Transcript by ApproxTenCats
EFA Episode 220 We Built This Shipy on Rock n Roll
[ph] – Indicates preceding word has been spelled phonetically [sic] – Indicates preceding word has been transcribed verbatim
MUSIC : Write My Story by Olly Anna
ANNOUNCER GUY : You've tuned in to the Earp Fiction Addiction, a fan podcast all about Wynonna Earp fanfiction. Join our intrepid host DarkWiccan and Delayne as they dive deep into the sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, and always varied world of fanfiction for the Wynonna Earp fandom.
MUSIC : A Proper Story by Darren Korb
DARKWICCAN : Thanks Announcer Guy and welcome everyone to another episode of the Earp Fiction Addiction, the podcast dedicated entirely to Wynonna Earp fanfiction. I am your host, DarkWiccan, and with me with her earbuds in as I wave frenetically at her, trying to get her attention, is my fantastic co host...
DELAYNE : [laughter] Hi it’s Delayne.
DARKWICCAN : It’s about time. Trying to get your attention for about fifteen minutes here.
DELAYNE : Sorry, man, you know, when the music moves you, you just, you gotta be in it.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, I completely understand. I am also a child of “the music” so I get it, I get it. But I can only guess you were listening to one of several playlists.
DELAYNE : Several playlists. Yes.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah.
DELAYNE : [laughter] But I’m not going to tell you which one. You know what how about you tell me which playlist you think it is and I will not tell you which one I’m actually listening to.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Okay I will do that right after I tell everybody about our Patreon. Hey everybody we got a Patreon, at patreon.com/efapodcast. If you would like to become a subscriber of the show, all funds we receive go directly back into the production of this show and any perks and special things, rewards for our patrons. Again that’s patreon.com/efapodcast, we have multiple tiers you can join, everything from just getting a shout out on the show to getting an audiobook once every few months so check it out, see if that’s something you want to do. But if you prefer to have something you can hold in your hands please do check out our Redbubble store redbubble.com/people/efapodcast/shop and check out one of our many awesome wares, including things you can wear.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : However you would like to support, even what you are doing right now, listening with your ears, ear holes, to our voices at you. That is supporting the show. Following us on Twitter, following us on Facebook, telling your friends about us, that is supporting the show. We accept all forms of support.
DELAYNE : Yes. While you have your headphones in and listening to us let’s get back to the music.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, now that that awkward mess is over, thank god, or goddess, or flying spaghetti monster or you know, cosmic muffin or whatever you believe.
DELAYNE : Cosmic muffin, that’s a new one on me. Ah anyway let’s not get derailed again. Back to the music.
DARKWICCAN : You know what? Cosmic muffin would be a great band name.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Yes.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Yes, cosmic muffin is my Jefferson Starship cover band.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Alright, music, let’s talk about it. It’s got notes. They frequently harmonize with each other. And when the notes go in the right order they affect you and you have a feeling.
DELAYNE : Lot’s of feelings.
DARKWICCAN : Today we’re talking about stories that have lots of feelings that revolve around notes that go up and down and frequently harmonize with each other.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : It’s been a very long day. It’s been a very long day. Ok. Playlist fics. Talking about playlist fics.
DELAYNE : Playlist fics.
DARKWICCAN : Fics that have playlists attached to them, because the authors were inspired by the music and took that inspiration and wrote a story that revolved, or involved or was heavily influenced by “the music”. And we’re going to focus on one fic in particular today but we can’t start talking about that one until we provide the absolutely necessary shout outs to other very well known and excellent songfics, can’t see but I’m making air quotes, songfics or as I like to call playlist fics. [inaudible] of them all, the Big Kahuna, the incredibly influential Eighties Mixtape AU, also known as It’s Like I Wrote Every Note With My Own Fingers by GilliganKane AKA PirateKane and TheGaySmurf. Absolutely have to shout that one out, it is, when we chatted with both Smurf and Pirate both this season and last season we touched briefly on the fact that this is technically a songfic series but it doesn’t feel like a songfic series, so, because instead of...
DELAYNE : Hence the “songfic” in air quotes.
DARKWICCAN : Absolutely, so we have to tip our hats to that immense series of stories. Also have to give a big old wave to Bootsncatz for her story Wishin’ and Hopin’ , that also has a playlist on Spotify and it is fantastic. It is totally classic retro 1950s and 60s. I love listening to the playlist whether I’m reading the story or not, it’s just a feel good bunch of songs man, it just takes me back to a time I did not live in, but that my mom lived in so you know [laughter]
DELAYNE : You have a connection to it. You understand it enough to appreciate it.
DARKWICCAN : Yes. And another fic I want to give a shout out to before we dive into our main one today is My Love Heaven’s Not Too Far to Touch by Maidenstar, this is a story that has multiple playlists on Spotify that go along with it because this is a San Junipero AU and much like in the television episode from Black Mirror the characters jump through different times within about a twenty year swing or so, and so each of the years that they visit, well not each but most of the years that they visit Maidenstar actually created unique playlists for those individual chapters so I definitely have to shout out to that. The thing that all of these stories have in common is that while they do have accompanying playlists and they do reference the music either by title or by dropping a few lyrics here and there they don’t heavily rely on the music to tell the story, it’s more of a place setting thing. Now in the case of 80s Mixtape AU that it is genuinely more both a combination of place setting or time setting but also emotion. So the fic that we’re talking about and putting our focus on today is the fic Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands by iwaseliteonce and this is a very unique story in that not only does it have a playlist but is also truly a songfic in that it does use entire chunks of lyrics to tell the story but unlike most songfics that do that it’s not annoying.
