"Not Everyone Dies" An Interview with Erica Neely By Debbie Ridpath Ohi

How it all began...

Erica Neely blames Mike Richards for getting her into filk. Mike gave glowing reports about his first filk convention (Transept) and showed her songbooks and tapes he had picked up at the convention. The two decided to try their hand at songwriting, then attended Obliter-8 (UK convention). "They haven't been able to get rid of me since," says Erica.

Although Erica now lives in North America, she has strong ties with the UK filk community, having attended her first convention there as well as doing her undergraduate degree in England. When she came back and began to get into North American filk, it was difficult.

"I'm terribly shy in many ways and I'm not good in large groups of people I don't know," says Erica. "Even now, you'll often see me sitting alone at conventions because I'm too shy to go up to people - yes, even my friends - and ask if I can sit with them. The outrageous persona I wear at cons is a part of me, but it wages a war with the shy person. It was bad enough to have to get to know people in the UK...but I had to do it *all over again* in the US, because I didn't know anyone here either. (And no one here knew me.) I wasn't very active my first couple of years here partly for that reason. (And partly because I'm fairly poor, being a student.) The more I have gotten to know people, the more I have started going to cons...much to my budget's dismay."

How does the UK filk scene compare to the North American filk scene compare?

"Because the UK is smaller than North America, everyone really more or less knows everyone. I think that there are people really well-known in California, say, whom people on the East Coast have never heard of. (And vice-versa, of course.) I don't think that happens as much in the UK, because everyone knows everyone. (Okay, I'm generalizing, obviously. But it's still easier to see everyone more often if the country is the size of the UK...and almost everyone shows up to the filkcon, so you get to know who's filking, even if they don't make it to the Swiggles or to Nycon.)

Let's see, what else? I find North American chaos far more cutthroat than UK chaos, but maybe that's just where I've been (East Coast). I found North Americans harder to play to than UK audiences, but that may be because when I first did a set in the UK, I *already* knew everyone. Here, I knew hardly anyone. (And there are far more people for me not to know! See above comments about the size of the filk scenes.)

But, you know what? All the important things are the same. The people still feel like family.

Oh, yeah, and con suites *rock*!"

Do you have any formal musical training?

"I took four or five solid years of piano lessons, I think. I had a grand total of two guitar lessons - they taught me A, D, G, and C. (Erica trivia fact: The very first chord I learned to play was Em, because it only took two fingers. Some might say that has had a lasting effect on my songwriting...<grin>)

I've had voice lessons off and on for a number of years. Hmm...<thinks> I think I had them solidly for about a year, and then since I've gone to grad school I only get lessons in the summer (and occasionally a lesson or two over winter break). My voice teacher is cool. He has even helped me prepare for my sets on occasion! (He likes my filksongs.) If you see the credit to Richard in the liner notes for my CD, that's who it is: Richard Wilmer, my voice teacher."

You have a reputation for writing beautiful "ose" songs. Any comments?

"Well...a few people take my reputation too seriously. I tend to play up my ose reputation because it's great schtick, but probably it would be more accurate to say I write serious songs. In general, I haven't had any problems, but I remember one lady from my first US filkcon who followed me around the entire convention singing Childe Ballads. I like sick and twisted songs as much as the next person, but there's only so many songs about incest, murder, and rape that I can stand in one sitting...

On the whole, I don't mind the reputation because people who know me know that I write more than just ose stuff. It doesn't bother me. (And it's fun to play with!)"

Which of your songs are your personal favourites and why?

"Wow, that's tough. Hmm...

Almost is one of my favorites, although it's really sad. I wrote it for a friend of mine who desperately wishes he could be musical...and *almost* is. He can hear music, but he can't capture it. I thought that was tremendously sad, so I wrote a song about it.

Delenn's Dilemma was the very first song I ever sang at a filkcon, and I still sing it occasionally. It's special to me because of that.

The Duel Song is, in my opinion, the finest set of lyrics I've written. I don't sing it because a) it's a cappella and b) it needs a drum beat behind it. But they're still my favorites. (And, hey, it makes a great poem. <grin>)

The Man of My Dreams is such a gorgeous and utterly weird song. I had this lovely progression I was playing with, so I sat down and wrote words to it. Then I realized that I had written an ABAB-patterned set of lyrics...but the music was steadfastly AABB. I had to rewrite the *entire set of words*! Waaah! But I still love it.

Never a Hero and Never Met My Mom are special because I wrote them for my parents. Never a Hero was explicitly written for my Dad, although Never Met My Mom is actually based on Margaret Ball's book _Mathemagics_. Still, it applied really well to Mom. I'm proud of both of them, and it shows in the songs.

