Vegetarian StarJonathan Mann, The “Song-A-Day” Guy, Exclusive Interview With Vegetarian Star

Jonathan Mann, The “Song-A-Day” Guy, Exclusive Interview With Vegetarian Star

Written by Vegetarian Star on April 20th, 2011 in Animal Issues, Food & Drink, Interviews, Male Musicians, Male Singers.

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A few weeks ago, we featured a catchy little song about vegan protein by Jonathan Mann, the guy who’s gained national attention for writing a song every day since 2009. Best of all, he gets PAID to do it, and his written jingles for the likes of people like Steve Jobs.

When he doesn’t have his hand in the vegan cookie jar, Mann is either writing, singing or uploading his creations to YouTube and his site, Songatron.com. Vegetarian Star was lucky enough to catch him when was wasn’t doing either! Here’s the exclusive interview.

Why did you decide to start writing a new song daily?
It started in 2009. I got a flyer for Fun-A-Day, which is a project where folks are invited to make one piece of art for everyday in the month of January. I decided to keep going because it’s been a great exercise for revealing the “good” songs that are inside of me, and it’s also been a nice, media friendly calling card. Also, I really enjoy the back and forth with my YouTube based audience.

A little technical question: RockCookieBottom.com and songatron.com have pretty much the same content. Can you explain more behind the two website names?
Rock Cookie Bottom was a tumblr blog that I had had just laying around for a while, and when I started Song-A-Day, I used it to post all the videos. It had a bunch of things lacking, however, so eventually I got songatron up and running. Which is better, but still lacks, I think!

I read you named the first site “rockcookiebottom” because you have a love for baking cookies. I’m assuming these are vegan cookies. Tells us your favorite vegan cookies to bake and eat.
Do. Bake. Too. Many. Cookies. Ivory said something like, “You’re going to reach the rock cookie bottom of your cookie making!” in reference to how often I make them. It’s a very emotion based thing for me, cookies are tied to being a kid and baking with my mom. I mostly go off of Colleen’s [Colleen Patrick-Goudreau] recipe in “The Joy of Vegan Baking”, though I’ve tried a bunch of others and have been known to…ahem…experiment.

Obviously, we really love the vegan song you sing with your girlfriend Ivory King, “Vegan Myths Debunked.” What was your motivation for writing this?
You know, I think it just kind of happened. We always get asked all these questions, so it seemed natural to turn them into a song.

Last we heard, you shared a place with Ivory. Who usually does the vegan cooking for the household? Who’s the better chef?
We both cook but Ivory is so much better! She can make food out of just whatever’s around, and it’ll be amazing. I have to follow a recipe. She grew up cooking, but I didn’t know the first thing about it until I met her. I didn’t know what sautéing was!

Tofu, Tempeh or Seitan—which do you prefer cooking and eating and why.
Oh! That’s hard! They’re all so good! I guess tempeh. I love the texture and it’s really versatile…though all three of those things are pretty versatile.

Tofu, Tempeh or Seitan—which would you rather sing a song and write about and why.
Um, Seitan…it’s easiest to rhyme.

How long have you been a vegan? Tell us about the events that led you to become a vegan.
I was vegetarian for about six years starting when I was 13, and eventually stopped because I had sort of lost contact with the reasons that I had become veg in the first place (I had seen a really horrible factory farming video at school). Once Ivory and I got together, she was vegetarian and it was easy to kind of slip back into it. After a year or so of being together, she became vegan. We were already eating a pretty much vegan diet. Ivory had discovered Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s podcast and cookbooks, and became extremely into it. My own commitment to becoming full-on vegan came with the realization of exactly what the dairy and egg industries entailed, and that came directly from one of Colleen’s Podcasts.

You’ve written about health issues in general and not just about veganism. What inspired “Diabetes Time Bomb?”
As I said above, I make way too many cookies. Diabetes runs in my family (my grandpa had it when he got older), and I eat WAY too many sweets. Like I say, when I start I find it hard to stop. It sucks!

There’s kind of a reference to animal research in “Diabetes Time Bomb” (I’m like the rat who keeps pushing the button until I die) about mice in laboratories who’ve been shown to be addicted to certain pleasure seeking experiences. Do you have any opinions on animals used for research in laboratories?
That was the reference I was trying to make! And I’m definitely against!

Finally, do you have a favorite vegetarian or vegan celebrity?
I’ve had a crush on Natalie Portman since I was kid.

Yes, even too many vegan sweets can be a bad thing. Here’s “Diabetes Time Bomb.”