interviewed by autographedcat
1. Do you find fannish audiences react differently than Scadian ones?
Hmm, let's see. Fannish audiences are a little more likely to "play along" with the performers (singing on refrains, interacting in other ways). Fannish audiences are (in general!) less interested in instrumental music than SCAdian ones. Material that is predominantly "serious" rather than funny goes over better in the SCA. Fen will sit through longer performances.
The most jaw-dropping, heartfelt compliments I've gotten on music have come from fannish audiences. This is a little perplexing, as a higher proportion of fans than SCAdians are also musicians.
2. What do you like best about where you are living now?
While it's urban, it feels like a small town: I can walk to (some) shopping and restaurants, my commute is 15 minutes, and almost everything is within a 30-minute drive (most closer). I don't feel unsafe walking alone at night, and while I don't know most of my neighbors, there are people (and dogs :-) ) around the neighborhood who I run into regularly and recognize. My neighborhood is full of houses, not apartment building (though there are some).
3. What's your favorite memory from performing with your group.
I think that would be the Worldcon in Baltimore about eight or nine years ago. We had two performances. The first was in a food court or some such where a lot of people weren't interested in our performance, there was a lot of noise, and the accoustics were poor. This was discouraging, but we gave it our professional best. But the second concert was on a stage in front of people who seemed to be enjoying it, and -- this was the coolest part IMO -- we got to open for Clam Chowder. When I formed this group I looked to Clam Chowder for a lot of my inspiration in performance practice -- set construction, stagecraft, recovering from surprises or errors, and so on. While the mixes are different we, like the CLams, are basically a folk-music group more than a filk group. (So they showed me it was possible.) So, with all that, and being a fan of their music, getting to perform right before them was really cool, and it certainly boosted us going into the set. I think we did a pretty darn good performance there, though I have no recordings to independently evaluate that.
(Yes, I'm mindful of the fact that a lot of our audience wasn't there for us; they just wanted good seats for the Clams. But people enjoyed our concert, or at least didn't make it obvious that they didn't.)
4. What are you artistic plans for the future?
Right now I don't have any; I'm making it up as I go along. In a lot of ways I don't fit well in filk circles, where the emphasis is on writing your own material. I stink at lyrics. So I'm a mere performer, and while I think I'm a good one, performers of other people's music are a dime a dozen. Combine that with not being a guitarist, and I'm not really sure anyone wants to hear me. The strength of On the Mark was our rich instrumental arrangements, but even when the group was together we didn't take all that stuff to filksings and bardic circles. It would have felt weird, crossing the line from casual gathering to performance setup.
This is more of an SCA thing, though it could work in fandom too, maybe (it does for osewalrus, but he's good): I've been thinking of trying my hand at storytelling. The few times I've tried I've told stories from the midrash; there's some fun stuff there, it's usually not long, and I have a personal connection to it. (And a persona connection, in the SCA.)
I want to do more music, especially more singing, but I'm not really sure of the best way to approach that.
5. What's the biggest challenge in keeping a musical group together?
I think the answer depends on the type of group, so I'm going to focus on the type of group On the Mark was: small, volunteer, closed, and friends. For me, as leader of that group, the biggest challenge was balancing the needs of the group with the needs/wants of individuals.
For instance, what do you do when a member of the group (remember, one of your friends) wants to do something that is beyond his skill? Maybe he's just not good enough on that instrument, that song is beyond his vocal abilities, or whatever. (Note that this is a generic "he"; I am not referring to a particular group member.) Sometimes we were able to talk about it; sometimes it was clear that we just plain disagreed about the skill involved. What do you do? Suck it up and let your friend perform it that way with your implicit endorsement? Say that that's ok for some performances, but others are too important? Be hard-nosed and say no (and add another straw to the maybe-this-isn't-fun-anymore camel for that person)?
For another instance, what do you do when group members have different willingness (or ability) to make commitments? Particularly, what do you do if this changes after someone is in the group? You can say up front "we rehearse weekly" and everyone can agree, and then six months in someone says he can't handle more than once a month. Do you lower the rehearsal frequency, tell that member he needs to make a choice, redo your arrangements to make that person more optional (thus marginalizing him)? Does any of this change depending on why this is happening -- are you more lenient for a more-demanding employer than for his new World-of-Warquest habit? What about something in the middle, like spousal objections? (And remember, these are your friends we're talking about.)
