Happy Hunting

Photograph: Michelle Pedone

A lot has changed for Laurie Berkner since the release of her last CD, 2002’s award-winning Under a Shady Tree. Her husband, Brian Mueller, left the band to attend grad school; the group became a staple on the Noggin channel, appearing in music videos between programs and on Jack’s Big Music Show; and the queen of kindie rock became a mom herself. Now the band is back with Rocketship Run, a concept album about hunting for treasure, aimed at the preschool set. Time Out Kids caught up with the Manhattan-based musician to talk about the new disc and why it took so long to get here.

Why the six-year gap between albums?
I do albums when I feel inspired. While I was pregnant and when my daughter, Lucy, was little, I was pouring all of my creativity into my daily life. I had to wait until Lucy [now 3] was old enough so that I could find time for an album. It took almost a year to write, arrange and record.

Has becoming a mom changed your music?
Lucy’s part of why I got interested in writing again. The songs I wrote when she was younger were very personal, very mother-to-child, but that’s not the kind of CD I make. I tend to write from the kid place in me, and those songs started coming out as Lucy got older and being with her became more of an interactive experience.

Rocketship Run features myriad musical styles—ska, a jig, folk, lullabies—and the recurring theme of “Going on a Hunt.” Did you conceive it as a concept album?
By the end, yes, but not at the beginning. “Going on a Hunt” was something I would sing with Lucy around the house when we lost things; the song just kept growing and growing. Making the CD was a journey, and that’s exactly what the album is about.

The album’s accompanied by a booklet. How does it fit into the disc’s concept?
It has pages of composite pictures of real landscapes, and there’s a magnifying glass and hidden treasure to find on each page. We put as much work into the booklet as we did into the music. I had no idea it would be so epic.

Is it strange being a rock goddess to this age group?
It’s so funny. There are all these people who write to us and are such loyal, loving fans, who know every word by heart. Then, on the other hand, there are all these people who don’t know us at all. Like when we went on The View, Whoopi said something like, “Are they anything like the Wiggles?” There’s a thick black line between the people who know us and the ones who have no idea who we are.

Rocketship Run is out now