Meet Ray Hedgpeth of The Amoeba People in Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ray Hedgpeth.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ray. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The Amoeba People formed in 2010 with a mission to get humans of all ages excited about science through music and sci-fi-infused humor. We began releasing songs and videos with our nerdy, humorous take on science and found that not only was our music being enjoyed in science classrooms from elementary school to college courses, but also by the likes of legendary D.J. Dr. Demento and a number of other novelty and “mad music” shows. We were clearly earning our nerd cred.

The Amoeba People are originally from the Planet Crouton (in the Ensalada Star System) and were sent to Earth on a fact-finding mission after the Croutonians received multiple radio wave transmissions from Earth. The purpose of our mission here is to learn what we can and transmit that knowledge back to Crouton via short musical compositions, which, according to Croutonian Council regulations, are required to be composed with singable melodies and dope beats.

The success of the music video for our song “Continental Drift (The Posthumous Triumph of Alfred Wegener)” and others, led us to partner with many terrific scientific and educational organizations. We’ve partnered with PBS SoCal for numerous live shows, most notably their “TED Talks: Education Revolution” event. We’ve partnered with the American Chemical Society, playing at their annual conference and composing a song for their Earth and Space Chemistry Journal. We’ve rattled bones at the Natural History Museum of LA County, and we currently hold the post of “Official House Band of the Columbia Memorial Space Center” in Downey, the only post of its kind in the country. In addition, we’ve partnered with the Planetary Society and have twice shared the stage with Bill Nye the Science Guy (CEO of the Planetary Society) this past year.

In 2019 we released our newest album “The Fossil Record” and launched a podcast: The Amoeba People Podcast (Where Science and Music Collide). Though our podcast is still quite young, it helped us get the attention of the brand new Long Beach Public Radio KLBP who are having us adapt the podcast into an hour-long radio show which will be premiering at the official launch of the station in late February.

In addition to the radio show we’re launching, we’ve also begun a collaboration with animator Mike McCraw on an animated project called “Foil Four” which is inspired by our mutual love of School House Rock and Gorillaz. We’ve completed the first short, entitled “Heliocentric” and are currently at work on the second. Our goal is to have an entire series of these short, educational science “mini musicals” for people of all ages to learn science in a fun and engaging way.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never a smooth road when you have to travel 27 light years across the vast expanse of interstellar space. But fortunately our journey to Earth was much easier than would be expected, thanks to the Hyperbole Drive which allowed us to reach this planet in a matter of days.

Here on Earth it has been difficult getting people to believe that we are actually from the Planet Crouton. We dress like some of Earth’s most renowned and innovative scientists (NASA engineers from the early 60s) to help us “fit in.”

Beyond that, it is difficult placing our music into a genre. We call it “Science Rock From The Planet Crouton,” but apparently when you upload your music to Spotify, this genre does not exist.

Please tell us about The Amoeba People.
We write songs about science, scientists, space, asteroids, and even fossilized dinosaur poo. Pretty much anything science-related. We create music videos as well as teaching resources to use with our songs. What sets us apart from other science rock bands? Well, for starters, we’re the only Earth-bound science rock band from the Planet Crouton. We left a comfy life back on Crouton as one of the most beloved musical acts in the planet’s history. But we’re always looking for a new opportunity to share our music with new fans, so a small blue planet 27 light years from home seemed good to us.

Additionally, our high energy live shows feature not only our interstellar musicianship but also corny science jokes and incredibly complicated dance moves.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When we were young Croutonic Amoebas, we used to hike out to the Unleavened Flats just outside of the town we all grew up in (Yeastburg) and there we’d look up at the stars and the other planets in our system (Arugula, Endive, Imitation Bacon Bit, to name a few) and dream of playing our music to other life forms on other worlds one day. Those were great times on Crouton.

Pricing:

• Our albums can be purchased for a mere $10
• T-shirts are a wildly reasonable $20

Contact Info:

• Website: theamoebapeople.com
• Email: croutoniancouncil@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamoebapeople/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAmoebaPeople/

Image Credit:
Thomas McDonnell, Shelby Dereszynski, Frank Jordan

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