Interview with Phil, February 22, 2007

            Interview with Philip Wright-Lindl at Avenue Pizza 

Thursday February 22, 2007

Photo of Phil looking through song binder at Avenue Pizza, Feb 22, 2007

9:15 pm.

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Melaena: So, Phillip… So, and today is Thursday the twenty second. Alright. So Phillip, can I ask you how old you are?

Phil: 21.

Melaena: Okay, and how long have you been singing karaoke?

Phil: Since about October.

Melaena: Since October, okay. And are you a regular here, at this place?

Phil: (snorts) Yeah.

Melaena: Yeah? Since October?

Phil: Pretty much.

Melaena: And how come you come here? I know you just told me.

Phil: Reasonably close, uhh, buddies found it as a decent place, and it’s just a nice place, and I know all the serving staff.

Melaena: Okay.

[Waiter comes by with drinks: Melaena says, “Thank you” and “Oh, could we get twenty hot wings?” Waiter: “You bet. Just hot wings?” Melaena pauses, looks at Phil: “Yeah?” Phil says, “Yeah, doesn’t matter to me” Melaena says to waiter: “Thanks”]

Phil: See, it’s things like that [gesturing to the waiter, presumably referring to the fact that he knew him] (laughs)

Melaena: So what first got you interested in karaoke?

Phil: Well, I always liked singing along to myself with the songs anyways, so why not be an ass and make myself… make myself [unintelligible] in front of other people?

Melaena: Didn’t you say you were in theatre?

Phil: No, I work as a mascot performer [edit: I know this is not entirely true, because Derek told me last week that Phil had just lost his job as a mascot, OR possibly he meant “work” in a very general sense, as in a vocation]. Though my parents like to pretend I’m in theatre. No, I just work as a mascot.

Melaena: Okay. But you like being up at the front, then?

Phil: Yeah, yeah… I definitely don’t mind attention on myself.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: So.

Melaena: So, do you do other forms of music right now?

Phil: No.

Melaena: No?

Phil: No.

Melaena: No other forms of music. Have you—

Phil: I’ve got a tin ear, I’ve got no musical talent whatsoever.

Melaena: Okay. So did you ever do it in the past?

Phil: Uh, in junior high, I was in the band class.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: And, then I gave that up for… can’t remember why…some stupid reason, I’m sure.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: And never did go back.

Melaena: So, what is special about karaoke? What do you like about it, that keeps you coming back?

Phil: Ummm… a lot of it is just having a night to come out and hang out with your friends and not just, you know, hang out and go “Uhhh, what are we gonna do tonight?” You know, actually have something to do.

Melaena: Yeah.

Phil: That… I don’t know, just like singing and don’t mind doing it in front of people. It makes it almost more fun.

Melaena: Why is it more fun?

Phil: I don’t know. I kind of like… I like being stupid and just doing stuff, and not really caring what other people think. And the more people that see me doing stupid things that I don’t really care what people think, somehow the better.

Melaena: Okay, okay.

Phil: I really don’t know the psychology behind that. That’s just weird.

Melaena: What about if other people are up there, doing stupid things?

Phil: Then all the better.

Melaena: Is that good too?

Phil: Oh yeah. The more people the merrier.

Melaena: Okay. So, what about the audience, then? How does the audience fit into this? What’s their role?

Phil: Umm… I don’t know. Feedback of some variety? Knowledge that maybe I’m not entirely crap, or knowledge of what songs I’m doing better or which songs I’m not doing as well? You can generally gauge audience reactions. That and it just makes…

I dunno. That’s about all I can think of.

Melaena: So, would you still perform if there was no audience?

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: Like, if there was just maybe you and a little room?

Phil: Yeah, probably. I sing along to myself almost all the time.

Melaena: So do you have a preference?

Phil: For…?

Melaena: If there was an audience or not?

Phil: Not really.

Melaena: No?

Phil: As long as—I mean, it depends. If the audience is expecting it, then… then I’m fine with it. But if they’re not really expecting it, then I generally prefer if people are not around. You know, inflicting myself on people not suspecting it is not a good thing.

Melaena: Oh, I see. But it’s different here because everybody—

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: --knows it’s karaoke night.

Phil: Yeah, you come to karaoke night, you expect karaoke.

Melaena: (laughs) right. So how do you choose the songs you sing?

Phil: Umm… songs that I know well enough to pull off, that I figure won’t flop entirely. That people will kind of recognize, go along with, and generally enjoy.

Melaena: But how do you know them?

Phil: Huh?

Melaena: How do you know the songs?

Phil: They’re songs I listen to, songs that, you know, I will generally kind of sing along with on my own, or generally stuff that I’ve been exposed to before.