I found these sorts of issues really challenging, and I never completely got the clues on how you handle stuff like this.
Hmm, let's see. Fannish audiences are a little more likely to "play along" with the performers (singing on refrains, interacting in other ways). Fannish audiences are (in general!) less interested in instrumental music than SCAdian ones. Material that is predominantly "serious" rather than funny goes over better in the SCA. Fen will sit through longer performances.
The most jaw-dropping, heartfelt compliments I've gotten on music have come from fannish audiences. This is a little perplexing, as a higher proportion of fans than SCAdians are also musicians.
2. What do you like best about where you are living now?
While it's urban, it feels like a small town: I can walk to (some) shopping and restaurants, my commute is 15 minutes, and almost everything is within a 30-minute drive (most closer). I don't feel unsafe walking alone at night, and while I don't know most of my neighbors, there are people (and dogs :-) ) around the neighborhood who I run into regularly and recognize. My neighborhood is full of houses, not apartment building (though there are some).
3. What's your favorite memory from performing with your group.
I think that would be the Worldcon in Baltimore about eight or nine years ago. We had two performances. The first was in a food court or some such where a lot of people weren't interested in our performance, there was a lot of noise, and the accoustics were poor. This was discouraging, but we gave it our professional best. But the second concert was on a stage in front of people who seemed to be enjoying it, and -- this was the coolest part IMO -- we got to open for Clam Chowder. When I formed this group I looked to Clam Chowder for a lot of my inspiration in performance practice -- set construction, stagecraft, recovering from surprises or errors, and so on. While the mixes are different we, like the CLams, are basically a folk-music group more than a filk group. (So they showed me it was possible.) So, with all that, and being a fan of their music, getting to perform right before them was really cool, and it certainly boosted us going into the set. I think we did a pretty darn good performance there, though I have no recordings to independently evaluate that.
(Yes, I'm mindful of the fact that a lot of our audience wasn't there for us; they just wanted good seats for the Clams. But people enjoyed our concert, or at least didn't make it obvious that they didn't.)
4. What are you artistic plans for the future?
Right now I don't have any; I'm making it up as I go along. In a lot of ways I don't fit well in filk circles, where the emphasis is on writing your own material. I stink at lyrics. So I'm a mere performer, and while I think I'm a good one, performers of other people's music are a dime a dozen. Combine that with not being a guitarist, and I'm not really sure anyone wants to hear me. The strength of On the Mark was our rich instrumental arrangements, but even when the group was together we didn't take all that stuff to filksings and bardic circles. It would have felt weird, crossing the line from casual gathering to performance setup.
This is more of an SCA thing, though it could work in fandom too, maybe (it does for osewalrus, but he's good): I've been thinking of trying my hand at storytelling. The few times I've tried I've told stories from the midrash; there's some fun stuff there, it's usually not long, and I have a personal connection to it. (And a persona connection, in the SCA.)
I want to do more music, especially more singing, but I'm not really sure of the best way to approach that.
5. What's the biggest challenge in keeping a musical group together?
I think the answer depends on the type of group, so I'm going to focus on the type of group On the Mark was: small, volunteer, closed, and friends. For me, as leader of that group, the biggest challenge was balancing the needs of the group with the needs/wants of individuals.
For instance, what do you do when a member of the group (remember, one of your friends) wants to do something that is beyond his skill? Maybe he's just not good enough on that instrument, that song is beyond his vocal abilities, or whatever. (Note that this is a generic "he"; I am not referring to a particular group member.) Sometimes we were able to talk about it; sometimes it was clear that we just plain disagreed about the skill involved. What do you do? Suck it up and let your friend perform it that way with your implicit endorsement? Say that that's ok for some performances, but others are too important? Be hard-nosed and say no (and add another straw to the maybe-this-isn't-fun-anymore camel for that person)?
For another instance, what do you do when group members have different willingness (or ability) to make commitments? Particularly, what do you do if this changes after someone is in the group? You can say up front "we rehearse weekly" and everyone can agree, and then six months in someone says he can't handle more than once a month. Do you lower the rehearsal frequency, tell that member he needs to make a choice, redo your arrangements to make that person more optional (thus marginalizing him)? Does any of this change depending on why this is happening -- are you more lenient for a more-demanding employer than for his new World-of-Warquest habit? What about something in the middle, like spousal objections? (And remember, these are your friends we're talking about.)
I found these sorts of issues really challenging, and I never completely got the clues on how you handle stuff like this.