Webcomics Community Spotlight: Blue and Hello The Future

[Rob]

Blue is the songstress behind the "Webcomics Webconcert." Her creations, immortalizing various
webcomics in song have intrigued the community to the point she is receiving requests from comic
creators.

Q: So I know you as both "Blue" and "Hello, The Future!" What is the significance of your psuedonyms? Hello, The Future! isn't a pseudonym; it's the name of my one-person band!  I called myself HTF because I knew that whenever you put something on the internet there's generally this huge time lag before people start to pay attention to it.  In my case people didn't really start to watch my music until I had been posting new songs every week for four months.  So everything I put online during those first four months was, in essence, a gift for the people of the future to find. Even now, when I put something up, I know that some people will watch it right away and then some people won't discover it until a month later. So I am literally sitting on my kitchen table every week and saying "hello, the future!"

Q: How did you get into music? Do you any special training or education? Are you licensed to carry a concealed guitar?

I have a degree in music. Both my parents are musicians, and I spent my whole life surrounded by music and musical instruments.

Q: So how did you get into writing songs for webcomics?

Music and webcomics go together like rockstars and models.  Music is always attracted to the visual, and vice versa.  

Q: What was the "Webcomics, Webconcert" all about?

I had all these webcomic songs and I needed a venue in which to play them. Being webcomics, the web seemed the logical choice.

Q: What would you say are your most popular songs so far?

T-Rex Has Feelings is the obvious favorite; Monkeys and Robots is, surprisingly, the un -obvious favorite. (Seriously, people, that song has one lyric repeated over and over!)

Q: Which of your songs do you like the best?

I think Really Awesome Johns and Questionable Content Girl are the two songs I'm proudest of, mostly for their structure. Really Awesome Johns took over a month of writing and rewriting to put together; QC Girl took about three weeks. Compare this to songs like the InterventionCon song, which I kinda put together in about fifteen minutes.

Q: So if you're writing songs about webcomics you must read some of them. How many do you read and what are your top five.

I'd have to do a lot of counting to figure out how many webcomics I read. Top five are probably:

Dinosaur Comics
Questionable Content
XKCD
Diesel Sweeties
Nedroid

Q: So how does one get their webcomic made into song? Is blood of a first born child involved?

Best way to get a webcomic made into song is to develop some kind of rapport with me, generally on the Twitters (I'm @HelloTheFuture).  A request with context is always better than an unsolicited request.  With that in mind, I have a list of people whose webcomics are going to turn into songs after Infinity Right Now is finished.

Q: What is "Infinity Right Now?"

Infinity Right Now is the title of one of the songs in my upcoming album Infinity Right Now.  :)

Q: So you're recording an album! How did that happen? Will all the songs be webcomic based?

I suppose the album idea happened because I wanted to put together a collection of the songs I had been writing.  Not all of the songs will be about webcomics; there will be some songs about robots and video games and other things.  Some of the songs are new ones that I have been saving just for the album.  I think it'll be a good mix.

Q: How much will this album cost?

$10.

Q: When will "Infinity Right Now" be released?

November 4, 2010.  Also my birthday!

[Editors Note: Infinity Right Now is in Pre-Release and available with 4 bonus tracks right here... also... happy early Birthday Blue!]

Q: You often perform live over Ustream. What's it like playing and singing in front of a live audience that
can only respond via chat?

It was weird for about the first two minutes. I think you can see those two minutes in the video of my first Webcomics Webconcert.  Then I got used to it.  You just have to figure out how to respond to an audience.  When you can see them, it's easy to play back and forth with them, draw them into the performance, etc.  When you're using chat, you have to watch the chat so you know how to respond to what your audience is saying.

Q: Which song/creator were you most jazzed about when they discovered your song about their comic?

Have to say that I owe such a huge part of my success this far to Ryan North, who heard my T-Rex song and retweeted it to his followers.  And then he started this online group called Qwantz Party which has also been a huge source of followers for me.  And then of course he started Project Wonderful.

But really?  The person I was most jazzed about when I found out that he knew who I was?  Jonathan Coulton.

Q: Do you plan to do any more concerts?

My goal is to play at least one concert per month. I didn't end up playing a concert in August, but I played two in September, so that counts! October will probably be tricky because that's Recording Month, but expect to see a new concert announcement in November after Infinity Right Now is released.

Q: What do you do when you're not sitting on tables playing songs about webcomics?

Practice.

Q: There's a lot of webcomics out there. Beyond your first album, what are your plans for the future?

I'm going to be at MAGFest in January! I am so excited about this. If you don't know what MAGFest is: once a year, this group of people rents out a hotel and fills all the ballrooms and conference rooms with consoles. It's like a three-day gaming slumber party. There's also music (MAG stands for "music and games") and I am so bringing my guitar.

Q: Thanks for the interview and being so creative and supporting the webcomics community. Any final
thoughts?

Webcomics are awesome! Thanks for interviewing me!

[Gar]

Album: Purchasated :)