Guitarist and songwriter Tito Uquillas of the Bay Area band The Hipwaders has always struck me as almost as much a fan of great kids music and music in general as a creator of great kids music. Indeed, in an unrelated conversation about traveling around the country to shows such as Kidzapalooza and the Sirius-XM Studios, Uquillas said "We just need our costs covered as we don't care about making money. We're in it for the adventure!" Even with that comment, Uquillas has also been a little more upfront than many in the kids music genre about the sometimes challenging economics of being a musician in the 21st century. He recently answered a few questions about his musical background, the economics of his band, and what it's like to have a song of yours accompany a show on catfish noodling. Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up? Tito Uquillas: I think it's telling that my earliest memory is a musical one of my aunt singing Petula Clark's "Downtown" as she would walk us to the downtown area of the town we lived. My father is from Ecuador and had quite an eclectic record collection. Besides hearing a lot of Ecudaorean music artists, I was exposed to what now would be termed as "world music." He also had an extensive collection of soundtracks. I found the soundtracks extremely interesting and loved hearing the zither of "The Third Man Theme" and the bouzouki of "Zorba the Greek." When I was 8 years old I saw The Beatles' movie Help! on TV and became infatuated with the band. Every few weeks I would buy a Beatles album by saving my milk money and doing odd jobs like polishing my Dad's shoes. As a teenager I was corrupted by Lenny Kayes' Nuggets compilation and my taste in music turned away from mainstream. I loved the high energy raw sounds of music from Stax/Volt soul to punk rock and new wave music. I would buy every Stiff Records and Two-Tone import 45 I could lay my hands on. It didn't matter if I knew the band or not. How hard is it combining your day job (or perhaps it's a night job depending on your shifts) with your Hipwaders work?