Q&A with Des Moines native musician Justin Roberts, ahead of his return for two free central Iowa shows

When Justin Roberts was in fifth grade he gave his first public performance on the Des Moines Civic Center's stage.

This weekend, decades after that first show, the children's musician is partnering with Des Moines Performing Arts — the organization that runs the Civic Center — for a set of free central Iowa performances.

Roberts, who now lives in Evanston, Illinois, will perform at Ankeny's Wagner Park, 410 W. 1st St., in the Ankeny Band Shell at 6 p.m. Friday. And at 11 a.m. Saturday he'll be at Des Moines' Lauridsen Amphitheater in Water Works Park, 2201 George Flagg Pkwy.

Both appearances are free and will have Roberts as well as fellow musician, Inez Barlatier, who created the interactive concert "Ayiti: Stories and Songs from Haiti" as a way to share the Haitian culture she rarely saw broadly celebrated as a child.

The Des Moines Register spoke with Roberts, who released his latest album "Space Cadet" earlier this year, last week while he prepared to make the trip back to Des Moines.

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Q&A with Justin Roberts

Register: Coming back to Des Moines now, is this your first time back in a while?

Roberts: With the pandemic, it's been a while. I think it used to be that we would come back about once a year. We have done some things for the Performing Arts Center, and we've also like performed at the (Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden) and the downtown school used to have us out for an annual fundraiser.

Strangely, my very first public performance was a solo of "My Best Girl" from "Mame" (at the Des Moines Civic Center). When I was in fifth grade, and the Des Moines Junior League put on like a follies event as a fundraiser and put together all these musical numbers and I sang a solo on the stage. ... So one of the times I was there (as an adult) we were performing outside but our green room was inside and they let me see the stage. I hadn't been in the space for a long while. ... It was really fun to be back on that stage and just be like, "Wow, who knew that I was actually going to pursue a career in music after that."

Register: I think you'd put out your previous album around the time you were becoming a new father, but "Space Cadet" is the album that you've put out after a few years of living that.

Roberts: The advantage I found with having a kid now is sometimes I would get ideas from other people's kids and now I get ideas from my own. ... It's fun to try songs out on him or just see how he responds to the material I've written.

One of the things I learned early on ... was that my preconceived notions about what had to happen in kids' music wasn't necessarily true. It doesn't have to be super catchy and super simple and all of that stuff for a kid to like it. It just has to tell a good story, it just has to be true. Knowing that I sort of write for myself and try to find ways to make things like Halloween meaningful to me as an adult ... I write a song about it and I hope it connects with kids. That generally has been the secret ingredient, not trying to assume you'll know what kids are going to respond to because they're so amazing. They have such a deep emotional life you could never guess what they're actually going to respond to.

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Register: I think about that in terms of children's books or movies, that the best ones sort of appeal to a wide audience.

Roberts: I have a song on a record called "Jungle Gym" that's called "Never Getting Lost," it's about getting lost at a mall and when I wrote it I thought, "This is going to make moms or dads cry in their minivan; the kids aren't necessarily going to like it."

I was in Seattle and (a) 4-year-old came up to me and his mother said "'Never Getting Lost' is his favorite song." I said, "Oh, did he get lost at a mall?" And she said, "No, he just worries about people who get lost."

It's just amazing to see how kids respond to things. ... I think you just can't underestimate what a child is going to get out of art.

Register: What's the biggest contribution that your son liked or didn't like or something that you saw him do that inspired your work? What's something that's influenced you?

Roberts: We live very close to a fire station in Evanston and Eli was in a pretty grumpy mood one night when we were taking a family walk around the block. ... Suddenly a truck came out of the station, and his eyes lit up and it just like totally changed his whole perspective on the evening.

I just thought, "That's a cool idea," how a fire truck can shock you out of however you're stuck in your own mind and then started thinking about how other people that do that for you in life. For a kid, I think you have a teacher or a mother or father who's able to sort of give you a new perspective on things and sometimes. So there's a song called "Gimme a Fire Truck" that's about that experience.

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Register: Since you've been doing this for 25 years, I imagine you're also at the point where people who were listening to those first couple of albums are starting to become parents now.

Roberts: It's just starting to happen, but I actually think there's a father in Des Moines who had reached out to me, I think prior to the pandemic, but he had been to concerts when he was a kid in Des Moines and now he has kids of his own and he was enjoying revisiting the music with them.

I think at this point, I have a lot more college-aged kids or adults who grew up on my music and it's fun to see some of them.

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Register: Regarding this upcoming performance with Inez Barlatier, was that something that DMPA pitched to you or was this something that sort of coalesced outside of that?

Roberts: I think it was something between Des Moines Performing Arts and my booking agent, I think that (Des Moines Performing Arts) wanted to work with both of us in some manner and the idea came of working with us together. It's super exciting for me just because that's part of the creative process: going into something totally unknown and having no idea what you're gonna do, but knowing there's a deadline at the end. I kind of love that, we're gonna have to figure it out in three days how to make a show together.

We are going to actually learn some of each other's material but also write some things together over the course of the week, and then we're going to be performing in schools and in public together. Although we've talked on the phone, we've never really met. It's going to be a really fun collaborative thing that I've never done before and I think it'll be an amazing event. She is an incredible musician and I'm really excited to see what we can do together.

Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ihamlet@gannett.com or 319-600-2124, follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines raised musician Justin Roberts returns with two free shows