Dan Goldstein is a jazz pianist, has a PhD in bioengineering and is a patent attorney in his day-job. He has always loved being involved in the intersection between science, education and music. Dan wrote the Brains! song while a freshman at Princeton University and hasn’t stopped writing since. Dan’s picture doesn’t appear on this site. Please imagine him looking like a combination of Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise.
Yael Valier has had a deep interest in geography ever since being born to French parents in Tokyo and living there for six years before moving on to Johannesburg, London, New York, Philadelphia, Jerusalem and Efrat, visiting many many places en route. Currently, she works in the medical device patents field and acts here and there, though she actually spends most of her time with her kids. Yael’s picture also doesn’t appear on this site. Please imagine her looking like someone you respect and admire and also think is very very cool.
The Goldstein Brothers: Natan, Ya’ir, Gilad, Tzachi, Sraya and Shalem all look exactly like different incarnations of Dan. But younger. This is their first album.
Ashira Mehallel is a linguist. That’s why she enunciates so well. She’d rather focus on her night-job as a singer and actress than on anything else, though.
The album is great. What percentage of your listeners actually read all those extra science notes on the website?
We don’t know! Are you guys reading all this stuff? Let us know (click on the Contact page) please. Tell us if there’s too much or too little of it. Thanks.
What’s Dan saying at the end of track 5?
That’s a Hebrew blessing that is said after (brace yourself) people go to the bathroom. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you suddenly couldn’t go to the bathroom? (Your life wouldn’t be very long, for a start.) After you imagine it, you might understand why there is a Hebrew blessing thanking God when everything works like it should.
Who is that guy singing in Blood Voyage who isn’t Dan? You didn’t list him in the credits.
Actually, that guy is a woman! He’s Yael! Jeff has this cool function on his computer called “Woman to Man” that can convert a woman’s voice to a man’s. Yael loves knowing that that is how she would sound as a man. By the way, in The Ballad of The Up-the-Quark brothers, where Yael sings in the second verse, you may have noticed a man singing quietly along with her. Except that Yael is actually accompanying herself with the Woman to Man function.
Why is the South America song called Abagoda?
When Dan’s twins were three, they came home from pre-school singing “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Except that they had no idea what the words they were singing meant, or even exactly how to say the words. This didn’t bother them at all, and they sang very happily. Dan had a brainwave. He realized that he could teach his kids songs with whatever words he liked, and the kids would happily sing them. So he wrote a song about the countries and capitals of South America and sang it to his kids every night when brushing their teeth. Soon, the kids started to call the song Abagoda, because that is how they heard the words “Columbia, Bogota”. Eventually, the kids grew up and discovered that they understood those words that had just been random sounds to them when they were small, and that furthermore, they could now impress people with their grasp of geography. Now Dan’s kids feel at home when looking at a world map and know what their spleen is for too.
Where can I get the decoder ring?
Um, you’re going to have to write to Carol Bienstock from Jefferson County. She might trade it for your lucky shoelace. Or something.
Your sneak preview of Volume II is about Beethoven. That’s not science or geography. Is Volume II going to be different?
Volume II will include a lot of history. Things that you wish you knew or even feel like you should know, but don’t, because who can remember all this stuff? We won’t include more songs about composers though, because Beethoven’s Wig does it so well. So if you’re interested in composers and like excellent music and have a sense of humor, rush out and buy the Beethoven’s Wig albums. You can get them on Amazon. We bought all of them ourselves for our families, and we all love them. For the record, we have nothing to do with the Beethoven’s Wig people. We just think they’re worth advertising. And by the way, if you know of any other albums that are excellent both musically and educationally, tell us about them.
I loooove this album. Where can I buy Volume II?
Ok. Since you have gotten this far, we’ll tell you the unvarnished truth. We’re trying to look big and impressive, so, for example, we haven’t told you that Dan Goldstein and Yael Valier are married, but actually, this is a mom and pop operation. We loved making this album and we have a lot more songs and a lot more ideas – enough for another album or two… But first we have to make enough money to cover the expenses we incurred while making this one. Sigh. So the straight answer is, you can buy Volume II if enough people buy Volume I for us to make it. But take heart! There’s been a tremendous response to the album. Seems that a whole lot of people like it. They buy it for their kids and then hog it, apparently, so it looks like maybe you will be able to buy Volume II sooner or later. Send us your email address and we’ll let you know when it’s available.