Interview with Tie, March 4, 2007

Interview with Tie Conn

(excerpts indicated by tape counter numbers)

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

Tie: Fourteen years.

                Community

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Melaena: And do you always come in in a group?

Tie: Usually.

Melaena: Usually.

Tie: Whoever shows up shows up. But I’m always here.

Melaena: Are these… how do you know all these friends?

Tie: I pretty much hand-picked them all.

Melaena: But, I mean, did you meet them at karaoke, or did you meet them at work, or…?

Tie: I met them everywhere but karaoke.

Melaena: Okay. And you brought them here?

Tie: Yes. That’s how I got my name on a mug, not because I drink a lot, but because I brought a lot of new people in.

Melaena: (laughs) Okay. You’re like their PR guy.

Tie: I’m like the kingpin. Actually.

            Motivations

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

Tie: The fact that I’m good at it.

Melaena: Okay.

Tie: And that people tell me I’m good at it and they want me to do it. That makes it enjoyable to me that other people enjoy it. And I have fun simply because it feels good. I stop listening to myself cause I hate the sound of my own voice, and I realize: It feels good. That’s all I do it for.

        Who is the Audience? 

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Melaena: So, when the…. What’s the role of the audience in your performance, or the applause?

Tie: Everything.

Melaena: Everything. Who’s your audience, is it your friends?

Tie: Uh, not just, but you know what? When my friends are here, a lot of them already know what I do, how I sing now. But when people show up that haven’t been here before, and they clap loud, I’m really happy when that happens. Cause those are the ones I’m actually singing to when I do the same old shit over and over again.

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Melaena: What is there was no audience members? Would you still want to sing?

Tie: No.

Melaena: No?

Tie: No. I used to play guitar and sing by myself. I stopped doing it for myself. Now I do it just for the accolades. Seriously.

Melaena: What would be the minimum audience number you would need?

Tie: One.

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Melaena: So you don’t practice at home, then.

Tie: No.

Melaena: No. If you had a karaoke machine at home, would you practice at home?

Tie: No. I used to have one, and I never practiced.

          Motivations for karaoke

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Melaena: Is there anything you don’t like about karaoke?

Tie: Oh… from place to place, yes. Some places you can’t get enough songs in, cause they’re too busy. Even if they have great sound quality, you know, all those things.

Melaena: Long rotation?

Tie: Sometimes they’ve got hosts that talk too much. That really bugs me, because you know what? Get to the next goddam song.

Other than that, no. As long as I’m singing a lot, feeling good about it, having a good time, it’s pretty much all good.

                Gender of performers

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Melaena: What about, um… have you ever noticed if there’s more guys than girls singing karaoke?

Tie: More girls.

Melaena: More girls?

Tie: Which is funny, because—

Melaena: Everywhere?

Tie: Yeah, everywhere. 100% of the time. Even in here.

Melaena: Even here?

Tie: There’s a lot more guys that come here, but it’s more girls singing. Most of the time. I mean, that’s not true all of the time, of course. I’m gonna say maybe five percent of the time there’s guys singing more than girls. By the end of the night, there’s gonna be more guys than girls singing.

Melaena: Okay. Why is that?

Tie: Uh, you know what, I don’t think a lot of guys realize that they can sing, so much that women are much braver than we are, and have a high pain tolerance. Especially listening to themselves. Which is really ironic to me, because as a vocal range, men have bigger vocal ranges. Women tend to sound a lot more alike. And it’s true. No matter how much they disagree. Men have larger vocal ranges, they just refuse to use them. And it’s sad to me.

             Performative Gender Crossing

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Melaena: What about the phenomenon of gender crossing in the songs? Do you ever sing women’s songs—

Tie: (raising voice) How much of a phenomenon is that? If the lyrics can be sung by both, why not?

Melaena: Yeah, I’m mean, that’s what I’m asking—

Tie: The only time it’s a phenomenon is when a man does Britney Spears. But that’s a dare. That’s not a phenomenon.

Melaena: It’s a dare.

Tie: It’s a dare, not a phenomenon.

Melaena: Like do you do songs by female artists?

Tie: I have.

Melaena: Like would you sing “La Isla Bonita”?

Tie: I ran up a hundred dollar tab, on a dare—

Melaena: No, but not on a dare. For serious.

Tie: But listen, you don’t understand how drunk I was. And I sang “It’s Raining Men” cause my friends paid my tab. And I made it worth my while.

But for serious… no, you’re not going to hear a lot of men doing female songs for serious, you will get a lot of women doing men’s songs for serious.

Melaena: Why is that?

Tie: It’s more socially acceptable. It’s like men dressing like women, and women dressing like men. Kind of the same comparison.

Melaena: Jeans.