LUDIC LOG

KL: I'm back with Tony Behr and Mark Conley of the Red-Shirted Ensigns. Guys, you're riding the crest of a wave of legitimacy right now...

MC: We don't really like the word "legitimacy", Kurt. Ha ha.

KL: Okay. How about "newfound acceptance"?

MC: That'll do, I suppose.

TB: Can we say "popularity"'?

KL: Whatever you like. At any rate, you must have achieved everything you set out to do and much, much more.

MC: Not at all.

TB: We've still got plenty of goals that have been unfulfilled.

MC: Six of them, actually.

KL: Six?

TB: We wrote them down.

KL: Well, certainly one that you can cross off the list is recognition from the National Academy of Recording Arts and scientists. You not only won your first Grammy this year, but the very first ever awarded in the filk category.

TB: Yeah! Whoooo!

MC: God, it feels great. For us, and for the legions of filk fans that have been ignored for so long. It's like having a voice for the first time..

KL: Legions?

TB: I know that a lot of people think that, I dunno, that...

MC: That there was some kind of a fix in.

TB: Right.

KL: Well, the three filk awards went to the Ensigns, and it was the two of you who have lobbied the Academy ceaselessly for years to get recognition of the category.

TB: Sure, but I mean, that's...it's not coincidence, really, but...

MC: The fact is, we're at the top of our game right now. We won on merit, the real filkers will tell you that.

KL: Still, there's a lot of talk. The category is controversial enough...

MC: The rap category was controversial when they started it. The metal category was controversial. Picking on us seems like discrimination.

KL: Not to mention the legal problems.

MC: That's just absurd. Look, Tony doesn't call himself a songwriter. I mean, a lot of folk people do, even though they're just covering old songs, but we took special care to make sure he's just called an "arranger" in all the liner notes.

TB: We thought that would cover us.

MC: Some people are just really bitter, that's all. But, I mean, whatever works for you: call us samplers. Arrangers. Call it homage, or parody, or whatever.

TB: Just don't sue us.

MC: I mean, we're trying to bring good music and entertainment to people. And all of the sudden that's a crime, because why? Because we're different?

TB: Anyway, we're really not supposed to talk about this. Some kind of court order.

MC: Can we move on to the next question?

KL: Sure. Some people speculate that filk has a somewhat narrow audience due to its subject matter.

MC: It's not a narrow audience. It's a built-in audience.

TB: Jazz has a narrow audience.

MC: Things can only improve for us. We've got a solid, constantly rejuvenating fan base.

KL: Okay. Well, still. I mean, wouldn't you agree that there's a limited market for songs about elves and Star Trek?

TB: Science fiction and fantasy are anything but limited, Kurt.

MC: Country and western. Rhythm and blues. It's one of the great combinations.

TB: Nobody complains that love is too limited a topic for pop songs.

MC: Besides, filk is a lot more than sci-fi. It's fantasy, speculative fiction, alternate history, computers...

TB: Cats.

MC: Our albums are the farthest thing from uniform as you can get, unless you mean our actual uniforms.

TB: Ha ha.

MC: We do traditional filk material, we do mixes, we do covers of other filksongs.

TB: Electric and acoustic.

MC: We also do original material. From all differenct sources.

TB: We don't exclude anything. Movies, TV shows, the internet, books, even comics.

MC: From funny to heart-wrenching, silly to deadly serious. We've got songs on "Get Your Tauntaun Out" about politics and social issues...

KL: Through a sci-fi filter.

MC: That's who we are. That's what we know. It's like a hip hopper rhyming about the street.

KL: So you're sort of a heavy, bearded, Caucasian Tupac Shakur.

TB: What are you saying?

MC: I like to think I'm in that tradition, yes.