DELAYNE : [laughter] You’re just gonna lay it all out there. Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : I mean...
DELAYNE : No diss to songfics but it sometimes comes across as a little annoying.
DARKWICCAN : Well, I’ve talked about this before. I’ve confessed this before. This isn’t news. I mean, it’s news if somebodies tuning in for the first time but it’s not news. I am not a fan of songfics as they are traditionally known which is basically you open...
DELAYNE : There’s a whole hunk of lyrics and a little tiny bit of exposition.
DARKWICCAN : Yes, exactly, there’s like two sentences of expository prose and then somebody just cut and pastes the lyrics off goodlyrics.dot.com just [cut and paste sound effect]
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : And then there’s like a chunk of little expository prose at the end and that “there you go, hey you wrote a fic.” No you didn’t, you just quoted some lyrics at me, you didn’t write a fic.
DELAYNE : But that’s definitely not what we’re talking about today. This, uh, I can’t even describe how it is done but I love how it is done. Does that make any sense?
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, I totally get what you’re saying. This is a story where especially if you listen along to the playlist while you’re reading the story, this is a story where the music is the story and the story is the music. Our main point of view is Nicole, in fact our only point of view is Nicole, it is also a first person piece which I’m typically very wary around first person pieces as well, that’s a real touchy I mean this fic is really ticking all the boxes where normally I’d go, “uhh, thanks but no thanks. I mean I’ll read it because I gotta read it but uhh ”
DELAYNE : [laughter] Same.
DARKWICCAN : I mean first person stuff is really difficult to write, I think I’ve written one or two.
DELAYNE : I say we’ve talked about it before, we had a whole episode.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, we did. And it’s so, so difficult to do well. Because you are just, whether you want to or not you’re putting so much of yourself into the character that it’s possible to lose the core of the character and just be writing an autobiography essentially. Where you’ve changed the names to protect the innocent or whatever so it’s a fine, fine line. But this, this story is so engaging and it just feels like the soundtrack is around you at all times and Nicole the character, this version of Nicole is entirely driven by music. She is a musician, and she owns a record store. The character reminds me a lot of John Cusack’s character from High Fidelity which is one of my all time favorite John Cusack movies. And this Nicole is very dramatic, I honestly think she’s the most dramatic Nicole we’ve had since teenage Nicole in the 80s Mixtape AU. I mean honestly. I mean maybe on par with...
DELAYNE : Maybe possessed Nicole in canon?
DARKWICCAN : But that’s not Nicole.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Possessed by a teenager Nicole.
DARKWICCAN : But that’s not Nicole though.
DELAYNE : No, that’s not Nicole. That’s just a funny image in my head.
DARKWICCAN : It’s hilarious and I will always be grateful to Ms Kat Barrell for being willing to rip open her shirt and share with us what the wardrobe department dressed her in that day. But that’s not Nicole. To get back to my point, this Nicole is very much in her feelings and she experiences her feelings through the music that she loves and this very much starts off an unrequited love story. Nicole lays it all out there right away.
DELAYNE : This Nicole and her language as well, like, within the first couple of lines “absolute bullshit”, I mean, just that line.
DARKWICCAN : The writing isn’t absolute bullshit, that’s the line. Let me just clarify. I just felt it was necessary.
DELAYNE : I just realised how that could come across, yes... One, two, it’s the third line, um but at this point you’ve got to keep in mind if you haven’t realised, at this point we are in Nicole’s head.
DARKWICCAN : The first line of the story is, “Welcome to Chicago, the capital of middle class fucking America” like that’s our introduction to this Nicole.
DELAYNE : Yes, and by the third line she’s talking about what bullshit happy places are. The mindless masses. She’s just a very angry, record store, antisocial...
DARKWICCAN : She reminds me of this, like, combination of Bernard Black from Black Books if you’re familiar with that BBC show and [inaudible] mentioned before. A very much borderline nihilist. A borderline nihilist and curmudgeon and just...
DELAYNE : I definitely got High Fidelity vibes when I was reading this especially at the beginning like, bam, I felt that too. And then there’s a little bit once we start getting into the other characters, got a little bit of Empire Records in there.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, definitely, definitely.
DELAYNE : Those are pretty much the two record store movies that I know of anyway.
DARKWICCAN : But yeah this Nicole is definitely where the Nicole on the show I think you can read more as a realist who trends toward optimism, this Nicole is a surrealist who tends towards pessimism and uh...
DELAYNE : Accurate, very accurate.
DARKWICCAN : She also is a smoker, although she tries not to smoke too much because Waverly hates it when she does. And she is tattooed. And she drinks. And she hates selling records to stupid people so really it’s a miracle that her store is even open still.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Uh, yes, Nicole definitely mentions how difficult it is to run a record store, especially with the way music is these days and how it’s accessible and she definitely is not helping. Because that first, well, the first time that we see Nicole sell to a customer it does not go very well.... sorry.