Star Song is just special. It was one of those songs that really worked. I was incredibly nervous when I wrote it because it has the vocalization parts on the chorus and I wasn't sure I had the voice to pull it off...but people seem to like it!

Throw Her in the River was the first rock-type of song I wrote; "Ruins" was one of the first bluesy songs I wrote (along with "Never Met My Mom")

Not Everybody Dies. But that one kind of explains itself."

What was it like making "Not Everybody Dies"? How long did it take? Did you enjoy the process?

"<groan> I hated recording. I really really hated recording. Did I mention I hated recording?

Okay, more helpful information. I put down my vocal tracks and the basic guitar tracks in two weeks (maybe two and a half weeks) because that was the amount of time I had in England to do it in. The album took two and a half years to complete. To be fair, Phil and Lissa moved house in the middle of it and had lots of problems with that - so real life interfered a lot.

Phil did a great job, but I seriously recommend *against* doing an album with someone who lives 4000 miles away. It's too hard to stay involved. I couldn't hear his arrangement ideas until they were more or less finished, and I couldn't really keep him enthusiastic about the project because I couldn't be there to give feedback! I think we both found it frustrating, although the finished result is great!

I think I'd do better on a live or semi-live album, where I could put the vocals and the guitar down at the same time. Or one where someone else played the guitar. <grin> I'm not a great guitarist, so it was frustrating to try to play it perfectly, especially without any vocals to help with the timing etc."

What is your day job?

"Heh, heh. I'm a graduate student in philosophy working on my Ph.D. in philosophy of language. This is why I have no money... Someday I hope to be a professor, so I won't have any money then either, but at least I won't be a grad student. <grin>"

What is your songwriting process?

"Er...process? What process? <grin>

Let's see. There are several ways I can write songs. The most common is that I have some idea floating around that I want to write. Sometimes I have a couple of lines worked out already, sometimes I don't - I have, sometimes, sat down with *no* lyrics worked out and started writing on a subject. (e.g., "Delenn's Dilemma.") Anyway, I always write them longhand (usually in pencil, if I'm smart, since otherwise I end up crossing stuff out).

I almost never have a tune worked out beforehand, but usually one starts developing as I write. The tune is never firmed up until I sit down and try to put guitar chords on the song - that will usually cause the tune to mutate a little.

I *have* to write the entire thing, words and music and chords, in one sitting or it will likely never get done. Occasionally I add a bridge later or change a few words, but I have so many half-done songs sitting around that I don't risk it any more. I just never get back to them.

Anyway, that's the typical process. Sometimes I am just singing randomly - I do that a lot - and start putting words to a tune. (Sometimes I sing nonsense words.) Anyway, if I start getting something I like, I have to write it down. Otherwise I will completely forget it, much to my distress. <sigh>

Once in a blue moon I'll have something on the guitar that I like. I rarely sit down to write words to that tune, but I will sometimes write a set of lyrics and realize that it goes with that guitar piece...and everything works out nicely. This doesnt' happen very often because I'm not a very good guitarist and I don't spend much time just noodling around on the guitar. Wish I had more time to do that.

That's probably more than you *ever* wanted to know about my songwriting process...but one last note. I said I have lots of half-finished songs laying around, which is true. But sometimes things percolate in my brain for a *long* time before I write them. One of my finest SCA songs, "Welcome Home," got written about a year after I first had the idea for it. I had the idea, but nothing concrete...and one day it hit me over the head.

Oh, yeah, one last thing - I know, I know, I said that last time; sorry! I don't generally sit around waiting for the muse to strike. I firmly believe that if I have the energy, I can write a song. Now, lately, I don't often have the energy necessary to sit down and write, which is sad. But I'm not a big believer in muses and inspiration. Sometimes a song is inspired, which is great. But lots of times you can *become* inspired if you sit down and start to write or to think. Inspiration is far easier to come by than people think; you just have to meet the muse halfway, sometimes. <grin>

I'll shut up about that now."

What are your current and upcoming projects/gigs?

"I'm insanely trying to make: Gafilk (first time ever, despite having had an attending membership every single year!), Contabile-Fortean (since I'm on the committee), FKO (because it was so much fun last year!), and Contata. (I always make the east coast con...and I want to hear Dave and Tom!)

I don't get to any other cons besides filkcons; I can barely afford these as it is.

As for projects...well, eventually I'd like to do another album (yeah, I hate recording, but I love the results!) but I don't know who I'd do it with. I don't really know who does albums over here. A few people have made noises about a songbook - after I put a one-off in the Interfilk auction at FKO, which of course was bought by Kathleen Sloan - but I wouldn't do that without a transcription of my melodies, and I can't do that. Someone else might be able to help, but then I'd have to get recorded copies of stuff to them....aargh!

Mostly, I just want to go to cons, meet people, sing, listen, and hang out! That's what filk is about for me."