No Shame In Flamboyance: An Interview With Gere Fennelly

Popshifter: Your previous album was all covers. The Many Moods of 88 Magic album is all originals. What was the inspiration for it?

Gere Fennelly: Some of them are older. I got this program called LOGIC which is basically something you stick in your computer and it turns your computer into a recording studio. So I had some songs that I wrote a long time ago but they hadn’t been recorded recently. Other ones are cues or little bits and pieces from—I did some writing on a TV show where they needed some background music, so some of the stuff is from there.

I write music all day long for dance classes. I kind of just sit down and play and that’s what comes out.

Usually it just comes down to, I have to sit down and make myself do it. I have to sit down and just start playing.

Popshifter: Who are some of the bands or musicians that you listen to now?

Gere Fennelly: I always liked soundtrack music. I was just listening to Nino Roto, who did The Godfather. A lot of times I just listen to the classical music station or weird stuff here and there. I listen to NPR and KCRW, which is not college-radio, but. . . I listen to just random stuff. I like another station called 103.1, it’s an L.A. station and they have Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols as a DJ.

Popshifter: Oh my god!

Gere Fennelly: Oh, it’s the best station! They play great stuff. There aren’t really any new bands I care about that much, but I listen to classical, punk rock, and whatever. . .

Popshifter: So what’s next for you?

Gere Fennelly: Well, I started taking violin lessons.

Popshifter: That is cool!

Gere Fennelly: (laughs) Which is really funny because I’m terrible. I think I took a couple of lessons when I was 19 or 20 and I couldn’t stand to listen to myself practice. Of course, now I’ve decided I’m going to make myself do it. And I’m really awful.

I’m getting into teaching and I’m teaching little kids, which is really fun. I like that.

I think that’s where I’m going lately, is the teaching. I never used to want to teach because I didn’t think I was good at it. But now, I’m totally into it. Because the little kids don’t know what I am; I’m not an adult to them. I’m really entertaining as a teacher. So many people over the years have said, “Oh, I took piano as a kid and my teacher was this stuffy old lady and I hated it but I wish I would have stuck with it.”

So people that hire me basically are hiring me because I’m not going to make it boring. I get so into it that I just had to go buy a clock to bring to my lessons so I don’t go over. Because I get so into it and then I look around and go, “Oh my god, where did the time go?”

Additional Resources:

To find out more about Gere, or to listen to clips from The Many Moods of 88 Magic, please visit her website at 88Magic.

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