Creation Firefly/Stargate Con Burbank, CA 22-23 Nov 2008.
I talk to fans attending the event, artist Marian Call (with music from her new Firefly & BSG inspired album “Got to Fly”), Map of the Verse creator Geoffrey Mandel and Andy Gore from Quantum Mechanix.
Listen Now
Featured tracks from Marian Call’s album “Got to Fly”:
Got to Fly, In the Black, I’ll Still be a Geek and It’s Good to have Jayne on Your Side. Used with permission – Thanks Marian!
Serenity Scenes
Serenity Replica in development
Stargate F-302 available soon
See Also: [ Event Summary ] [ Firefly Q&As ] [ Stargate Q&As ]
Transcribed Interviews
Marian Call
Fannish Inquisition: You’re a bit of a self confessed geek aren’t you?
Marian Call: I am, I’m learning to be self confessed, I used to be kinda shy about it, try and be a cool kid but that’s just never going to happen so I’ve finally come to grips with the reality that I’m really geeky.
And it’s not a bad thing to be?
MC: Not at all. I think I like it. I think life’s better if you’re just open about how much you really like some of the stuff you like.
This coming out of being a geek has lead to the release of an album, can you tell us about that?
MC: Well, I had written some songs that were sort of secretly in an encoded way about some of my favourite shows. I like the stories, I like the people and I’d draw on them for inspiration. So, some folks at Quantum Mechanix which is one of my favourite prop companies, they do a lot of cool fan stuff, they heard some of my songs and they wanted to cut a record deal with me for my second album. I thought it was crazy ‘cause they’re not a record company and I’m not signed and don’t want to be. None the less they wanted to sponsor an album of songs for fans of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica and I thought well, I’m going to be stuck with the nerd brand for ever and ever if I do this so I really had to wrestle with it and I decided yes, I’m good with that, that’s very very good. I’m really enjoying it actually, I’ve met some wonderful wonderful people and this weekend has been just the funnest CD release I can ever imagine, being here with all the fans so yes, it was a good decision.
Do you have a favourite song on the album?
MC: I think my favourite musically is called “In the Black”, I love how that came out, and it’s very heartfelt. My favourite lyrics would have to be “Good Old Girl”, which is about Starbuck but also about the ships she flies and my favourite song over all would have to be the first track. It’s called “The Nerd Anthem” in my mind, “I’ll Still Be a Geek when Nobody Thinks It’s Chic”
Being a sci-fi fan, what’s your favourite?
MC: Oh, definitely Firefly, I have quite an extensive knowledge of some other sci-fi stuff but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go to a convention or meet other people or visit a website for any of the other shows that I’ve liked, I was raised on Next Generation and on Star Wars, I loved ‘em, but you know, going to the movie and turning on the tv show and actually doing outside about them… I’d never done that before Firefly and that really kind of broke me into this world. I’m absolutely loving it now.
What is it about Firefly that you enjoy?
MC: To me it was more less science fiction and more just a really brilliant look at humanity itself and I’m a liberal arts nerd, lots of humanities, classics, literature and stuff like that and to me it’s just stories, timeless stories, about the way that humanity is and I think it’s less like a fiction story and more like a really beautiful demonstration of how people will still act like people five hundred years in the future. We won’t be better and cleaner and nicer and smarter about everything, we will be the same as we’ve ever been.
In terms of being a fan yourself, now that you’ve done an event like this where you’re actually a guest, and you’ve performed this weekend and you’ve been here signing CDs for people, do you think that will affect the way you attend events like this in the future?
MC: Absolutely. I’ve seen a lot behind the scenes that’s really interesting and you see a lot of the administrative issues, how difficult it is to put on an event like this and how complicated but also I have to say it’s been a lot of fun it’s really satisfied the geek craving in me. I would love to come again whether I’m a guest or not, definitely to Creation, definitely to Comic Con or Dragon*Con if I ever get the chance but honestly this is my first convention so I have nothing to compare it to yet but I would definitely come again.
You’ve been performing while you’ve been in California, where will people likely see you next?
MC: This kind of wraps up the Southern California part of my tour. I’m going back to Seattle for a month, I’m going to focus on sort of online stuff and rehearsal there for a little while but I should be playing a couple of times in the Seattle area in December. In January northern California and possibly Portland, Vancouver, Seattle some more. I know that in March we’re coming back down through Northern California to LA so we’ll probably play on our way down and then we’ll probably head off to Texas, up to Colorado, Alberta, back up to Anchorage… we’re covering a lot of ground this spring. The best way to know is check on my website or MySpace or to be on my mailing list because we travel so much.
You mentioned before that you weren’t really interested in record labels, and independent artist, why did you want to go that way?
MC: Well I don’t have any other options at the moment. But I have friends who’ve done the musician thing by working really really hard to curry attention from a label to get signed to the … like in the Muppet Movie the standard “rich and famous contract” I’m not very interested in that, I would love to have label support some day but I feel almost like I need to earn it first. I want to know what this business entails, I want to understand all aspects of it so that if I do have someone else managing other parts of it some day I know what they’re managing and I know what decisions I would want to make about it. There’s a lot of smaller labels now, thankfully, that are just a few people or just a few select artists and they’ll give you the freedom that you want but I want them to know who I am as a performer and a recorder before I sort of align myself with someone. It’s really educational doing it yourself, 90 hour work week that’s for sure, but I like what I’m learning, I don’t want to be working this hard forever, but being independent is definitely the way to go, and being an independent it fits in here too!
Just one last thing, is there anything that you’d like to fans?
MC: Be proud of being a fan. It’s a great way to be when you just confess how excited you are about something it gives you the freedom to just enjoy geeking out. It’s great.
Marian Call’s album “Got to Fly” is available through Quantum Mechanix website for a limited time. Each album is numbered and signed and only 1,000 have been made available so be sure to get yours before they sell out. Don’t forget to check Marian’s website to find out where you can hear her perform live.
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