Will Sturman, aka “dog mod” (@dog-of-ulthar on tumblr)
I got into filk because in high school I was the sort of person who would just search “Lovecraft” on YouTube to see what I would get, and what I got was “Hey There Cthulhu.” Then, in college, I somehow got my professors to let me write my thesis on filk. As soon as I started researching, I started having so many things I needed to tell people. Then I attended my first filk convention, OVFF 30, and realized two things. First, the community is as friendly and welcoming as everything I had read predicted. Second, they’re desperate for new blood and having trouble reaching the new generation of nerddom. That’s why this blog happened.
There are a few reasons I’ve come to love filk so much. First, I’m an abject nerd and an emotional junkie; I like to listen to sad songs about space and cry (I highly recommend “Darkness” by Julia Ecklar). Second, I’m a classically trained oboist. I’ve gotten tired of living in a musical tradition based on competition and auditions. You practice for weeks, months, years, you get a ten-minute tryout slot, and more often than not you never see a stage. Filk is different. The community will take any contribution, no matter how tentative, clumsy, or small. They’ll listen to your shaky first attempt at lyrics, give you a crash course in accordion technique. When you’re too nervous to sing above a whisper, they lean in to listen instead of turning away. Whether you’re writing songs, performing songs, singing harmony, or just clapping along, you matter. I just want people to know a community like this exists.
Batya, aka “bat mod” (@animatedamerican on tumblr)
Filk veteran and generally too busy being awesome to have time to write a bio.
Nat Elster, aka “brain mod” (@axonsandsynapses on tumblr)
Partner of the dog mod and webmaster of our WordPress mirror site. I was made a mod because I’m an archivist at heart and felt a compulsive need to standardize the tagging system.
My introduction to filk was at college, when I fell in with a crowd who thought my habit of singing murder ballads while doing chores was perfectly normal. I was an enthusiastic but passive listener until my senior year, when I attended OVFF 30 with Will. I’m quiet and introverted and hesitant to sing along, with no instrumental skill and a mediocre singing voice. I still felt totally welcomed, and by the end of the con I was completely in love with filk both as a genre and as a community.
Gabrielle, aka “bear-fox mod” (@tawnyblaze on tumblr)
I have been filking since high school, and that’s longer ago than I care to admit. I am obsessed enough with this tiny but fierce musical genre that I created an original filk CD (3 songs) for my high school senior project a la my vocals and Cakewalk; entered the OVFF song contest every single year I have attended (and actually placed twice!); started dabbling in more than one filk blog; participated in February Album Writing Month for the last four years in order to generate new filk; and joined the OVFF programming staff. In the time I spend on things unrelated to filk, I enjoy writing fantasy novels that I hope to publish someday, tabletop roleplaying, nerdy board games, and aww-ing at interwebs cats.