Melaena: Okay. So, when you go up there with the microphone, and you’re standing up there, what ….

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[Interruption of DJ: “My name’s John, and I’ll be here until one o’clock in the morning” completely drowns out the rest of Melaena’s sentence]

Phil: Just a second, to let him finish the thing. [John continues talking] But it’ll be at least probably fifteen minutes before anything actually happens.

Melaena: Yeah, it’s early, hey?

Phil: Huh?

Melaena: It’s early.

Phil: Oh yeah. Whenever there’s not a hockey game he starts a little earlier, to try to get people to grab the books [unintelligible]

[Can hear DJ clearly: “Bring me those songs, and we’ll get this show on the road. I’m going to be starting in about ten, fifteen minutes, and--”]

Melaena: Oh, you were right! Good for you.

Phil: I’ve been here way too much.

Melaena: (laughs) That’s funny.

Phil: I think I’ll probably wander over to the bar and get a drink.

Melaena: It’s like magically filling up, like the last ten minutes. A bunch of people are coming in.

Phil: Well, there’s people who come to the karaoke.

Melaena: Yeah?

Phil: [unintelligible] I don’t know. A lot of people are those I don’t actually recognize.

Melaena: See, I haven’t been here enough to know who is a regular and who isn’t.

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: Yeah. So you have to tell me. Cause I want to talk to the regulars.

Phil: (laughs) You’ll start to recognize them.

Melaena: I guess so. Especially by the end of the term.

Phil: Oh, geez, if you’re staying that long, yeah.

Melaena: Yeah. So… where were we? Okay, when you’re up there with a microphone, what are you thinking about? Like, what’s in your head, what’s your goal?

Phil: Goal?

Melaena: Goal.

Phil: Try to sing on key.

Melaena: (laughs) Okay.

Phil: That’s about the only goal.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: The only thing for me is the song.

Melaena: The song?

Phil: I don’t really… I generally try to ignore everything else around me, and just pay attention to what I’m doing, what the song is.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: So… [unintelligible]

Melaena: Okay. And we already know that you practice at home.

Phil: Generally.

Melaena: Generally.

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: Like, do you practice specifically? Like, if you’re going with an idea, Oh, I’m going to sing this song this week, do you go out to practice it?

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: Yeah?

Phil: Generally I’ve, you know, if I actually think of a song while I’m out, I’ll actually write it down, go home, download it, and hopefully by next week or the week after, I’ll know it well enough I’ll actually be comfortable going up and doing it.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: So.

Melaena: Good. So what do you have this week?

Phil: Uhhh… Depends on if it’s in the book or not.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: Uhhh… Verve “Lucky Man” is the one that I’m generally leaning towards. Other than that I haven’t got much new. Unless, uh… the girl whose name I’ve completely forgotten shows up, and I think she wanted me to sing a duet with her. I don’t know if I’m quite ready for that, but hey.

Melaena: (Laughs)

Phil: I tried.

Melaena: Okay. Well, I noticed you were really clapping for me last week, and I really appreciated that (laughs) because I felt like I really sucked last week.

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[Waiter arrives at table to drop off wings and take drink order. Melaena can’t hear waiter, and says “Sorry?” Phil says “I have this odd suspicion that Derek… I’m not sure if somebody’s buying drinks or not tonight, and that depends on how much I’m drinking tonight.” Waiter: “Sounds good”]

Melaena: (laughs) So, my last question—I know, the forms almost took longer—I wanted these to be really short interviews—are there any drawbacks to karaoke; is there anything you don’t like about it?

Phil: Umm…. Hmm… I don’t know. Drawbacks, or… generally… I don’t know. Ideas… (long pause) I think the biggest drawback would be not necessarily controlling how often you get to go up, or stuff like that, or…Yeah, that’s about it.

Melaena: So what would you do, in an ideal karaoke world?

Phil: In an ideal karaoke world?

Melaena: Yeah, like in this bar. If you could control the DJs brain, or control the other patrons?

Phil: Uhh… Make them like me a lot more. (laughs)

Melaena: (taking the question seriously) Like applaud?

Phil: Um, not necessarily, I don’t know. It’s just generally my taste in music tends to runs counter to what a lot of people end up with—

Melaena: Here?

Phil: Well, in general. Like, everywhere, generally. So, you know, like, I’ll look for songs, and I’ll go, No, nowhere near this book. Oh well.

Melaena: So you’ve been to other karaoke bars, you’re talking about?

Phil: Uh, no, I actually haven’t looked at many other books. But this book in particular, I don’t know. There’ll be stuff and I’ll go, Oooh, I’d love that… No. But, uh…

Melaena: So who’s saying no? You’re saying no?

