| The Fidler Connection The Songwriter's Circle |
| Music is a big part of life in my 5th grade classroom in very urban West Philadelphia. I try to introduce the students to music that they would probably not hear at home. Jim Fidler's music is a favorite request of the students in my room. After having listened to Jim's CDs and loving the songs on them, the class asked to speak to him via Ham Radio. We set up a schedule and one exciting afternoon in November, KA3KCJ (me) and VO1RV (Jim) got together on Jim's IRLP link in St. John's, Newfoundland. They had prepared questions for him and each one got to ask their question on the radio. They can't wait to do it again. Here is a transcript of our afternoon on the Amateur Radio waves: |
| Tiffany: How long have you been singing and do you produce your own songs? VO1RV: Hey Tiffany!! Singing? Not as long as I have been playing music. Like I said, I was playing music ever since I…ever since, when I was really tiny. And I didn’t start singing till I was maybe about 7 – 8 something like that. I started actually singing and playing in public when I was 10. And I do produce my own stuff and for other people as well. I have my own studio in fact I am now standing in the studio right in front of the recording console and I have my studio in my house actually, which means I can work whenever I want to. And it means I don’t have to get a taxi and go halfway across town It It’s very nice – I’ve got the gear here in the house, which is really nice. Kamara: Are you making another song? VO1RV: Hey Kamara! I am doing an album right now with two friends of mine the name of the group is musaik with an omlout the name basically means a mosaic which is a complex kind of woven pattern. That’s really what our music is. I obviously come from NFLD. The 2nd person in the group comes from St. Pierre, which is an island not far from here that’s part of France. The third person is from Morroco in North Africa. We are just finishing our album now within the next couple of weeks. Then of course it has to be mastered/ I think you guys may have heard a song from this album already. The song is called Salama, which means peace. Have you heard it yet? KA3KCJ: About 6 of them have heard it. Julia : Are some of your songs known around the world? VO1RV: Hi Julia! That’s a very good question. Yes, Julia, some of them are. I get emails and people ordering the CDs from the website and people tell me the songs are being played on the radio in Australia, new Zealand and in France. Friends in Paris were walking down the street one summer and heard music coming out of a 7th or 8th floor apt window and they go “oh listen to that! that’s Jim. Fidler !” Also a friend of mine who works as a Fisheries observer - he goes out makes sure the people on those big trawlers catching fish are obeying all the laws. And he was out for three months without being on land and they were coming into port in Scotland. Can’t pickup radio out at sea. He was telling me it’s a very exciting thing when they get close enough to port to hear an FM station. Everyone gets happy to be able to be in port, walking on dry land go to a restaurant, walk around the streets and breathe fresh air not inside the ship. They were up off the Hebrides off the North coast of Scotland as they came into radio link the first thing he heard was one of my songs. This being a good friend of mine from here and the first thing he heard on the radio was a song by a friend of his – it was a very exciting thing. And on the radio show Thistle and Shamrock people tell me they’ve played my songs SO all over the world there are people playing my songs. KA3KCJ: I thank you for taking time out of your busy day and lunchtime and sometime we’d like to meet you in Fidler’s Green and sing a song. Latasha said to tell you we are singing the remix of Terra Nova, the Philly version. VO1RV: No problem if you guys want to sing a song - that’s no problem at all. It was great talking to you guys we’ll be talking to each other again. Take it easy you guys! Really, really liked talking to you. |
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| KA3KCJ: What is the weather like in St. John's? VO1RV: As warm as 65 and as cool as 35 usually about 40-50 Christina: Do you travel all over the world when you are making your songs? VO1RV: I have traveled not quite all over the world. I’ve been to Europe, America and Canada. Even though you may think of Newfoundland as being part of Canada, it wasn’t always so. Geographically where I am is somewhere out in the North Atlantic halfway between North America and Europe. I think I might possibly, next year, be in North Africa - in Morocco. So I have been to the west and the east and hopefully North Africa next year. Christina: Are you coming to America any time soon? VO1RV: I am hoping so. That person standing there in front of you with the radio today might be helping me out there. Sometime between now and next summer, I’d love to be fooling around in Philadelphia. |
| Michael: What is the best song you made so far? VO1RV: That’s a good question! The best sound? Let’s see…In terms of a particular song, it’s hard to say. There's a couple of things I really like about music – a good steady groove and color in music. So if you listen to music and close your eyes, just clear your mind, don’t try to think of color or of anything, you can quite often see things – colors or space or the ocean. For me, when I get those things right with a groove and colors I like… for example, on Friendly Fire there is “Welcome to Cairo Street” that’s doing both of these things for me. In terms of what you’re happiest with, you always are getting better- better at the sounds you hear in your head. |
| Zenovia: How long have you been making music and where do you get your ideas from? VO1RV: KA3KCJ from VO1RV. I’ve been playing music for as long as I can remember ever since I was a little cat running around the streets of Rabbittown, kicking a soccer ball and selling lemonade. As long as I can remember,. If you talk to some hockey players and ask them if they can remember when they first skated and some of them can’t because they were so little when they learned I’m like that with music. I was born with it more or less. A very good question about the ideas for songs and music and stuff, I hope my answer doesn’t sound funny to you. There’s two ways of writing songs – you can sit down with pen and paper and decide to write a song about something. There’s a lot of songwriters that do that. That’s a good method and it works. A lot of your favorite song would have been written like that. But then there’s so many others that are written from an inspirational perspective they just kinda come to you. I write more the second way. A song will come right into my head while walking down the streets, eating lunch, waiting for a bus doing anything – next thing I have this song coming into my head from nowhere/ Anne has been telling me that you guys will be doing some stuff with songwriting this year. I think it’s interesting. Some of you might want to sit down with pen and paper and write ideas down. If that doesn’t work, or walk around and ideas come into your head and go write them down. I tend to do it more that way in my everyday life these things come right into my head and I rush to a tape recorder and get it down so I don’t forget it |
| John: How long did it take for you to make the Terra Nova album? VO1RV: Hi John! That album, Friendly Fire, with the Terra Nova song on it was… it’s funny that you say the "Terra Nova album" because that’s what I was calling it in my head at first. But I changed it after I wrote the song, Friendly Fire. It was banging around in my head for about three years. When I actually got around to making it, I made it in about a year. But most of the work that done on it was actually done in about two or three months or so. SO from the original idea when I first said, “OK I am gonna make me an album and call it Terra Nova,” that was three years. To when I finally was actually really doing all the work on it – that was two years after the idea. And during that year, the last two months is when I did most of the work and by that time I knew it was going to be called Friendly Fire. Yeah! These things take time. |
| What has this experience done for my students? It has made them more aware of a world outside their neighborhood. They can find Newfoundland, Morocco and Europe on maps. They are aware of music beyond their doors. It has introduced them to the world of Ham Radio. When we read a book that included a piece about Morse Code shortly after this conversation, they knew all about how it is used for communicating. It has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for them. Music and Ham Radio - great combination! |
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