DARKWICCAN : Why did you run out of steam? You were so you were going to a good place there.
DELAYNE : I don’t know where I’m going, I probably should take my headphones out, maybe that would help.
DARKWICCAN : You can’t hear me? What?
DELAYNE : No because I’m listening to music right?
DARKWICCAN : [in a high strained voice] Well, stop it. We’re discussing fic right now. Jeez, what am I going to do with you? So anyway, this Nicole is hopelessly in love with Waverly and has been for twelve years, TWELVE YEARS, but she’s never had the courage to tell Waverly how she feels so when we meet this Nicole she is basically more than a decade in to this self imposed hurt fest on her heart and I mean, what does that make for? It makes for great, great emotional music. Now I won’t say that Nicole is emo for the first four chapters. [laughter] But here’s the funny thing, so like emo is supposed to be shorthand for emotional youth or whatever right?
DELAYNE : I assume so, yeah.
DARKWICCAN : Okay, so if...
DELAYNE : All I know is that they wear dark clothes and listen to depressing music.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, and I wouldn’t well, I mean that kind of describes Nicole here. But she’s not listening to sort of the synth pop dark stuff. She’s listening to, you know, independent artists and...
DELAYNE : Definitely hates the sellouts.
DARKWICCAN : Hates the sellouts, absolutely. So she likes to listen to Joy Division and Elliot Smith and, well maybe not Echo and the Bunnymen but you know, The Smiths, big fan of The Smiths, definitely. So that’s the kind of music that this Nicole is a fan of. So I know that she doesn’t like to think of herself as emo, but I just gotta say, given how dramatic she is she’s emo.
DELAYNE : [laughter] You’re listing a bunch of artists and uh, half of them I’m going to have to google a lot of stuff. I might have been in band in high school but my brother is the musician, he’s the one who loves the music. Like I said, I understand maybe half the references. I did like the Led Zeppelin one at the beginning, that was funny.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, and who doesn’t love a good Immigrant Song joke, right?
DELAYNE : That was hilarious.
DARKWICCAN : Note to self...
DELAYNE : But yeah half the artists I’m like, I know maybe half of them so yay?
DARKWICCAN : Well, the cool thing is iwaseliteonce has provided a comprehensive Spotify playlist to go along with this story so if you don’t know a song, you can listen to the song and then you will know the song.
DELAYNE : That’s brilliant. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : What I found interesting is that I like to think of myself as a fan of independent music and alternative rock and punk and things like that, and I discovered that yes that’s true for certain bands with certain sounds but there are some tracks on this that I’m like, “okay, so Nicole likes this one, I don’t get it, but okay.” That’s a really cool thing about this, this story is not only telling a story but it’s also introducing you to artists that you may not have known about like The Damnwells, I was not familiar with The Damnwells. Which I think is stupid because they’ve been around a long time. But I wasn’t familiar with them, but now I am because this story.
DELAYNE : Yeah, that’s actually a very good point. Even talking about the other fics we were mentioning with the other playlists, older songs that there might be a lot of younger people who are reading fanfic nowadays might not have known so this is a great way to introduce musical artists to people.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, totally. And I think we’ve kind of gotten stuck on the music here for a while. I sort of want to talk a little bit more about the storytelling. The storytelling does rely heavily on the music but it’s very evocative, even if you’re not listening to the music, even if you’re just reading the snatches of lyrics that are included here and there, even if you skip over them, I don’t recommend it, the lyrics are important, normally, and that’s the thing, that’s the opposite of what I would typically say when it comes to songfics, when it comes to songfics it’s like, “god, okay, read the opening exposition, skip to the end, read the closing exposition, okay I got it.” But in this case the lyrics are very important because the lyrics are important to Nicole. She experiences life through these songs and through the lyrics, you can tell that if musicianship isn’t top of the list, the words are definitely there. So do take the time to read the lyrics as you’re reading through this story, but it’s incredibly evocative feel this pain that again, she’s putting herself through, she’s such a useless gay. But I think this is something that I think we can all relate to and we can all kind of get on the same page with this Nicole like, “girl, I know I feel you, would you just be honest for fucks sake.”
DELAYNE : Well the way it’s written it feels very “in real time” because Nicole in her head will stop and be like, “wait, I need to listen this lyric is coming up and it’s important to me and I want to listen to it so my brain’s going to stop explaining to the ether.”
DARKWICCAN : Right. And I love the fact that, I don’t know if you’ve done this, I’ve done this in the car, particularly if I’m by myself and I’m not listening to music or maybe I’ve got music down low and I’m just running through something in my head and I will just start to monologue. And sometimes it’s not enough to just be an internal monologue, sometimes you do actually have to speak the words out into the air and I love the fact that at one point Nicole is alone in her record store and she’s just getting more and more frustrated [inaudible] and record stores today. And she just kind of goes, “I know I’ve got a monologue building up, I know I’ve got it building up, and here it is.” And she just monologues to the empty store because she has no one else to blah this out to and she just gets it out of her system and she’s like, “oh, that was good, I feel better now.” Yeah, no I get it, I get it.
DELAYNE : I don’t usually leave my head very often but I’m definitely in my head a lot so I get that.
