The Febvre-Attry family felt the time had come for a project.
Ever since the shelter-in-place orders went into effect, parents Charlotte and Jeremie have been working from home — she’s a journalist who works for French TV, he works in marketing. And their two kids, Ava, 9, and Raphael, 6, who attend Ecole Bilingue, are right there with them, being homeschooled and missing their friends.
“We thought it would be good to have something to pass the time,” Charlotte told Berkeleyside.
The family loves music — Jeremie used to be a musician for many years and still plays the guitar, and they have a tradition of shooting home videos and sharing them on a private channel for their family to watch back in France. So perhaps the notion of producing a music video was inevitable.
It started with some innocent singing of the 1988 Bobby McFerrin hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” over lunch one day, Jeremie said, which evolved into changing the lyrics as they sang.
Jeremie suggested they try to write something down and then record it in the small home studio they have in their North Berkeley home. It took about three weeks to produce the video, but it was done mainly on the weekends, what with everyone having work to do during week. Both kids are naturally shy, their parents said, but they wanted to be part of it and Ava stepped up to be the lead singer.
The result has been very well received. The extended family loved it it; the kids’ friends watched it and gave positive feedback which gave Ava and Raphael a boost; and one of their teachers told them it would give everyone “a good feeling.”
“We wanted to connect with people and provide some good vibes,” said Charlotte. “If we are struggling at home, then many people are.”
