Now we’re orchestrating a song that features the music box sounds of the toy piano. I’m playing on a 3 octave keyboard which activates little hammers that strike metal rods, and the accompanying noise of the mechanics is so wonderful,  and strangely out of tune, (hell to sing against,)  but the mysterious intonation is just so right for this song.

Robert is playing a melodica – a curious hybrid between a keyboard and a harmonica. He blows through a tube while his fingers play the little keyboard. It’s almost like an accordion but there are no bellows and the tone is controlled by his breath. The song plays with the ideas that children’s toys can suggest. To this we will add the soaring sound of the carpenter’s hand saw,  vacuum cleaner hose vocals, tuned glass bottles and a touch of French horn.

The song was inspired by an unlikely meeting,  at just the right time, with a comedienne from Chicago, named Poppy, in the waiting room of  an almost empty train station in Saskatoon in the middle of the night.