DARKWICCAN : And also because she’s not communicating verbally with her friends or with Waverly she talks herself into believing things that aren’t necessarily true like believing that Waverly’s not interested in her.
DELAYNE : Despite the fact that when Waverly shows up...
DARKWICCAN : I know right!
DELAYNE : all the little things...
DARKWICCAN : Little things?!
DELAYNE : [laughter] Just the way that they interact, like they’re already a couple. They’re holding hands. She has to go get her scarf and gloves because they’re Waverly’s, everything of Nicole’s is Waverly’s, she’s very clear about this. And it’s like, I don’t know, it’s easier to be blind when you’re actively looking elsewhere? I don’t know.
DARKWICCAN : When you’re actively talking yourself out of what is right in front of you? Yeah, yeah. Well listen, there’s a lot going on with this story and I would love to sit down with iwaseliteonce and chat it out. Yes, I would like to chat with our dear author about this. I want to pick her brain about the story, I want to pick her brain about the playlist, I want to talk to her about music in general because clearly music is a big deal for her so let’s do that, and you can ask your questions too I guess Delayne if you want to.
DELAYNE : [laughter] I definitely have interacted on Twitter about music.
DARKWICCAN : Cool, alright, great.
DELAYNE : So looking forward to this.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, it’s gonna be good, it’s gonna be good. So, before we do that there is one thing we must do, Delayne who is this week’s reverse sponsor?
DELAYNE : This week’s reverse sponsor is Georgie Luttrell.
MUSIC: Fragile Heart by Georgie Luttrell
Georgie Luttrell is a Canadian singer songwriter of contemporary folk music based out of Toronto and she’s the unofficial songstress of the Wynonna Earp fandom.
Georgie’s insightful lyrics coupled with her gentle and expressive voice and masterful guitar playing creates music that brims over with emotion, depth and heart; and pays perfect homage to the characters and relationships of Wynonna Earp.
You can find and listen to Georgie’s Earp inspired and unique original music by visiting her page on
Soundcloud at Soundcloud dot com slash Georgie dash Luttrell
That’s
Soundcloud dot com slash Georgie dash Luttrell
Georgie Luttrell, better than a surprise Rihanna concert.
MUSIC: Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin
DARKWICCAN : And welcome back everybody to the Earp Fiction Addiction , the podcast dedicated entirely to Wynonna Earp fanfiction. I am your host DarkWiccan and with me listening to some deep cuts off her favorite Zeppelin album is my buddy...
DELAYNE : Delayne.
DARKWICCAN : And we’re super excited to have with us right now the author of the fantastic story we were chatting about before the break, the one with the spectacular playlist, Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands . The fantastic iwaseliteonce. Welcome back to the show.
ELITE: Well thank you, nice to be here, nice to be back again.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, I love chatting with you.
ELITE: Well that’s nice, it’s nice to be appreciated you know?
DARKWICCAN : Well, we do appreciate you very very much on this show, that’s for sure.
ELITE: Well, that’s nice. I might come back then.
DARKWICCAN : We’ll see? We’ll see how this goes?
ELITE : It’s a test run at this point.
DELAYNE : Test run number two. What is your standard sample size for your test runs?
ELITE : Um, you know, at least three dates.
DARKWICCAN : At least three, so we need to have you back on one more time is what you’re saying before you make up your mind about us?
ELITE : I would have to write something good enough to earn that, yes.
DARKWICCAN : Okay, I believe in you.
DELAYNE : I believe in you too.
DARKWICCAN : Well thank you.
ELITE : This got really cute.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] I just realised Delayne said “I believe in you too” and not Elite. I thought you were just reciprocating. Sorry. Yes, but no I believe in you. Okay. Let’s talk. Alright okay.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Let’s get to the reason why we’re here which is to chat with you Elite about your wonderful music inspired work, Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands . It’s a very emotional work, it’s very much the music is incredibly integral to the story, I don’t think the story would exist without the music. And it has just been, I mean you took a bit of a break between the most recent two chapters and that’s okay. Like I said on this show we never, ever pressure authors to write, writing is hard, life happens. But I’m so glad to see you back at it after a bit of a hiatus and it’s just been a joy to read. It’s very emotional but it’s a lovely lovely story.
ELITE : Well, I’m glad to hear you like it. That’s kind of the point. So.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Right. Good. We’re going to play this low key. I can go low key. No problem. So, uh, Elite, tell me about your relationship with music.
ELITE : [in soft radio voice] Are we going soft radio voice?
DARKWICCAN : [also in soft radio voice] yes we are. Coming up next on Thistle and Shamrock we’re going to be discussing the way music affects Elite’s life.
DELAYNE : [in background] Oh my gosh. Wait, who’s the thistle and who’s the shamrock?
ELITE : Which one of us is taller?
DARKWICCAN : Well Delayne is taller than me, so.
DELAYNE : I still don’t remember that. I don’t feel like that’s the case. Why is that? Never mind.
DARKWICCAN : Because you’re barely taller than me Delayne, you’re like maybe half an inch taller than me.
DELAYNE : Ugh. Well, we went off the rails real quick. Hey, Elite, how about that question?
DARKWICCAN : Anytime, anytime, take your time, this is a big question.
