We put ten questions to Thomas View, the executive producer of Tell Me Who I Am theme song 10 Questions is a feature where we ask someone involved in the creation of Tell Me Who I Am ten questions. Readers may send in questions via email. Click here to submit your Question.

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1) How did you come to write the Tell Me Who I Am theme song?

The theme song we are currently using is actually the second version of the theme song. The first version has the same words but a different melody.  The version you hear now was written to tell the story of Tell Me Who I Am.  We knew that there were not many animated movies like Tell Me Who I Am and we wanted to make sure that parents and kids could see how much fun the series would be and how much there was to learn from the series. 

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2) What were you doing before you got involved with Tell Me Who I Am?

I was and still am an attorney for Kid Positive.   

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3) Who are your major musical influences?

My musical influences are my grandfather who studied classical piano at Howard University in the late 1930's, my father who taught classical and jazz guitar at the Bill Harris Studio and Dr. Wendel Logan, who founded the Jazz Studies program at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.  Each of these individuals shared with me the special importance of music in African American culture.  In addition to providing specific music instruction on bass, guitar, piano and composition, these teachers guided my understanding of the history and development of African American music and its role in culture, politics, entertainment and business.  There are a number of great musicians in my family including my uncle Millard (bass), cousins Milton, Robert, Jackie, Teressa (bass), sister Jenice (violin, bass and piano) brother (bass, drums trumpet), uncle Jerome (guitar for Duke Ellington and guitar and music director for Gladdys Knight and the Pips and numerous musicians in NYC). Outside of my family I would list John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorious, Wes Montgomery, James Brown as influences. Although I don't sing or rap, I have been deeply touched by rap music of the 1990s. If you listen closely to the raps in the Tell Me Who I Am game songs, you can hear some of my rap influences. Can you name them?

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4) What made you interested in Tell Me Who I Am in the first place?

I was working as an executive in an advertising agency that serviced the music industry.  At the time I had young children and I noticed that none of the projects that we worked on was appropriate for children.   I was always taught that if you don’t like the song on the radio or the movies in the theatre or the books in the library--rather than complain about them--create one you like better.  Thankfully, Tell Me Who I Am provided me with an opportunity to make such a contribution.

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5) How would you describe the meaning and significance of the song?

The narrator in the intro portion of the song has lost his way. Like all of us from time to time, he wanders throughout the wilderness of life in the modern world confused.  He knows that the music and television shows and web sites--like candy and cookies--give him some satisfaction but sees that these things are not helping him to grow, develop or understand.  While he is told that he is the problem, his inner wisdom or light says otherwise. He senses his own light and is asking his parents, teachers and other trusted adults to show him who he actually is.  The narrator in the outro portion of the song has seen the light. He has been told who he is by ancestors and he feels wiser, smarter and happier about who he sees in the mirror.

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6) Why do you think people, children in particular, are attracted to the song?

Children are smart. If you provide them with the dirty water or clean water, they will drink clean water.  I would like to think that the theme song is clean water.   What do you like about it?  I'm actually interested in what you would like to hear but do not.  Please write and tell me.

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7) Explain the process of writing and producing the song.

You start with a main idea.  Then you figure out what story you are trying to tell to make that point.  Once the story is written, you have to figure out the music style that works. If the story mood is upbeat and festive then you pick something that suggests that.  If it is sad or serious, you need a style that matches that.  If the piece is scary, you need to figure all of that out before trying to write the song.  You can't try to be too clever.  You really have to let the idea and the music style that you envision speak to  you; you have to listen to your inner ear.  Your inner ear will suggest the melody and chords.  Then you use your musical training about chords, scales and rhythms to work out the precise articulation of the song.   

With lyrics, it’s the same process. You let the big idea drive the points that support the big idea and let your inner voice speak to you about words and phrases;  you try to match the melody to words and phrases.  If it is a good melody it has rhythm, cadence or flow.  The trick is matching the rhythm of the words, the sentence structure and rhyme scheme with the melody notes.  Again this is where a large vocabulary and skill with sentence structure helps.   The more words you know, the more choices you have when you need a word with a certain number of syllables or rhyme sound.  The better you are with sentence structure, the more ways you have to put forth an idea.  Jay Z says "faced with immeasurable odds still I gave straight bets". 

Say we needed to state that idea differently. We could write:

We grew up poor

 It was well understood

Where we from

chances were good that we'd amount to no good

For us kids from that hood

with hopes to be great

our only hope on this planet was

playing it straight

Depending on the drum/ bass beat, you might want to shift rhythms or elongate words or syllables around to match the beat.  Remember that--particularly in African American music-- the words carry a literal message, a symbolic message and a rhythmic message.  This is why it could take a month to write a 3 minute song.

Production is just the process of getting this song into a form that it can be shared and listened to.  It includes hiring the studio, performers  and engineers that collaborate to bring the song to life.   

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8) Why did you get Cee Knowledge to do the rap on the song and did you consider other rappers?

We needed a very special MC for this project.  This was rap concerned with matters of time (future and present)  and space (earth and planets) with a particular emphasis on African origins of life on Earth.  Cee comes from a group called the Digable Planets, which is a part of long line of musicians who's music was concerned with space/ time travel using the African origins of civilization as a starting point.

Some of these groups are Sun Ra Arkestra, Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament-Funkadellic, Kool Mo Dee, Afrika Bambatta, Outkast and others.  

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9) Who are the artists who actually did the singing?

The artists who sang on the theme song were young people in the Washington DC area.  For other songs we used performers in Los Angeles.

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10) What were you thinking about trying to accomplish when you wrote the music?