Interview with Colin, February 28, 2007

Colin is one of the DJs from Lion's Head Pub on Gateway Boulevard. It turns out that Colin (by himself) also is the DJ host at R.A.T.T. (Restaurant at The Top) in the Students' Union Building on the University of Alberta campus. He hosts karaoke there every Wednesday night.

Colin thought it would be easier to give me an interview away from Lion's Head Pub, so I arranged to meet him at RATT at 8 pm, an hour before starting the karaoke show. We talked right until 9 pm, and then I stayed for an hour and half to watch the karaoke at RATT (and reluctantly ended up singing).

Photo of Colin during our interview at RATT

Photo of Colin at work as a karaoke DJ at RATT

This interview with Colin lasted for 45 minutes exactly, and is significantly longer than the interviews with other people. Because Colin was a DJ, my list of questions did not apply to him in many cases, so I threw the question sheet away and just asked any question that I was curious about.

I'm not going to insert the whole interview here, because it is a 30 page transcription. Instead, I will put in segments that I feel are significant to the project.

Colin's Theory on the Three Main Types of Karaoke Singers:

Melaena: Tell me your theory about the three types of people.

Colin: Three types of people.

Melaena: Yeah. I’ve been very curious about this.

[snip]

Colin: Three types of people that come to karaoke: The first type, have an appreciation for music: They’re just like everyone else you see on the street, they’re plumbers and secretaries and tradesmen and… strippers. And, whatever. They’re just everybody.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: And, they like music. And they sing in the shower, and they sing in their car, and they probably spent a lot of time as a kid with their hairbrush in the mirror, singing. And, they like to come to the bar and have a couple of drinks and some chicken wings and sing some songs. They have no ego tied up in it; if they’re good, if they’re not good, they don’t care.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: It’s about the experience. It’s all about going out with their friends, having some laughs, and singing some songs. And their skill level is the last thing on their minds.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: In fact, those groups, the more somebody stinks it up, the more their friends cheer.

Melaena: I met some of those people.

[snip]

Colin: Group number two, you’ve got the attention hogs that just need an avenue to draw attention to themselves, for whatever reason.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: Either they are… just, they have a performance nature in them…. Ummm…They need a little… they need a little dancing monkey time. And I understand that. That’s me.

Melaena: (laughs) Dancing monkey time.

Colin: That’s me. I understand that. And that group falls into two categories; there would be a subcategory there.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: And one would be people who are, and I hate to use this word, it sounds derogatory (lowers voice to be quieter), but they’re delusional. They aren’t good singers, they aren’t—

Melaena: Delusional in that they think they’re good singers….?

Colin: It’s that they think they’re good singers.

[snip]

Colin: And then there are the other ones, that know they don’t sing very well but they like to get up there and get crazy, and the crowd loves them and they love the crowd, and they have a fantastic time. So those would be the people that are out for attention.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: And then you’ve got the people who are either professional musicians, former professional musicians, um… professional musicians who are too busy to have a band… they don’t have a practice area at home… uh… they don’t… for whatever reason, they can’t perform on their own an avenue without karaoke.

Melaena: Okay.

Colin: It’s free, they can come to the bar and have fun and sing their song, and they’re practicing slash enjoying themselves. They like to sing.

Melaena: So what characterizes this group when they’re up there?

Colin: That group tends to be very, on the whole, of course there’s exceptions, but they’re very low ego. If someone says, “Hey, that song was fantastic!” they go, “Oh, yeah, thanks.” And… the praise… they don’t take it to heart; they’re their own worst critic. If they don’t do a song well, they know it, they know where they went wrong, and they don’t beat themselves up over it, they just pick another song.

And there’s really not a lot of ego attached to it. Of course you get the couple that are fantastic and know it, and walk around like chick stars, but they’re a minority.

[snip]

Colin: Those are your three major categories, and then of course you’ve got—like I mentioned, when you sang, I didn’t know where you fit.

Melaena: Why?

Colin: Because… you were obviously not a karaoke veteran…

Melaena: Why?

Colin: I don’t know how I knew that, but you weren’t. You, uh…

Melaena: No, that was my first time ever, singing karaoke.

Colin: That was a great first time, by the way. But, you weren’t really sure how it worked. “Do I give you the slips?” “Can I take this book to my table?” Things like that, you were new.

Melaena: Okay, yeah.

Colin: Uhhh… It wasn’t an ego thing… uh… you didn’t seem like a pub person…

[snip]

Melaena: No.

Colin: So you didn’t fit in any category. You weren’t there for the bar, you weren’t there for the karaoke, and you weren’t there for ego boost, that’s not what you were looking for, so you were outside of the three.

Melaena: Oh, okay.