ELITE : So, my relationship with music has been lifelong, that’s the easiest answer. I grew up with a dad that has so many records it’s embarrassing. I am in the same room as them. There are twelve hundred records at this point. I have no idea how many CDs and tapes there are. They’re all in alphabetical order by the last name of the artist, and then chronological order by band and/or artist so basically anything that came out since about 1950 I’ve had access to. It’s just, it’s the major constant, it’s the thing I’ve always had.
DARKWICCAN : So you essentially live in a music library.
ELITE : I live in a music library yeah. My dad’s best friend has a basement that is a radio station. He and my dad combined have twenty four, twenty five hundred records. If you’ve ever heard it they have it. It’s incredible. The best example is, seriously this is the weirdest example I can think of, but when 9/11 happened I came home and picked out very specific albums and listened to them. New York Minute by The Eagles. Fragile by Sting. I picked really specific albums and just came home and listened to the songs that I thought fit that and I’ve always done that. I learned how to make mixtapes when I was, I don’t know, ten? I started making mix CDs when that was available, it’s just a thing I’ve always done. It’s hard for me to work all the way through a record, I’m that person who skips around which drives a lot of people insane so a good record for me is one where I can’t skip a song because it feels dirty. That’s a good record.
DARKWICCAN : So would you say that music for you is just as much of an emotion as anything else, or a way of expressing emotion?
ELITE : Yeah. And it should be a music and a lyrical combo. If you have a really great song lyrically but the sound sucks I don’t want to listen to it. If you have a really great song that sounds amazing and the composition’s really well done but your lyrics don’t hit me in and under my rib cage I’m not going to be as prone to pick it up and think about. I like the records that just absolutely haunt me across the board. I have a top five list of top songs sonically, and top songs lyrically, because I think they’re very different things. It’s just something I’ve always done, just kind of tracking what’s good on what scale and what’s good on both scales.
DARKWICCAN : And would these be pretty much entirely... when I say pop music I don’t mean that in a bad way, I just mean music that has been part of the popular culture, anywhere from I guess when I say pop music I mean music that is not musical theater.
ELITE : Um, yeah, I mean it’s back to the 1950s crooners, I think some of the best stuff is Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, The Ink Spots. You’ve got to be able to appreciate that kind of stuff to appreciate what exists now. There’s no Lena Horne making your soul hurt, there’s no Julien Baker that makes you wanna cry. Those two things require each other.
DELAYNE : Wow, I am so blown away, and also it’s funny because the records that I do have are all musical theater.
ELITE : I don’t have a problem with musical theater. I can’t dance so I’ve never had anything really to do with musical theater. I got kicked out of the theater organization I was in because I couldn’t dance.
DARKWICCAN : They were doing it wrong then.
ELITE : Nobody wanted me in the company when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a lost boy so bad but I couldn’t do the dance.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : So that was the one production of Peter Pan that you
ELITE : Yeah, I got to be in a production, I don’t know like two years ago I guess, of American Idiot locally because I didn’t have to dance. It was fun. I just got to sing and be a dork and play drums and stuff like that.
DARKWICCAN : Well, the reason why I ask between pop music and musical theater is because in musical theater it’s the lyrics are incredibly, incredibly important because they’re part of a linear storyline so they have to move the plot forward. Whereas in music that you listen to on the radio, regardless of genre, not to say that the lyrics don’t matter, but it seems like there’s more of an emphasis in certain styles, not all, in certain styles there’s more of an emphasis on the sound and less on the meaning. I think that we’re getting back to music that is just as lyrically important as it is sonically important. But for a time it just seemed like there was a sound that people were trying to capture and the lyrics were just like, “we’re just going to say the same thing three thousand times in a row.”
ELITE : Yeah, pretty much. Just to be, you said I could cuss, just to be an elitist asshole about it I don’t listen to the radio. I have little phases where I listen to it because we have a really little local radio station that does some of the old school country and bluegrass that’s kind of fun. I, for the most part, hate the radio. I want the Julien Bakers, and the Phoebe Bridgers and the Lucy Dacus kind of musicians. I want somebody that makes my soul hurt. I’m sure Katy Perry is great but I don’t feel like a plastic bag, I just don’t. I’m sorry, I wish I did I guess? But I just don’t feel like a plastic bag.
DELAYNE : Okay, your name “elite” just works so well now that you have written this because and you portray Nicole very well as a musical elitist as well, and definitely there is a High Fidelity vibe going on, we talked about it in the first segment. So this story reminds me of that and also Empire Records . So I was curious if those movies were an inspiration at all for you to write this story.
ELITE : I’m going to preface part of this by saying please don’t hate me for this, I was a really sheltered child when it came to movies and TV. I have never seen Empire Records , I didn’t know it existed until about five years ago. High Fidelity is my favorite movie of all time. I love High Fidelity . That’s the best thing Jack Black has ever done. Everybody in the cast is great. It’s like the lone time that I’ve liked Lisa Bonet. John Cusack is wet because that’s part of his contract and he has to be wet in every movie he’s ever been in. It’s a masterpiece, the book is just as good, the book is a blast. But yeah, it’s a masterpiece of a film. Even though he’s an absolute asshole, the whole time. But is it an inspiration? One hundred percent. Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : Awesome.
