Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Music

February 4, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with Bob Drake and Fox Amoore

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1 of this series of short Q&A’s asked: what defines “furry music”? Furry dance parties are one of the strongest real life furry movements besides conventions. In a growing fandom, con stages now use millions in equipment and are the crossroads for congoers. Sound is half of the performances and videos furries love. But music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. Start with a loose working definition: It overlaps with fandom, it’s made with furries, or it shares a general theme. Then comes the fun part of asking musicians about it. (See part 1 for the full list):

  1. Are you a furry musician?
  2. What is furry music?
  3. Can you share a cool fact or story about your music?

Bob Drake: Musician, furry artist and fursuiter in France who has worked with George Clinton and Ice Cube, who some consider to be a seminal figure in the avant-progressive music scene.

  • I’m furry, and a musician, so I’m not sure. Tee hee. Seriously I’m a life-long furry, been playing instruments since the 60‘s, and it’s all a deep and exciting part of the same mysterious and lovely something!
  • Whatever your imagination wants it to be. I used to listen to records when I was a kid and imagine it was a story about some anthropomorphic critters. In my own work I haven’t aimed at making music specifically for a furry audience, I just do what I like and it’s got a lot of furry in it.
  • When I do my solo shows, I wear a rainbow-stripey tail, fuzzy footpaws and a furry hat with long earflaps. People really seem to respond to and enjoy that, even if they know nothing about the furry community. And anyone who has come to record at my home studio knows I love stuffed animals and critters… I’ve got them all over the place! That said, I don’t constantly flaunt it either, anymore than I would constantly talk about instruments or songwriting with people who aren’t interested in those things. You can find all the info about my albums at: bdrak.com. I’ve performed in my fursuit with different bands too, none of them “furry” bands.

Here’s one fursuit performance – and another:

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January 31, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with Runetooth and Bandit Raccoon

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1 of this series of short Q&A’s asked: what defines “furry music”? Furry dance parties are one of the strongest real life furry movements besides conventions. In a growing fandom, con stages now use millions in equipment and are the crossroads for congoers. Sound is half of the performances and videos furries love. But music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. Start with a loose working definition: It overlaps with fandom, it’s made with furries, or it shares a general theme. Then comes the fun part of asking musicians about it. (See part 1 for the full list):

  1. Are you a furry musician?
  2. What is furry music?
  3. Can you share a cool fact or story about your music?

EdgeDestroys (AKA Runetooth): A fandom commenter, graphic artist and musician.

  1. Yeah I’m a furry musician but I don’t write music about the community, at least not yet. I have a lot of music projects though so I suppose there’s nothing stopping me from starting a new one to do it in the future.
  2. As far as what furry music is, I don’t think there’s one answer that’ll do everyone’s perception of it justice, just like it’s hard to really define the community at large and make everyone happy. Furry music could be music with lyrics deliberately written about the fandom or just music written by furries, I personally write stuff to be accessible to everyone so I don’t know if I would count mine as furry music even though I am a furry. I feel like a more nuanced way of looking at this would be something like a venn diagram of music BY furries VS music FOR furries and the overlap between those. With the community at large, I think that overlap and the FOR furries parts are probably what’s perceived as “furry music” and thus tend to get more support which has always bummed me out because I’d like to see every facet get lots of support but I don’t wanna drag this out into some huge existential tedtalk.
  3. As for a fun fact about my stuff uh, one of the songs that got me like, a very tiny bit of attention was a remix I did of Bonetrousle from Undertale that ended up being officially licensed through Tiny Waves and Materia Collective and released on a remix compilation album. Myself and several other artists on it got together at Anime Festival Orlando to sign it and send it to Toby Fox so Toby Fox has a CD with my signature probably somewhere in some warehouse under a mountain of millions of other things he’s been sent from fans haha. That same remix (and the rest of the album) was played at Awesome Games Done Quick last year so that was cool. If people wanna check it out I have a soundcloud and if EDM isn’t your thing I goof around with tons of other genres, ambient, metal, my newest project I’m hopefully releasing soon is easycore/chiprock so I probably have something for everyone.

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January 30, 2019

Margaret Cho barks about furries, pride, and costuming on The Masked Singer

by Patch O'Furr

Dogged persistence seems necessary to win success as a standup comedian. In school, the class clown might not be who you expect to become a household name. That’s why one like Margaret Cho can be extra fascinating among mainstream celebrities. She’s got layers. Fabulous, fluffy layers. 

Live touring, TV, movies, fashion and music are all part of her creative canvas, with a palette of adult humor colored by mentors like Robin Williams, 1970’s San Francisco childhood, 1990’s alternative culture, Korean-American experience, female and LGBT identity, and enduring love for non-conformists. Her bio includes Grammy and Emmy nominations, accolades from the New York Times, and awards for representing the LBGT community among other activism for social progress. With such an arsenal of badassery at her disposal, she still graciously got on the phone with a little furry blog. 

