The Sophistikids™: The Story Behind The Songs
The Sophistikids™ is a new original series that, in this parent’s opinion, fills a much-needed, yet rarely approached niche: Entertainment that excites and engages children as well as amuses modern parents at the same time. In a highly saturated world of children’s music and video content, where the vast majority of programming is simplistic and can get mind-numbingly repetitive for us parents (countless versions of the ABC’s, famous nursery rhymes, and garbage trucks songs), The Sophistikids™ material aims to offer stimulating, provocative, and sophisticated enjoyment for the whole family in one package. It’s something NEW.
The Sophistikids™ concept - songs for children, lyrics for parents - evolved organically in real-time by founder, composer, and new parent Josh Klein, most known for composing music on TV shows including TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, and Major Crimes; FX’s Nip/Tuck and Damages; USA Network’s Royal Pains; and CBS’ NCIS LA. To engage his newborn daughter, Siena, during meal times, bath time, and play time on the mat, Josh found himself crafting modern lyrical riffs describing their everyday infant-parent activities and interactions that simultaneously cracked himself and his wife, Etty, up. After having an enormous amount of fun with the songs with his family, Josh realized that other like-minded parents might get a kick out of them as well. Their lyrics depict cool, hip, sophisticated children yearning to mimic and emulate their parents in grown-up ways, and they are broadly relatable to all demographic groups that are thirsting for original, creative, and cleverly-voiced entertainment.
Recognizing the potential for their appeal, Josh fully produced several initial songs, and he then collaborated with Confidential Creative & Confidential Cartoon Studios to create animated music videos to share. These songs are the first examples of what will eventually be a fully evolved, comprehensive series of content that provides progressive, intelligent, and attention-grabbing entertainment suited for young children and parents alike.
About The Creator
Josh Klein is a composer, producer, and performer whose music has uplifted countless projects across a variety of storytelling mediums. His musical versatility stems from a combination of his life-long study of classical piano, orchestration, and composition, years of experience performing and writing rock songs on electric bass and vocals, and his flexible blend of synthetic and other writing styles that give him a distinct compositional voice.
For many years, Josh worked alongside TV/film composer James S. Levine, scoring music for many hit television series, including TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, and Major Crimes; FX’s Nip/Tuck and Damages; USA Network’s Royal Pains; and CBS’ NCIS LA; and many others. He won two ASCAP awards for the most performed cable series, Rizzoli & Isles, in 2015 and 2016. In addition, Josh helped to create and launch Sony/Extreme Music’s “Law & Audio” music catalogue in 2011, for which he continues to compose and manage the album production process. “Law & Audio" is a unique music library tailored towards procedural crime drama television shows, and other genres, that has led to thousands of placements in TV series and other media. Josh has also scored a number of independent films that have won acclaim on international festival circuits as well as contributed to many reality TV shows on assorted networks.
Josh’s latest passion-project in the children’s entertainment space, The Sophistikids™, was born quite organically while living his current daily life - parenting his first young child. In late-night, sleep-deprived efforts to entertain his infant daughter while also amuse himself and his wife, Josh began improvising lyrics in real-time that are comedic on an adult humor level, but are sung from the perspective of his daughter, making them all the more fun and fresh. These songs, including “Come Namaste with Me!” and “Baby Mixology 101,” have provided a lot of laughs for his family all around. He is excited to run with his new endeavor to see how many other children and parents he can entertain in the process as this new brand of content evolves.
Originally from Houston, Josh moved to Boston to attend Tufts University and study clinical psychology. He has performed in hundreds of shows around the Northeast, Texas, and California, and co-written, recorded, and co-produced several albums with nationally-esteemed production teams while receiving enthusiastic online and print acclaim. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
