Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2013

Eric Jacobsen is best known in Japan as the English-singing, guitar-playing children’s entertainer on NHK’s evergreen morning Eigo de Asobo segment. But Massachusetts-born Jacobsen has also long written and performed psychedelic folk-infused “grown up” music. We caught up with Jacobsen ahead of the release of his new adult album Kind Awakening to hear how he approaches grown up versus children’s music, and what’s coolest about being a successful kids’ entertainer in Japan.

Why an *adult* album now?

Short answer: Now or never! Long answer: I’ve got these great guys playing with me, and we’ve been playing together for over 17 years. We’ve had other guys playing with us who we love very much, but since we slimmed down to three guys as a band we have really been able to be improvisational and tight at the same time and I wanted to catch that feeling. I thought I was really ready to say to people, “This is what we do!”

How did you approach it differently than your children’s work?

In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be that much difference. Before I worked in the kids’ music business, back in Boulder, Colorado, I’d play in the street to grown ups, and little kids would come and listen. But here in Japan my grown up stuff has taken a back seat because it’s hard to present meaningfully lyric-wise. For kids’ stuff, I generally go positive, fun, it’s honest, but usually optimistic. For my grown up stuff it’s anything goes. I have to be emotionally naked. Good and bad.

Tell us about the religious themes that enter the album.

We didn’t set out to do that from the beginning. Maybe when you start pushing 50, you’ve had enough people that you love dearly go on to the next world that you can’t help but think about that stuff. That said, I actually like the Religion theme to this CD because there are totally different approaches in each song. The song that’s actually called “Religion” is maybe the least religious because it’s more about cults, brainwashing, pyramid schemes…human stuff. “Kind Awakening” sounds religious but was originally triggered by the return of my sense of smell after 10 years of basically smelling nothing. “I Wonder” and “Worried About the Lord” come from a similar direction religion-wise. My grandmother was really religious. My parents weren’t churchgoers by the time I came around, but religious reverberations remained in the family. “Eternal Blue” was triggered by a comic book about the Buddha, and the loss of a good friend.

What is the most awesome thing about being a successful kids entertainer in Japan?

It’s awesome that I can actually go to work with a guitar in tow.

What is different about kids’ entertainment in Japan and the US?

Here, although I approach my shows as a musician first, there is no getting away from the fact that part of the allure is that we are singing and having fun in English. There is an educational slant that is undeniably my niche in Japan. I imagine my kids’ songs would get a little more sophisticated language-wise if I were doing this in the states.

Moon Romantic Aoyama, Jun 14. www.ericband.com