ELITE : I love puppy Nicole. Puppy Nicole’s fun. But I haven’t seen a ton of people, probably with the exception of probably like Half, that will let Nicole be just almost intolerable. And I sort of wanted that, not first person perspective, but that kind of talking to the camera like what happens in High Fidelity . I wanted to see somebody do that and it just kept not happening and I got so pissed off about it I wondered if I could do it. And I wrote the intro, wrote like the first, what did it end up being? Wrote like the first three or four pages and thought, “well I guess I’ve done this now, yeah, I should probably finish this.” Absolutely, I wanted that Nicole to happen, and I wondered who the different, one of the guy’s name is Dick if you’ve never seen High Fidelity , who the equivalent of Dick is and it’s one hundred percent Jeremy, he’s just the softest sweet baby angel on the planet. And he has that really passive tone, he’s softly opinionated but he won’t make you feel bad about it. And that’s a good Jeremy for me. And you know Rosita’s not much of a Jack Black character but she could get there.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah I could see that, for sure.
ELITE : She’s just a little more about, you know, hitting on everybody who walks through the door as opposed to asking if their family members are in a coma because they like a band. “Oh, I’m sorry, is she in a coma?” Yeah, I watched the movie a couple of days ago just so I could reference it a couple of times.
DARKWICCAN : Nice, excellent.
DELAYNE : I need to re watch that actually.
DARKWICCAN : So I just want to make one quick clarification Elite because you said not a lot of people do this except Half, and I want to just make clear that by Half you mean the author Half, and not half of the people.
ELITE : Yeah, no no no, sorry, that didn’t make sense. Yeah the author Half. The author Half’s really good at I’m kind of a dick Nicole. And also I’m kind of a dick Waverly which makes me very happy. But Half was probably the best example of someone who was willing to let their characters be almost on the line of intolerable jerks and you still love the hell out of them because they’re just so adorable.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : So talking about intolerable jerks you’re a clearly a modern music aficionado, have you ever used your knowledge and taste to knock a, quote, basic listener down to size much like Nicole does with the Willa in your story.
ELITE : Yes. That is where my AO3 username came from. When I was in college I went to music school, I was on the snare line, and I had a very occasional job at a record store. My life goal was to be the female version of Rob from High Fidelity . I trash talked every mediocre drummer I ever met. If your band sucked I was going to make fun of them. If you’re musical taste sucked I was going to rip you a new one about it. I was just like that person in the record store where they’re like, “fuck, she’s working today, no!” That was one hundred percent me, and this guy came in, this was like 2005, it was one of those, I’m going to offend a band that I like but I can’t think of the name of the band, it was a Yellow Cardy kind of punk but not really band. I love Yellow Card by the way. It was one of those radio popular bands, Good Charlotte, it was Good Charlotte. Good Charlotte, I fucking hate Good Charlotte. And this dude wanted a Good Charlotte CD and I don’t know the name of it because I hate that band, and I gave him shit about it and told him that he should just go to the fucking mall to get that CD that he wanted because there was no way we were going to carry that bullshit in this store. This is why Nicole curses so much. And we had this big fight back and forth and we’re in the middle of the store and he’s finally like, “why don’t we just go outside.”
DELAYNE: [laughter] What?
ELITE: I was in really good shape because I wore a drum all day every day but I would be like more scrappy than I would tough. I was fast. I can’t throw a punch. I got creamed in the parking lot of my store, and the last thing this dude said was something along the lines of, “you were an elitist asshole one time, don’t be it ever fucking again or I’ll break you.” So I was elite once.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Okay, so that’s how you got your name. Wow, that’s a story, that is quite a story.
DELAYNE : I don’t know what to do with this information.
ELITE : Honestly I deserved it, but Good Charlotte’s a really bad band so you know, just go to FYE, you know, order that shit on Amazon, go to Walmart, I don’t want it. Target’s probably got it.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
DELAYNE : Target’s probably got it with a bonus track specific to Target.
ELITE : One hundred percent, special edition, with I don’t know, who would the guest vocalist be, Jonathan Davis from Korn? I don’t know. Oh, that guy from Fall Out Boy whose name I don’t know. Pete.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
ELITE : There you go, that guy. Pete from Fall Out Boy. Is a guest vocalist. On the bonus track about buying a puppy and then kicking it off a bridge.
DARKWICCAN : Oh jeez.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Um, I have no idea where I’m at right now.
ELITE : And this is why Nicole curses so much.
DELAYNE : Yeah, Nicole, I wanna know, why the piano because I know you’re a drummer and I have seen Empire Records , I was expecting the door to open to a drum set so I want to know why the piano?
ELITE : Um, I think deep down in her sweet little black soul that Nicole is a little bit more emo than she’s willing to admit.
DARKWICCAN : [the evilest laughter the world has ever heard, filled with triumph and vindication]
DELAYNE : [laughter] That’s DWs evil laughter.
ELITE : Deep down she wants to be in Something Corporate really bad and she just wants to play Konstantine and make some really cute girl love her. And I figured everybody expected guitar, guitar was kind of a given. Bass can’t really carry what I wanted to do, and the best emotional impact was just going to be like a headliner instrument that you would never expect somebody who likes Depeche Mode and Joy Division and The Cure to play.
DARKWICCAN : Mhm, mhm.
DELAYNE : So you were going for the surprise.
