Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Media

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
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

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
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.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment
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.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
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.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment
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.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment
January 24, 2019

Good Fur News brings a new source for fandom positivity.

by Patch O'Furr

On January 21, Twitter lit up with the launch of a new furry news site. It builds on a solid record of work by site owner Haven Fusky, organizer of HavenCon, FurNightATX (a furry dance party) and charity events. If you need good stories with real action, this Fusky delivers.

The welcome post brings out the mission:

“Ever said to yourself or someone else: “Gee I wish there was a website where I could find all the good stuff of the furry fandom?”

Well, here we are. Good Fur News aims to focus on the positive aspects of the fandom. From artists, musicians and creators to performers, activists and more. We want to show you what we have to offer.

Good Fur News is run by Haven Fusky a fursuiter out of Portland, Oregon who is known for creating the first LGBTQ+ geek and gaming convention of Texas. However, the news is created by YOU, the fandom – through our tips page and other avenues of communication.”

In the first few days, the site already has features on popular furry artist Paco Panda and health and motivation speaker Tax Beast.

Haven puts a lot of thought into why this work matters – and why it’s not good enough to wait for others to bring it:

Read the rest of this entry »

5 comments
January 11, 2019

So You’ve Become A Taur, by Johannes Knapp – Book Review by Summercat

by Pup Matthias

So You’ve Become A Taur, by Johannes Knapp. $6, Jarlidium Press, 2018. Webcomic Archive #13. 24 pages, color.

Statement: I received a free copy of this comic for the collection of the Furry Library. My review was not influenced by this.

A comic about the challenges a taur face in a world meant for bipeds,  Johannes Karpp’s (aka Cervelet) takes us through the challenges a newly-taured individual faces, mixing in humor and well thought out and reasoned solutions to problems that would result from suddenly having an additional set of legs.

Originally posted online in 2015, this 2018 release from Jarlidium Press’s Web Comic Archive line includes new material, such as a backstory showing how our hapless hero became a taur, as well as a few new still images.

The worldbuilding is right up my alley, and something I think about constantly just for bipedal characters with tails. How do mass-produced store-bought pants work for digitigrade legs and tails of all sorts of shapes? What about chairs or vehicles?

Cervelet extends this “Well, what about” question to taurs and those with six limbs, and does so interestingly. It is something I will consider in the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
January 9, 2019

In Flux, Edited by Rechan – Book Review by Summercat

by Pup Matthias

In Flux, from Furplanet and edited by Rechan, is an adults-only story anthology with four stories that feature transformation, which is, ahem, a personal favorite of mine. Yet despite two of the stories featuring kinks of mine, that are rarely touched upon, I find myself hesitant to recommend the anthology to the general transformation fetishist audience because I feel it may miss the mark.

This is not a knock on the technical writing skills of the four authors. Each story is well written and clear in their descriptions. The authors know their craft well and it shows. However, in terms of making subject matter for their audience, I can’t help but feel the anthology is lacking.

In Flux contains four stories.

Aesop’s Universe: Savages In Space, by Bill Kieffer, is a science fiction story involving a colony ship on its way to a new world that will be colonized, in part, by a tribal society of lions who are well aware of their technological setting. Huntress Thandiwe is horribly injured while hunting due to the ship becoming damaged from an accident, and her body becomes regenerated using her genes and DNA. This results in a fix to her eyes, but also an androgyn issue that went unnoticed, turning her male. This threatens to complicate issues with her Crewman boyfriend, the lion Bobby.

I love this story. Female to Male is something I enjoy, but more than that, the story goes into how the Thandiwe handles her new body and the changes, set in a backdrop of a major problem with the ship that she helps Bobby with. The story has a satisfactory, for me, ending, and manages character growth in the short few pages it has. The transformation itself isn’t described as much, but there is a video timelapse the character watches.

Wild Dog, by Franklin Leo, is a first person modern day story told from the perspective of Riley, an African Wild Dog. Shifting in this universe is common apparently, as any anthro can infect another anthro with their species. This serves as the center of the drama with his relationship with the dalmation Samantha when she nips him.

I did not like this story. The opening was promising, but the outcome when Riley confronts Samantha about the change being forced on him when he has tried to be courteous about not changing her just upsets me, and the ending feels like an out of character action for both Riley and Samantha. While transformation was at the core of the story, the actual transformation was minimal in description as it served as a plot device for the conflict.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment