A lot of Bouncing Souls fans were surprised when they found out lead singer Greg Attonito was releasing a children’s book with his wife, singer-songwriter/actress Shanti Wintergate. I, however, thought it was a totally logical step. I have a vision of Greg and Shanti on PBS thirty years from now, singing songs and sparking the creativity of children, on a larger stage. Whether that happens or not, the duo’s book I Went For A Walk is an inspirational tale that not only provokes the imagination of youngsters, but also the youthful spirit that exists in everyone. I had a chance to talk with Greg, while he was visiting family on Long Island, about his experience with creating the book.

How did you and Shanti come up with the idea for the book?
Greg: We are both musicians. She does a lot writing, music and all sorts of creative stuff. She had started writing this story when she was at a restaurant, just hungry and I guess that kind of spurred her on. Within about a week or two, it was obviously a children’s story. [Shanti was] not really intenting to ever be a children’s book writer; she is just more of a musician and an actress. We both loved [the story]. We kicked it around for a while and we thought that this would be great [and] how were we going to illustrate it. I thought I would give it a shot. Shanti gave me a little prompting too and said ‘you should do this too.’ I did two or three drawings and thought they looked pretty good. That began the job creating an entire book that was cohesive and that is when it became kind of hard. I had to make it all work as opposed to making one or two drawings that look cool. It was a long process; it took about five years. I would just do it when I had the time. Most of it when I was traveling on tour and I had a minute here and there.

Did you keep it secret from everyone else when you were on tour? Was it something you worked and didn’t share or did you bring people in on the project with you?
Greg: Yeah, I did a little bit. To be honest, over the years, I had no real concept of what was going to happen to it. I would just start drawing and say ‘yeah Shanti has a story and I’m just working on the illustrations.’ I thought it would fun for Shanti and I to have a project. We do all sorts of creative stuff and it was just one of those things. When it started to get towards there, it was like ‘ok, what are we going to do with this?’ We started doing research and figured out the printing situation. Like, did we want to get it published or publish it ourselves. That’s when we decided to start our own publishing house, Hollywood Jersey. Shanti was born in Hollywood [and] I was born in Jersey. We just decided to take that route.

When you were creating the artwork, did you have a specific plan for it or did you want to make it random and spontaneous. Did you bring your experience writing lyrics with the Bouncing Souls into the creation process for the book?
Greg: I wanted someone [who] picked up the book to have an experience. To have a presence, it’s really there and jumping out at you and something you can’t deny. As opposed to a lot of other books where it’s like, ‘it doesn’t really make a difference if I look at this or not. It’s not really effecting my reality. It’s not really touching me.’ Being aware of those things, I certainly paid attention to it. While I was creating the book, whether I was frustrated or couldn’t get something to cross, I just had to put it down. It’s that way with the Bouncing Souls too. When we are creating music and start to butt heads about something, we’re all intuitively like ‘ok, this is what we have to follow right now’ and come back to it later.

Do you almost see this as a solo project or do you approach it as a completely different thing?
Greg: I’m really figuring it out as I go. [I] didn’t know what was going to happen with the book. [We] decided to spend some time playing at schools and, of course, I had no idea what was going to happen with me after spending three weeks on the East and West Coast in schools. It’s been unbelievable just going out to all of these schools and learning what a freaking job it is to be an elementary school teacher, first of all. All of these environments, different types of schools, all these kids and what they are going through. A lot of them don’t have anyone in their lives going ‘hey, we made this book from our own minds, from our imagination,’ the most basic thing that you and I know, and that ‘you can do it.’ People aren’t telling these things to that kid. That’s a huge part of it. When you’re out there all the time, you really see it in action. This is a big issue with our education, everywhere in the world. If you have an idea, [you] can make it happen. It takes some hard work and perseverance but you can do it yourself, as an individual or with other people. You see these kids light up and it’s huge. Just for a musician to go to their local elementary school for a half an hour and play a couple songs. Most of these kids have never even seen someone play a guitar. All their world is their little house and going to Walmart. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Where it’s going to go from here, I don’t know.

How do you go about booking the schools? Do you just call schools and say ‘can we come by and sing some songs?’
Greg: Most of the bites we got were from the Internet; people who knew the Bouncing Souls and were teachers. Most of the schools can’t afford anything like this. The arts and music have been cut out of schools on a grand scale. We are getting calls from teachers everywhere; the demand is unbelievable. Once we put the word out, we could pick where we wanted to go. We could stay out here in Long Island for a whole week probably, go to schools all and everyday. There was a school in Palmdale, California that if we went through the proper channels, we would have had to get fingerprinted. All of this BS just to go and talk to students.

Looking back to when you were a child, what were some of the books that really made an impact on your life?
Greg: Dr. Seuss, definitely. Your imagination would just go wild in one of those books. Everything from the characters to the actual space they were existing in. Things like Shell Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Those were some of the things I used as a direction in how I wanted to have an impact.

What is the main thing you want children to get out of the book?
Greg: I wouldn’t want to define anything but for them to have that experience where their imagination is spurred on. A lot of times, we lose sight of what we really want or what makes us happy. Music and art can really reconnect you with that.

Do you think you’ll pursue doing more art now?
Greg: As I was starting to draw the book, I started doing some painting too. In the past five years, I’ve started experimenting and having fun with different types of art.

Do you see yourself doing this twenty years from now?
Greg: I don’t know that I’ll make it til tomorrow but if I do, I will always try to make it possible, in one way or another; continuing doing music and being creative. I’m not just a guy in the Bouncing Souls that does illustrations for children’s books.

How does that balance effect the Bouncing Souls now?
Greg: We just had a meeting recently to make our plans for next year. The biggest thing that I can talk about is that we don’t really want to release a new CD. We’re probably going do some sort of digital release. It doesn’t make sense to release a CD because nobody really buys them anymore.

Check out I Went For A Walk on Myspace. Also, you can check out the narrated video for the book below.

Thanks, as always, go out to Vanessa at Mutiny PR for setting up the interview!

Tags: Bouncing Souls, Greg Attonito, I Went For A Walk, Interview, News, Shanti Wintergate, interview //