Back in 2007, Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. introduced us all to the vibrant, surreal world of Yo Gabba Gabba! Fronted by the orange tracksuit-wearing DJ Lance Rock (played by Lance Robertson), the show featured the quirky monsters Muno, Foofa, Brobee, Todee, and a robot named Plex.
Yo Gabba Gabba! was notable for not just educating children, but introducing them to great music as well. Questlove, Bootsy Collins, The Killers, MGMT, The Flaming Lips, and Weezer are just a few of the legendary artists to appear on the original series.
Now, Yo Gabba Gabba! is back in the form of the Apple TV+ revival series Yo Gabba GabbaLand! Developed by original creators Christian Jacobs (of The Aquabats!) and Scott Schultz, the show features 10 all-new episodes with new musical guests, higher production value, and a new host in Kammy Kam (the 13-year-old Kamryn Smith).
And it comes to the world by way of Utah.
The show was shot at the Utah Film Studios in Park City (with some segments filmed in Los Angeles), while audio tracking and editing were handled right here in Provo at June Audio by Nate Pyfer, Chance Clift, and Mason Winter.
“I got to record the voiceover for a few of the characters this season,” says Clift. He explains that while some of the character actors recorded in California and one of them recorded in New Zealand, many of them recorded at June Audio.
“The highlight of the season for me was when Nate and I got to work the session with Anderson .Paak, who was the special musical guest on episode one,” says Clift. “He’s probably the biggest artist I’ve ever engineered a session for, and he was such a pleasure to work with. He went above and beyond to make his song as cool as possible, and you can tell he genuinely had fun doing it.”
Originally, Mason Winter was supposed to handle engineering, recording, and editing – but he caught COVID one week into production. “Thankfully, Chance saved me,” he said. “He really stepped up. Lucky for us, the situation accidentally created a really solid production process. When I came back, we knew our roles. He’d record audio and send it over to me for editing and I’d take it from there. It was a lot of fun, and it made things a lot smoother. It worked out great.”
Catering to preschoolers, the show is vibrant, colorful, interactive, and helps teach powerful messages about emotions and self-love. The show has been well received, with positive reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, Decider, The Los Angeles Times, and more. It’s simply beautiful, wholesome art.
Handling audio production on high profile projects like this is just one of the many ways the Provo music industry is thriving. June Audio recorded Post Malone’s 2023 LP AUSTIN; NPR did an entire on-location mini-series about the Provo music scene (and won an award for it); and composers from Provo were recently nominated for a Grammy for their work on the Hogwarts Legacy soundtrack.
You can watch the entire first episode of Yo Gabba GabbaLand! for free on YouTube, featuring the Anderson .Paak performance recorded in downtown Provo.
By Zach Collier via ProvoMusicMagazine.com