ELITE : Yeah, it’s the surprise and it’s the emotional impact more so. Because, no offence to cute girls who play guitar, please keep playing guitar, you’re really pretty, we love it when you play guitar, but it’s pretty hot when a really cute girl can sing and play the piano and make your soul hurt. And you have a little tear and it’s a movie moment. Those were the girls I dated in college. Anyway, I kind of weighed that one for a little bit and I had this mental picture of Nicole playing Konstantine by Something Corporate on the piano and getting caught by Waverly and having this, “oh fuck, she’s going to know I’m emo” moment. And it just made me laugh so hard, and it’s the perfect impact instrument. If the pianos playing in a minor key or if it’s a song that you don’t expect to be played on piano it hurts more.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah. This is true. But I have a question. Okay so Nicole is quite the misanthrope in this story, and I’m just curious if other than of course Rob Gordon from High Fidelity , is her nature based on anyone in particular.
ELITE : Um, sort of? I mean, part of it is that mentality and that “I’m better than you” elitist mindset that I had in college and that sort of “if you don’t listen to what I listen to then fuck you.” And I think those kind of people are interesting, I think more so than her really disliking everybody that ever lived on the planet it was that I wanted to make her just a little bit emo but not like I will acknowledge that I’m emo, like just under that bottom layer she’s just screwed up enough that it’s a little hard to comprehend. So I think kind of what I ended up with later, especially where I am in the outline now, a lot of that nature is more so built on the fact that she’s just so certain [inaudible] is going to turn around and kick her in the ass. She’s just gonna implode or the universe is gonna explode or someone is gonna burn her store to the ground, or this relationship is going to go terribly because she says some sentence, and makes fun of Waverly’s favorite band without realising that everybody hates her forever. I wanted that more than I wanted that hatred of everything. But I don’t think you can just put that on a silver platter, it was easier to just make her that standoffish “if you don’t agree with me you don’t exist” person, and sell it, and put that as an underlying layer instead of just “I’m really sad all the time, and everything’s terrible and everybody’s going to leave me.” I think I wanted the impact to be a little more like “god she’s an asshole” and then the more you get into it, you know when you get to that piano moment you’re like “oh, this person’s scarred, she’s just screwed up and she doesn’t know what to do about it” and now that, you know, life feels good, especially where we are now in the fic, we’ve had this great thing happen but there’s still that “I’m going to fuck this up, this is going to go horribly, I’m going to screw this up” and I really wanted that to happen, and I wanted that to matter, and I wanted you to slowly realise that the character was a lot different to what you thought when you first saw them.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, uh...
DELAYNE : Woah.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, I think absolutely that you’ve done that. The thing that I think about Nicole, I mean you would think that as a reader you would be frustrated with her being such a dick but really my frustration lay in the fact that she was completely oblivious, she was so in her own damn head, that she was completely oblivious to how affectionate and loving Waverly was to her already in a very “we’re girlfriends, but for the sake of saying that we’re girlfriends and kissing each other” way.
ELITE : Yeah, and that’s what I want. I appreciate characters, and I have a friend like this, a guy that I’ve grown up knowing for a long time, when I first met him I was like, “this is the biggest asshole I have ever met in my entire life, I don’t know who hurt you, but I’m really sorry that your life’s been awful but people are trying to be nice to you.” And I like introduced him to some of my other friends and that first introduction was one of the worst conversations that I’ve ever had with other human beings because he intentionally made fun of this person’s job in a way that made me uncomfortable. And everybody hates this dude until the third time they hang out with him where they’re like “he’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met, he’s so smart, we had such a great conversation, this is so awesome. Where the fuck were you three days ago?” And I like those kind of people so I thought you were this, you’re actually this, but you don’t want me to get there until we have a relationship where you can trust me and get to know where you are.
DELAYNE : You wrote that very very well, in Nicole.
DARKWICCAN : Nailed it.
DELAYNE : So I am not a musical aficionado, I guess I dabble, my brother probably is more one so there’s some musicians you mention like, “yay, I know these people,” like Diana Krall oh my gosh we could uh yeah, let’s not go down that path. But one thing I do not understand is the name of the record store, explain that please and who the heck named it if Nicole did not.
ELITE : Okay, the record store. This was the most random reference that I could possibly make. The record store in High Fidelity has a really basic name and it’s always driven me insane, it’s Championship Vinyl I think, Championship Vinyl. It’s always driven me insane because it’s just too simple, you’d think somebody like that would be such a dick about the name of their store that it would be something insane and ridiculous. Complete Music / Music Complete is a reference to the English rock band, I’m gonna say rock, New Order. They had two albums, the first one was Music Complete and then the remix album they did a year later was Complete Music so I put them in reverse order. I really did it just to make one of those references where people are like, “what?”
DELAYNE : [laughter] Well congrats again, you were successful.
ELITE : I wanted that first chapter for everything you saw or heard, for you to go, “what? I don’t know what that is.” Like the title of the fic straight out of the gate, not many people are gonna know that Elliot Smith song, not many people are gonna know the first Joy Division song that you hear. Ninety five, probably higher than that, are gonna have no idea that I made a New Order reference, they’re just not gonna get these things. And I think...
DELAYNE : You even said it was a New Order reference and I still didn’t understand.
