8 is Enough Questions for Play Date

Play Date, the husband and wife duo of Greg Attonito and Shanti Wintergate, paint their world with punk rock power chords and peppy pop vocals. The Idaho-based duo is the perfect blend of Greg Attonito’s punk spirit, as the lead singer and Founding Member of the Bouncing Souls, and Shanti Wintergate’s singer/songwriter soul. Play Date’s second album, We All Shine, is a fun collection of tunes, like Ninja Pajamas, The Owl Song, and Cardboard Box, to make the whole family bounce, groove, and sway.

For every #8isEnoughQuestions interview, each of the following questions is written by our Full Van Fun family members and answered directly by Play Date. Enjoy!

1. You both are great singers, how do you decide who sings on which song?

Shanti & Greg: Thanks for the compliment! We are always collaborating on the song writing in Play Date. Someone starts with an idea and the other person adds to it and it just keeps developing. Once we have the song kind of in place we both play around with singing the parts and see what sounds better. Sometimes Shanti will sound better on a certain part, sometimes Greg will sound better and sometimes its best to sing together! We always end up going with what feels right.

2. What is your favorite shape of clouds?

Greg: UFO shaped clouds. Sometimes I imagine there is a UFO hiding inside the cloud.

Shanti: I LOVE big puffy cotton candy looking clouds with bright blue sky. Sometimes they look like Falcor from The Neverending Story. By the way, if you haven’t seen The Neverending Story, you should go watch it right now…or at least right after you finish reading this interview. 🙂

3. Did you really meet an owl in the middle the woods and did it say “whoo whoo”?

Shanti & Greg: Yes, We did meet an owl in the middle of the woods. They live all around our house which is actually in the middle of the woods. Last winter during a very snowy morning one of them flew right past our bedroom window and landed on a tree very close to the house. If we hadn’t seen him flying we never would have know he was sitting in the tree because he was SO camouflaged. We watched him for a while sitting quietly on a branch. He was hunting for something down below. Our patience paid off when all of a sudden he swooped straight down to the ground plunging himself into the two feet of snow. He came up with a mouse and had his breakfast! It was amazing to see right from our bedroom window. Here’s the actual sound we recorded early this morning!

4. We know you can dance like a monster, but can you dance like a cat?

Shanti: Meow, meow Yes, meow, meow. It’s kind of like “the creep” but with a big jumping pounce at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8ix5DINvE&feature=youtu.be

5. How do you compare the crowds at Bouncing Souls concerts vs. Play Date concerts?
Shanti: Sometimes, Play Date audiences are more well-behaved. But… I only know as a spectator of The Bouncing Souls crowd. I think Greg will be able to enlighten us more.

Greg: The Bouncing Souls audiences and Play Date crowds actually show a lot of similarities. You have the dancers up front rocking out and the more intent listeners more toward the back. The obvious difference is the Play Date audience members are a lot smaller. In general the spirit is the same though. Everybody is enjoying the music in their own way.

6. You wrote songs about bananas, broccoli, apples, and carrots, but are you going to make a song about peas?
Shanti & Greg: Yes, of course! We LOVE peas! We already know what one line should be, “Peas, peas, peas, yes please!” Peas are actually a sweet and delicious legume and they’re high in folic acid which helps keep all of our cells healthy and strong! We could also go in the direction of a song called, “Whirled Peas” or “Give Peas a Chance” we love playing on words like that. So many delicious ideas!

Greg: One time while on tour with The Bouncing Souls, I ordered “Mushy Peas” in Ireland and they were really good. A little unexpected with a name like that, but I liked them a lot.

7. If you could each learn how to play a new instrument, what would it be?
Shanti & Greg: Probably the sitar. We have this beautiful sitar that my parents brought back from India years ago. We try to keep it from collecting too much dust but neither of us know how to properly play it. It has a lot of strings, and the Indian scale is different from the western music scale that we know. Just tuning it would be a successful step in the right direction. One of these days we’re going to be home for long enough to make that happen. Maybe you’ll hear it on the next Play Date album! 🙂

8. Why not pirates?
Shanti & Greg: Well…because the Ninja Spirit was calling us and we really had to listen! Pirates can be great colorful characters to write about, they look pretty cool and use some pretty fun words! There are so many great things to write songs about that sometimes we have to make tough choices and save some great ideas for the NEXT album. This time, the Ninja’s won.

Thank you Greg Attonito and Shanti Wintergate for an epic multimedia #8isEnoughQuestions extravaganza! Don’t miss our previous interviews with Recess Monkey and Andrew and Polly and stay tuned for the next interview featuring Bryan Vander Ark of the Verve Pipe!