost say that my passion for making music has really kind of been kind of narrowed down to this kind of pinhole, if you will, of playing in spaces that are specifically listening room audiences and specifically spaces where the people are there for the story and the people are there for the engagement and not just the entertainment. And so that ends up narrowing down my performance possibilities just by default. I'm not really playing in traditional venues much anymore these days, more like folk concert series and arts centers, community spaces, libraries and spaces like that. But there are a couple few exciting things that I'm especially excited about, including a tour I'll be doing in France this summer. Wow. Yeah, I'm really excited. Last year we were picked up by a booking agent— agency right outside of Paris, and so they're putting together a tour in July, and I'll also be doing a few other things in the UK. Just to kind of, you know, round out the tour. And so just preparing for that, I have a few other things— Listening Room Festival, which I'm really excited to be one of the featured artists for this year. And that one— Congratulations! Yeah, I'm really, really pumped about that. So those are kind of things that are the big nuggets, at least for the first half of this year, and will hopefully kind of pave the way for the rest of the year.

Great. Now forgive me, I don't have the in my notes in front of me, but I believe your website is joyike.com. Is that correct?

Yeah, joyike.com. Joyike.com.

All right, good. My memory served me well today for once. But Joy Ike, I think if Fred Rogers was with us today, I think he would be so proud of what you are doing, not just with his song but with your music and what you're doing with your influence And so I want to thank you so much for stopping by our podcast neighborhood today for a visit. It has been a real joy. Mm, thank you so much.

I've really enjoyed this.

Well, I want to let listeners know as well, if they go to our website at welcomeneighbor.podbean.com, I am going to make sure that we have links to all of these things that we have been talking about in the show today, uh, everything from Joy's website to her music video and places where you can stream her music online. And I hope that all of you listening will, will, if you are not already, become very devoted Joy Ike fans. So Joy Ike, thank you for being here with us today.

Rick, thank you so much for having me.

2, 3, 4!

Well, it's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Well, it's a neighborly day in this beauty, would a neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. So let's make the most of this beautiful day. And since we're together, might as well say, would you be mine? Could you be mine? ¡Hola! I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So let's make the most of this beautiful day.

Since we're together, might as well. I'll say, would you be mine? Could you be mine? So let's make the most of this beautiful day since we're together. My lips will say, would you be mine? Could you be? Would you be mine? Could you be? Would you be mine? Could you be mine?