Research for our chat turned up a few interesting facts: The show format (guessing the hidden performer) originally came from Korean TV, and she was tuned in to it before being cast. Despite the comedy label, her background includes burlesque and serious study to create comedy music on the level of pros like Weird Al or Flight of the Conchords. You can watch her on Season 1, Episode 4 of The Masked Singer on Fox.com. Enjoy – Patch

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January 29, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with Tenkitsune and ZERØ 

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1 of this series of short Q&A’s asked: what defines “furry music”? Furry dance parties are one of the strongest real life furry movements besides conventions. In a growing fandom, con stages now use millions in equipment and are the crossroads for congoers. Sound is half of the performances and videos furries love. But music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. Start with a loose working definition: It overlaps with fandom, it’s made with furries, or it shares a general theme. Then comes the fun part of asking musicians about it. (See part 1 for the full list):

  1. Are you a furry musician?
  2. What is furry music?
  3. Can you share a cool fact or story about your music?

Tenkitsune: Vietnam based music producer with 15,000 followers on Soundcloud and an upcoming tour with Maltine Records. 

  1. No, I am not a furry musician, I am just generally a musician, however I am very deeply involved with the community and the furry fandom and myself have worked with and would love to work more with many amazing content creator furries.
  2. To me, in my perspective, furry music might be produced /composed and arranged by furries within the fandom. However it is also what makes this community become more vibrant with the creativity and work of furries who deeply love music and the music culture in general.
  3. My music project was originally having a fox fursona as my music branding for the longest time since the start of it. That’s how most people found my music! I get art commissioned frequently for music covers, and probably just a character look over time. Most of the time people know Tenkitsune as a fox figure. As it keeps evolving everyday and I’m getting signed with great record labels like Warner Music Hong Kong, Trekkie Trax, Maltine (all great electronic music recording label from Japan with love), I find it slowly disconnects the fursona as music branding when it comes to working more closely with people from the music industry, so I slowly put down the picture. It’s really good and it made me very happy when people still come to me about the fox character, when people find my discography.

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January 28, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with Pepper Coyote and ABSRDST

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1 of this series of short Q&A’s asked: what defines “furry music”? Furry dance parties are one of the strongest real life furry movements besides conventions. In a growing fandom, con stages now use millions in equipment and are the crossroads for congoers. Sound is half of the performances and videos furries love. But music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. Start with a loose working definition: It overlaps with fandom, it’s made with furries, or it shares a general theme. Then comes the fun part of asking musicians about it. (See part 1 for the full list):

  1. Are you a furry musician?
  2. What is furry music?
  3. Can you share a cool fact or story about your music?

Pepper Coyote: Solo musician and collaborator since 2010 with bands like Look Left and Foxes and Peppers. 

Hi. I’m Pepper Coyote, and I am a furry musician. To me, music in the furry fandom is just music that happens to be done by furries. That might seem obvious, but I have never seen any kind of gate keeping in the fandom based on what one’s music is about. I see music in this community as yet another example of how we are a fandom that cannot be bought and sold, and one that is not based on any corporate entity. It is our own.

The most helpful information I ever learned as a musician, was that you don’t need anyone’s permission to create. You don’t need a label’s approval to put out a CD, and you don’t need a company’s permission to start selling or shipping said CD. There’s never been a better time to be a musician. Your audience might be out there waiting for you, even if you don’t know who they are yet.

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January 28, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with Matthew Ebel and Microdile

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1 of this series of short Q&A’s asked: what defines “furry music”? Furry dance parties are one of the strongest real life furry movements besides conventions. In a growing fandom, con stages now use millions in equipment and are the crossroads for congoers. Sound is half of the performances and videos furries love. But music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. Start with a loose working definition: It overlaps with fandom, it’s made with furries, or it shares a general theme. Then comes the fun part of asking musicians about it. (See part 1 for the full list):

  1. Are you a furry musician?
  2. What is furry music?
  3. Can you share a cool fact or story about your music?

Matthew Ebel: Piano Rock singer-songwriter who recently branched out as EDM/progressive house act Avian Invasion, beloved by audiences over many years as a convention mainstay. 

  • Yup, definitely a Furry musician. If playing shows at cons for the last 12 years wasn’t definitive enough, now I play on club stages in a bird mask. Pretty sure that’s enough evidence to convict.
  • Furry music is, in my opinion, separate from Furry musicians. There are plenty of proud Furry musicians who don’t write songs about the fandom or animals… Furry music is, like all furry art, something that expresses the creator’s particular affinity for critter characters.
  • I once had a talk radio network in South Africa use one of my songs as their network theme song for two or three years. I didn’t bother telling them the whole album was written about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy… I’m pretty sure that would’ve just weirded them right the fuck out.