ELITE : To sell that elitist mindset that I really, really wanted I wanted that first chapter to almost be over people’s head so they were like, “what is happening right now? I don’t know what this person’s talking about.” I kinda wanted to sell the whole playlist concept, I don’t know if I’ve done that, but I wanted you to want to follow along and go, “I don’t understand what any of these song references are,” and then that song to start and go, “oh okay cool, I get it now.” Um, Pencil Skirt by Pulp was one of those references. It’s really dirty, inappropriate, looking at a hot girl and realising that they’re hot kinda song. And I put that at a time that I wouldn’t say that, but the character was thinking it and I just, I like to do things like that where the song means something really specific and if you know it you know that and if you listen to it you go, “okay, alright, I get it now.” I wanted to start off almost too high, and be a little too elitist and a little too in your own world in a way because the film starts that way. It’s all, “I’m gonna walk you through everything that’s happened, we are a lot further ahead than we should be and I’ll go back and I’ll explain things, but this is where we’re gonna start and you have no idea what’s happening right now.” And I wanted to do the same thing where you’re like, “cool, we’re in Chicago, what’s happening right now? This person’s listened to like five songs in fifteen seconds, I don’t understand anything that’s going on.”
DELAYNE : It was beautifully done so well, you are spot on with everything you are trying to accomplish, you have very successfully accomplished.
DARKWICCAN : You have orchestrated this story structure perfectly.
DELAYNE: [laughter and clapping]
ELITE : One day, thank you for that, I got you, I’m just ignoring your references because I’m a dick, but I just really, I overdo it on outlines, if anyone’s ever seen my outlines I am so sorry. I’ll write entire sections in my outlines, I’ll write a whole section of dialogue, I’ll write an general concept of what I wanna do. There are a lot of brackets where I explain the next scene’s gonna be if I’m not there yet. But I had that entire first chapter completely outlined and in little bracketed sections and had notes for how I wanted it laid out and what I wanted the dialogue to feel like and how much I wanted to curse in the first chapter because it changed. How much I wanted to feel like you were being told the story in the head of Nicole. And everything was just so strategized because this piece, this fic is like easily my favorite thing that I’ve written. It’s so much fun for me to do. Because it’s easy to go into that character. If I’ve had a bad day this is the best thing I can do, I can just open this fic and be like, “alright, how am I going to make people angry today,” or if I have been in this situation and I were not a fairly nice person in public how would I write this, or how would I have done it, how would I have played it out. In High Fidelity H he has this conversation with a guy like four times and each time is progressively more violent and then you see the actual event of what happened. I kind of wanted to do that where you’re like, “woah, pushing it.” I just wanted it to be over the top and then work it’s way back down to a comfortable level that I could maintain.
DARKWICCAN : Well, I think you’ve absolutely done that and I am loving the story and I cannot wait to see where the story progresses but we are out of time which means that we have to ask you the final question which we have changed up
ELITE : I hate you.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : We have changed it up
ELITE : I hate you so much.
ELITE : I was ready for the genre question, it was my life.
DARKWICCAN : We gotta keep you on your toes.
DELAYNE : Not all repeats get the same...
DARKWICCAN : So you’re very extra special final question, Delayne?
ELITE : This is rude.
DELAYNE : Alright, you are stranded on a desert island and can have only one LP to listen to, what is it?
ELITE : I seriously have a stack of vinyl in this room right now so I could stare at them this entire time and try to pick one, um, I have narrowed it down to three, two of them are different versions of the same thing. I have, I think I’m going with The Who’s Tommy , the film version because Tina Turner, and also Elton John. So I’m going Tommy , by The Who, the movie soundtrack edition, original soundtrack recording, featuring Anne Margaret, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, one of the highlights, that’s their drummer, and Tina Turner.
DARKWICCAN : That is, that’s fantastic. I love The Who’s Tommy . I listened to the studio version for ages and ages and there are elements about the film soundtrack that I like, I like Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and I did like Elton’s cover of Pinball Wizard but I gotta say for me, man, there’s just something about that studio album.
ELITE : Uh, I like Roger Daltrey, what sold me on it is honestly Keith Moon is honestly Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie, because he’s so terrifying that I’m in love with it. And also Tina Turner as the Acid Queen is like unattainably good, you can’t go wrong. She’s perfect, she’s perfect, it’s also a wonderful film. But that’s my surprise pick.
DELAYNE : I saw The Who at The Gorge.
DARKWICCAN : Nice.
ELITE : I hate you. I hate you.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Well, Elite, we’re going to send you off into the world, fresh with your hate for Delayne, so that it fuels you as you continue to write Everybody Feels, Everybody Understands. Thank you for taking time out to talk to us again and I am going to listen to my The Who’s Tommy album.
ELITE : It was nice to be back, I missed you guys, have a good one.
And that'S all for this episode of the Earp Fiction Addiction. Thanks for joining us.
Tremendous thanks to iwaseliteonce for stopping by to chat about their story 'everybody cares, everybody understands.
Thanks also to our announcer Byron Tidwell for our intro
Background music for the episode was:
A Proper Story by Darren Korb
Fragile Heart BY Georgie Luttrell
Moby Dick BY Led Zeppelin and the outro music is Don't Deal with the Devil by Kristoffer Madigan
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