The Beanies


The Beanies are an Australian children's music group, formed in 2016. The band consists of three theatre performers, Canberra-born Laura Dawson and Miriam "Mim" Rizvi, and Newcastle-born Michael Yore. The group have drawn acclaim and garnered an Australian Podcast Award for their educational podcast of the same name, and their second album was nominated for an ARIA Award.

About

The Beanies were formed in Sydney in 2016, as a response to the rising usage of tablets and smartphones amongst young children, with the aim of producing Australian-made children's entertainment and encourage creativity and imagination without the use of screens. They enlisted as their songwriter Sydney-based composer James Court, and with the support of the Mamamia Podcast Network, produced ten 15-minute podcast episodes, which were released in April 2017. A second season was confirmed soon after, with sponsorship from Kinderling Kids Radio, and was released in December 2017. A third season was released in July 2018, and in its leadup a series of mini-episodes, Beanies Breakthroughs, were released weekly. The fourth season, released in late 2019, was accompanied by a series of Show & Tell episodes, where the group interacted with fans and answered their questions. The four seasons have amassed in excess of 500,000 downloads, and a fifth season is currently in production, due to premiere mid-2020.
In October 2018 The Beanies premiered their one-act musical for children, entitled The Beanies' Eggs-traordinary Day, at the Sydney Fringe Festival. The group performs regularly at fairs, festivals, and community events Australia-wide, including shows at City Recital Hall and the Australia Day Sydney Children's Festival, and their episodes and songs are broadcast internationally daily on Kinderling Kids Radio. The trio has also been guests on ABC's Weekend Breakfast, Channel 9's Today and Weekend Today, several parenting and productivity podcasts, and at Australian podcast conference OzPod.
In early 2020, The Beanies were signed to the ABC Kids music label, who released their fourth album in April of that year. The group also began live-streaming concerts, due to live concerts being postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and released a single called Quarantunes during that time.
The group also maintains a YouTube channel, releasing music videos and comic sketches on a regular basis.

Members

The Beanies are:
The three also play all of the characters in the podcasts.

Music

Every season the group release an album, featuring all of the songs from the podcast. The Beanies' songs and albums are produced and released independently, with lyrics written by the group and music written and recorded by the band's composer and music producer, James Court.

Albums

In 2018, The Beanies were winners of an Australian Podcast Award for their eponymous podcast, in the category Best Podcast for Family and Kids. The group was nominated again in 2019 in the same category.
In 2019, the group’s second album, Imagination Station, was nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Children's Album, but lost to Dan Sultan for Nali & Friends.
YearNominated worksAwardResultLost to
2019Imagination StationARIA Award for Best Children's AlbumDan Sultan – Nali & Friends

Episodes

Each episode of The Beanies podcast is written entirely by The Beanies, and includes a story, a song, and an educational segment with 'Professor Know-It-All'. More recent episodes also include an imaginative meditation section, or ‘brain break’.
Episode #Episode NameLesson
01It's Raining Jelly BeansRain
02There's a Fish in my TeaFish
03The Mean HouseFear
04Silly Dizzy DanceRhythm
05A Painting PartyColours
06Sing in HarmonyHarmony
07Gee Billy! That's a Hot Chilli!Spicy food
08Space ShakeSpace
09Opera MooBeing mean
10Boss for the DayManners

Episode #Episode NameLesson
21Brush Your TeethBrushing teeth
22The SeasonsThe seasons
23Scissors, Paper, Rock!How to play 'Scissors, Paper, Rock'
24Jinx!Interrupting people
25The Art of the FartSmell
26Dig, Dig, Dig!Sand
27Wobble WombatWombats
28Shy ShadowShadows
29FingernailsFingernails
30An Amazing MachineCreativity