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January 28, 2019

What is furry music? Q&A with musicians.

by Patch O'Furr

Whoah. Look what came up by following a random link to what looked like regular music. The followers are all furries. Is this a performer who plays furry cons? Advertises to furries? Just vibes with things they like? Is he one himself?

Subculture bubbles up unexpectedly and can make you wonder where it comes from. Fandoms intersect and have many gateways. If there is “furry music”, the first question is what defines it? Music isn’t exactly made by animals, it isn’t visual, and it’s an ineffable experience to even write about. “Furry” isn’t really a music genre, but it matters enough to fandom that it’s worth treating it like one for a deeper look. A loose working definition can help get things started.

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December 19, 2018

Representing furries in 2018 with 10,000 at Midwest Furfest, Dogbomb’s magic, and more (Part 2)

by Patch O'Furr

Being fluffy is its own reward. Fun and creativity don’t need representing. What is this, a religion? But if a spotlight happens, it could be for hard work to help others, a lucky chance, or having the right dance moves at the right time.  Chasing attention might not be necessary, but it’s nice to show how cool this group is because that helps make it cooler. So here’s why the fandom is great in 2018.

Part 1 had good media: CNN’s This Is Life with Lisa Ling, Sonicfox at The Game Awards in Los Angeles, and Bucktown Tiger on Jeopardy. For Part 2 here’s conventions, charity, art, celebrities, awards, spending, and more.

Conventions and charity:

 

Midwest FurFest got the first five-figure furry con attendance! It took 29 years since ConFurence 0 to match the biggest WorldCon (started in 1939, that’s perhaps one of the longest running nerd events, where they hand out fancy awards like the Hugos). Now we’re giving Science Fiction fandom a run for its money. It’s not on Comic Con level and may never be (…good?) but that’s millions of dollars of support to build and share the wealth. And furry is still grassroots with little outside investment and high DIY power.

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November 12, 2018

Jello Biafra’s Incredibly Strange Interview and dance party with furries: San Francisco, 12/1/18

by Patch O'Furr

Info: Frolicparty.com or Facebook – Frolic with Jello Biafra

Are you a man or are you a mouse?
If you love your fun, die for it!
– The Power of Lard by Lard

Man or mouse: why pick just one? Furries can have their cake and eat it too. (It’s cheese cake, of course!)

That line jumped out of my car music on a drive to San Jose’s PAWcon, on the day after Halloween. Besides rocking my giant ears, I was geeking out about just doing a 45 minute phone call with Jello Biafra.

Jello is a punk legend, the singer for Lard and the Dead Kennedys, the founder of Alternative Tentacles (one of the longest running indie record labels)… and he’s friendly to this fluffy fandom. Is that punk? Well, will it annoy purists and/or make you laugh? Then it just might be. And will the average furry care? I’d say it’s cooler than the times when furries infested the White House and assimilated Insane Clown Posse. If you could put all those things together, and let the mayhem commence with cute animals and crazy clowns doing a coup on the Capitol lawn, it would only be half as outrageous as this amazing event.

Speaking of Halloween, that wasn’t just a date on the calendar. Halloween is a classic Dead Kennedys song, and Jello referenced it when I asked for his thoughts on furries. The song rages against social regulations and asks why people don’t express themselves like that day, every day? So, furries, you got compared to a classic punk rager by the legend who wrote it. (He also wrote Nazi Punks Fuck Off. By the way, Nazi Furs Fuck Off!)

See why I was so stoked? Getting in that spirit also reminds me of Ministry’s Every Day is Halloween; Jello’s band Lard is a metal/industrial collab with the guys from Ministry. And when I asked what his fursona could be, he gave the punkest answer:

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October 15, 2018

Bass Totem brings ravers and furriends to DNA Lounge in San Francisco, October 26 2018

by Patch O'Furr

If you visit San Francisco and you like subcultural stuff, try DNA Lounge. They’re an anchor for night life that supports unusually cool shows.

It’s Sunday night and I just got back from being on stage there with Rachel Lark. She invited me because I answered her need for a furry in her music video. Rachel’s show was advertised with stuff like “sex-positive, musical theatre, stand up comedy, politically charged rock”, and that’s not even mentioning the circus performers suspended in mid air! For the low effort of jumping around and wagging my tail, I left with an invite to be in Bawdy Storytelling, another wild happening. I love when furries get welcomed like this, and it shows how much potential there is for fandom to mingle with other crowds.

Furries vs. goths, and furries vs. drag queens are among previous DNA Lounge shows covered here. A lot of credit for a thriving scene is due to DJ Neonbunny, founder of Frolic Party, whose activity brings recognition well outside of fandom. But since furries started flocking to Frolic in 2010, Northern California has been heating up with other crews starting new events too.

Midekai, Buster, Mr. Disk0, and Cosmo Coyote are some of the crew who talked to me about Bass Totem, their furry-led crossover with local rave events. The upcoming one is part of the monthly So Stoked party:

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