Those who aren’t familiar with the term “filk”, by the way, might want to refer to some definitions.
PWL: How did you get together in the first place?
AD: Debbie and I met through music gatherings at local Toronto science fiction conventions. She played flute and piano and I played guitar and we began to collaborate casually together. We met Jodi through a mutual friend and the three of us started experimenting further with song-writing and vocal harmony. Shortly after that we recorded a tape together called “Castles and Skyscrapers” and began to perform together at science fiction conventions.
JK: … it was a gaming friend that introduced me to Allison and Debbie. (Prior to 1993, I’d never heard of conventions.) Participating in filk was a real eye-opener for me, but there was an almost instant musical connection between Debbie, Allison and myself. My own musical projects had never had so much creative songwriting and vocal harmonies and I’d never been in a group where a flute was one of the major influences. Previous to my getting together with Allison and Debbie, I’d been making music that was fairly techno, in a group called “Group of 77” where my partner used a synth to create the backing tracks. While I enjoyed that, it was definitely a true joy to discover and experiment with the more acoustic end of things. I think that’s where my heart truly lies.
DRO: I met Allison through SF conventions…. I remember noticing a red-headed guitarist with a gorgeous alto voice, and would sit in filk circles hoping against hope that she would show up. I finally got tired of passively waiting and started nagging her to sing (she was a bit shy back then) more aggressively. Instead of running screaming from an avid fan, Allison was pretty friendly, and we hit it off pretty well. Same chemistry happened when we both met Jodi. Our weekly get-togethers are often more social than strictly music practice, I have to confess. Mainly because we’re friends as well as music partners.
PWL: How would you describe your work?
AD: Urban Tapestry performs filk music, which is generally described as songs written on themes that appeal to fans of science fiction and fantasy. Our songs cover the silly and the serious in styles from ballads to jazz to rock, and our arrangements include vocal harmonies, guitar, flute and percussion.
JK: Oh. And schtick. You can’t forget the schtick. (On the funny songs, anyway.) Debbie is a fantastic cartoonist, which helps us a lot with the schtick end of things.
DRO: I agree … our music is a real grab-bag, a result of all of us having different musical tastes. Originally, Allison tended be the folkie in the group, Jodi more mainstream, while I leaned toward silly humour. Our songwriting and musical tastes have evolved over the years, however, so it’s not as simple now.
PWL: What drew you to filk in the first place?
AD: I have always loved science fiction and fantasy literature and media, as well as contemporary folk music. I was setting Tolkien poetry to music before I knew what filk music was. It was a perfect match for me to discover folk music with science fiction and fantasy themes and I was immediately drawn to the filk community once I found it.
JK: Allison and Debbie?
DRO: I love jamming with other musicians, so was immediately drawn to the collaborative, creative atmosphere of the filk community. Since then, however, many other aspects of filk appeal to me such as the friends we’ve made, and the accepting and supportive community in filking.
PWL: What are your goals for the group?
AD: Our goals are to continue to improve our talents as musicians and songwriters by experimenting and working on our music together. We will continue to sing and perform at conventions and other appropriate settings. We are honoured that we’ve been asked to guest at ConChord, the filk convention in LA on August 2-4 of next year. We are in the early planning stages of preparing a third recording together.
JK: Our goal is also to have a lot of fun. After over 8 years together, when you’re still having fun, that’s a not too shabby accomplishment.
DRO: Agreed! I think our goals are definitely a mixture of musical growth and experimentation as well as making sure we continue to have fun along the way.
*
Peggi Warner-Lalonde is Senior Music Editor for Strange Horizons.
Hibernal Cryodreams of Conquest
By Steve Sneyd and Gene van Troyer
9/3/01
Among the Cold Colonists
Is Deepfreeze Drinkfur
Even in permafrost’s
ersatz my ship carries
still I feel watchful
out of your fleshscape
thrust of heartessence,
eating spacecold like
banked white dwarf!