Phil: No, I look in the book and, no, it’s not in the book.

Melaena: Oh, it’s not in the book. Yeah.

Phil: So, yeah.

Melaena: So you’d have…so if you could control the book, you’d have more songs that you liked.

Phil: Well, yeah. And I’d probably control… one of the other downsides is, you know, well, I always tend to get in first and I gotta follow the karaoke host up and he’s damn good.

Melaena: (laughs)

Phil: That always sucks. But, uh, you know, sometimes you’ll want to do a slower song or something like that, and you’ll have this punk rock song leading you. And then you’re going into that. It’s like, uhhh… not the best lead-in. So, you know, generally that’s the down side, is you don’t get to control what’s up.

But then again, half the time that’s half the fun, is you never know what’s coming up next.

Melaena: Yeah.

Phil: You know, it’s beyond your control.

Melaena: A crapshoot.

Phil: Yeah. If everything was perfect, then everything would be boring then.

Melaena: Very true. Anything else you want to tell me about karaoke?

Phil: It’s a hell of a lot of fun. (laughs)

Melaena: (laughs)

Phil: But, no, I don’t think so, no. Not that I can think of.

Melaena: But you’ve really just been to this one place?

Phil: I’ve been to a couple of others, but not many and not often. Like, I’ve done a few, but not enough that I can really say what other books are like, or what other places are like… all I know is I like the atmosphere in here, and it’s a bar I can actually kind of stand. Which is more than I can say for a lot of places.

Melaena: I have another question for you, that I didn’t write down, but since we have some extra time: So why do you think we have so many more men than women singers? Or have you seen that? I mean, do you agree with that at all?

Phil: Um… I think it’s largely that the women tend to be a lot more self-conscious, and a lot more unwilling to go and make fools of themselves, where the guys just are more drunk, or just don’t care, and will do it anyways.

Melaena: (laughs) Okay.

Phil: That’s my only theory.

Melaena: So you think it’s just a shyness thing?

Phil: Hmmm?

Melaena: A shyness thing? A shyness factor? Whether they sing or not?

Phil: Oh yeah. I mean, that’s my only guess.

Melaena: I was just curious. The first night I was here there was eight guys in a row, and then there was one woman singer.

Phil: Well, a lot of women don’t seem to have confidence in their voices, especially singing voices. Whereas guys, if they don’t have confidence in their singing voice, or shouldn’t have confidence in their singing voice, they do, anyways. And they’ll just go up there.

I mean, I’ve seen guys so drunk that they’ll wander up there, sing maybe five of the words in the entire song, and then stagger off. But, you know, they went up.

Melaena: And they’re okay with that?

Phil: They seem quite fine with it.

Melaena: (laughs)

Phil: Everybody else is going, Yay, we get to listen to (pause for effect) music without words. Fun!

Melaena: (laughs) What about the people who dance? What do you think of that? Have you ever seen people dancing? I’ve seen that a couple of times.

Phil: Yeah… Half the time they’re my friends. (laughs)

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: Uh, I don’t know. It’s just like any other bar. If you want to dance, you dance. If you don’t, whatever. I mean, some people like to dance, so if a good song comes up that they like and they want to dance to, they just do.

Okay, I have to hit the washroom again.

Melaena: Okay. Well, thank you.

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[Interview breaks at this point, and resumes a few minutes later]

Melaena: Okay, I have another question for you.

Phil: Yeah?

Melaena: Have you ever sung a song by a female artist, like Madonna, or something like that?

Phil: Once.

Melaena: Once.

Phil: Badly. Never again.

Melaena: Okay, but why… why was it bad?

Phil: Because I couldn’t find anywhere near a pitch of rightness, so… whether I dropped it too low, or too high, or… I just… transposing on the fly is not my deal.

Melaena: Oh, yeah. It was hard for you to find the pitch.

Phil: Yeah.

Melaena: Because it was a woman singing it.

Phil: Yeah, And, a woman who sings very, very, very high.

Melaena: What song was it?

Phil: Evanescence “Bring me to life”

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: Yeah. She’s got a really high, high pitched voice, and there’s no hope in hell that I could match that, at all.

Melaena: So you stick to guy songs now?

Phil: Generally, yeah. I don’t think that there’s many girl songs that I can think of that I’d be trying to pull off.

Melaena: Okay.

Phil: Unless I’m really, really, really drunk, and somehow feeling like doing “Barbie Girl”.

Melaena: (laughs)

Phil: No.

Melaena: (still laughing) Okay, thank you.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

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