Starlight avoids our
passage, that is
its duty to our needcall,
to drive out of any
sector we demand
room in, even from far off,
any filthy “natural”
presence of Before
And yet It taints you:
and me. As I grimly
inhale Galactolift,
drug for Longvoyage, still
in it I sense like dead kisses
behind your ice-plant
spattered skin is
furthrust
out of systems we
cleared long ago
of all such kin, still forth
looks, knifesharp, keen,
deep in your eyes the buried
clawwork, surfacing
cutting my balls to untidy
fiery tiger-cub’s wool unravelling.
Coiled pain.
Freezesleeper’s Reply
In this cryopalace night
the icedreams glacial reckonings
bergging into cometary scars
around the mainsequence gold
of your thermofield, your needcall
sensed like distant mechinations
auroral swirls in the
cranial north of my spacecold
sleep embrace me
as we skirt the lightyears’ lengths
of rifts and starstrands.
Will you be changed
when we stand upon alien bones
next planetfall, the new skies
yet again our own and
purified with our constellations?
The furnace wind of your lifebreath
rekindle the coal of heartessence?
In permafrost ersatz slumber the
blizzardsmear of your shape your
summerbreath rakes the sculpted
tundra of my aching flesh.
Copyright © 1994 Steve Sneyd and Gene van Troyer
*
Work by Steve Sneyd, who lives in Yorkshire, England, has appeared in over 1,000 magazines and anthologies worldwide, in 40 books/chapbooks, and on the Net, been broadcast, including BBC Radio 4’s Stanza, and read at many SF and literary events. He has also many published articles and books about SF poetry. Steve has no Web site, but you can read an online interview with him here.
Gene van Troyer presently resides in Japan. He writes science fiction prose and poetry, with work published in Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Vertex and other SF genre magazines, and is a past editor of Star*Line, the newsletter of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. His translation from Japanese of Yano Tetsu’s “The Legend of the Paper Spaceship” is the most reprinted Japanese science fiction story in the in the world.
Reunion
By Lucy A. E. Ward
9/10/01
They move in a slow wheel of devastation
dark sisters spinning with the grace of death
shawls of lost memories about their shoulders
and skirt hems dirtied with a dying sun’s dust
If they summon you to dance
then dance you will
lost within their company
the madness of incomprehension unfurling
as they remain beyond your vision
no matter how hard you stare
no matter how close they sway
With such brazen elusiveness
they draw you close
with siren whispers
and untold heaviness
within their hearts
or eyes
It is a slow wheel that turns
but this vast family is reunited
embracing with simple resignation
never sadness or even joy
everything is silent
everything is cold
Here stands alone the grail of Adam’s blood
reconcentrated peacefully
impatiently waiting to spill once more
Copyright © 2001 Lucy A. E. Ward
*
Lucy A. E. Ward is a poet residing in the Netherlands. She has been published in “Muse It” and has other works appearing soon in “Black October,” “Fables” and “The Cafe Irreal.” When not writing, she enjoys developing her Web site.
Deconstructing Night
By Ann K. Schwader
9/17/01
Demolish first the false dichotomy
of clotted darkness threatening moonlight.
That one is sane & holy in our sight,
the other neither, merely seems to be
(on close analysis) a privileged view
of questionable worth. This shadowed text
might shelter its fair share of terrors, true;
but who are you to say so? Might the next
dark angel’s radically alternative
perspective not apply as well? Efface
hierarchical assumptions, & embrace
that arbitrary madness which still lives
between these penciled lines of dusk & dawn—
the last postmodern haunt of chaos-spawn.
Copyright © 2001 Ann K. Schwader
*
Ann K. Schwader lives and writes in Westminster, CO. She is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. Several of her poems have received Honorable Mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, and she is a multiple Rhysling Award nominee. Her first full-length collection has recently been published by Hive Press. Heidi previously reviewed L. Warren Douglas’ The Sacred Pool for Strange Horizons.