I have been interviewed on two different radio stations; BBC Radio Scotland (NATIONAL RADIO! Terrifying!!) and on the podcast/internet radio page Cemetery Confessions, where I was a guest in the discussion as well as specifically interviewed.
My name is Carol (by abbreviation), hence the title. I tend to use 'The House Cat' on this blog rather than my full name, but that would sound odd on those platforms for people who don't know me.
You get to hear what I actually sound like, which means you hear my awfully polished English accent. I live in Scotland, but I'm not Scottish, I'm 'Franglais' - French-English. My French accent got pushed out of me by the time I'd hit my mid teens, sadly. I'm a bit self-conscious that I now sound a lot posher than I actually am; I'm not upper-middle-class. I was raised in poverty from a working class background, but ended up attending a private school on scholarship which is where I got the polished speaking voice. I think this was also made more apparent by my deliberately trying to enunciate clearly to make sure I was understandable.
My name is Carol (by abbreviation), hence the title. I tend to use 'The House Cat' on this blog rather than my full name, but that would sound odd on those platforms for people who don't know me.
You get to hear what I actually sound like, which means you hear my awfully polished English accent. I live in Scotland, but I'm not Scottish, I'm 'Franglais' - French-English. My French accent got pushed out of me by the time I'd hit my mid teens, sadly. I'm a bit self-conscious that I now sound a lot posher than I actually am; I'm not upper-middle-class. I was raised in poverty from a working class background, but ended up attending a private school on scholarship which is where I got the polished speaking voice. I think this was also made more apparent by my deliberately trying to enunciate clearly to make sure I was understandable.
BBC Radio Scotland Interview
Firstly the BBC Radio Scotland interview. I was contacted by a represented Kaye Adams Programme to talk about hate crimes against Goths in the wake of the excellent news that the ::Sophie Lancaster Foundation:: has been granted substantial governmental funding to continue their work. I was interviewed alongside two people who have done a LOT more work towards the Goth subculture - Sylvia Lancaster, who is Sophie Lancaster's mother and who spearheads the Foundation and does a huge amount of work to tackle bullying and prejudice, not just against Goths but against all people who are different, and sociologist ::Dr. Paul Hodkinson:: who is a Goth himself and also a researcher who has studied the subculture he is a part of and is one of the preeminent sociologists studying us in an academic sense.
The BBC Radio Scotland interviews can be found ::here::. The show is quite long and in different sections, and the section about Goths starts at approximately 1:41:20 (hours, minutes, seconds), and starts with the interview of Sylvia Lancaster. I think it pretty much speaks for itself, and I will not write much about the content here, especially as it is a relatively short section.
I was really nervous about the interview, as it was on live radio, and not just that, but live national radio. I get terrible stage fright at the best of times, and I was literally shaking in the studio before the interview began (and needed the glass of water I was drinking to keep me calm). The first "hi" I say is so meek, with a nervous trying-to-sound-perky tone of voice, and the whole interview had me so nervous that I was talking really quite quickly - I'm sorry if I am a little too fast for some listeners, especially for those for whom English isn't a first language.
Cemetery Confessions Episode
I was also a guest on the latest episode of Cemetery Confessions, which is ::here::. We mostly talk about ::an article:: on Darkest Goth magazine. We're quite critical of what was said, but I certainly think the article's heart was in the right place. Even if I disagree with a lot of it, the general push towards Goth being inclusive and keeping away from elitist gate-keeping is a good thing.
I admitted in my discussion that I'm not hugely educated on the music theory and technical aspects of rock music of any sort. This one of the reasons I've not really written much more in the 'Music Monday' category on this blog. I know what I like and that most of what I like falls into genres in and around Goth, but I don't know much about guitar playing, drumming or poking synths - my music education has been mostly classical, and I don't have a deep musical understanding of what I enjoy.
Cemetery Confessions Episode
I was also a guest on the latest episode of Cemetery Confessions, which is ::here::. We mostly talk about ::an article:: on Darkest Goth magazine. We're quite critical of what was said, but I certainly think the article's heart was in the right place. Even if I disagree with a lot of it, the general push towards Goth being inclusive and keeping away from elitist gate-keeping is a good thing.
I admitted in my discussion that I'm not hugely educated on the music theory and technical aspects of rock music of any sort. This one of the reasons I've not really written much more in the 'Music Monday' category on this blog. I know what I like and that most of what I like falls into genres in and around Goth, but I don't know much about guitar playing, drumming or poking synths - my music education has been mostly classical, and I don't have a deep musical understanding of what I enjoy.
I was interviewed specifically about being a Goth in the Highlands. I did say that we don't get gigs - this might not be true any more, as one of my friends is trying to get some bands to play here, which should be brilliant. Our community isn't the largest, but it is very vibrant, and because it's a hybrid between subcultures we can get people involved that are outside the scene. I have talked about this at length both in Gothic Beauty magazine and in ::this:: article.
One thing I noticed in retrospective listening, is that I think that some of what I said could be interpreted as a resentment of Christianity; the only resentment I have is to the people and institutions in my childhood who used Christianity as an excuse to be judgemental and restrictive towards me, and those who now couch their prejudices against me in religious terms, although I think is more an expression of their self-righteous and hypocritical bigotry than an expression of Christianity itself, and I know personally a lot of Christians, Goth and otherwise, who are very tolerant and kid people, for whom standing up to injustice and prejudice is a Christ-like action. While I certainly appreciated the artistic, architectural and musical culture of my mixed Anglican and Catholic upbringing, I also did appreciate the sincere faith of those around me, even if it was something I couldn't truly share in myself.
[One thing I mentioned was how physical suffering is often a component to the path to spiritual attainment in the stories and lives of martyrs and saints, as well as the crucifixion itself, and I didn't mean this as a negative or a criticism, more wondering if that was the origin of the attitude in Western culture for seeing a nobility and spiritual or psychological learning in suffering. As someone who has suffered quite a bit physically and emotionally, back when I was Christian myself as well as since my conversion to Neo-Paganism, I actually found that framework personally helpful. I don't want to romanticise pain as the path to enlightenment, but I found that sometimes I learned the most about myself and life when I was pushed to my limits by terrible circumstances. I don't really know how to express myself well on this topic.]
Again, I was quite nervous, but I think I spoke less quickly than in the more recent BBC interview, but I did stop-start quite a bit - my speaking was somewhat choppy, and I think I got more fluid as the interview progressed and I became more nervous. The interview about being a Goth in the Highlands was definitely marred by my having a cold and breaking out into a coughing fit.
One thing I noticed in retrospective listening, is that I think that some of what I said could be interpreted as a resentment of Christianity; the only resentment I have is to the people and institutions in my childhood who used Christianity as an excuse to be judgemental and restrictive towards me, and those who now couch their prejudices against me in religious terms, although I think is more an expression of their self-righteous and hypocritical bigotry than an expression of Christianity itself, and I know personally a lot of Christians, Goth and otherwise, who are very tolerant and kid people, for whom standing up to injustice and prejudice is a Christ-like action. While I certainly appreciated the artistic, architectural and musical culture of my mixed Anglican and Catholic upbringing, I also did appreciate the sincere faith of those around me, even if it was something I couldn't truly share in myself.
[One thing I mentioned was how physical suffering is often a component to the path to spiritual attainment in the stories and lives of martyrs and saints, as well as the crucifixion itself, and I didn't mean this as a negative or a criticism, more wondering if that was the origin of the attitude in Western culture for seeing a nobility and spiritual or psychological learning in suffering. As someone who has suffered quite a bit physically and emotionally, back when I was Christian myself as well as since my conversion to Neo-Paganism, I actually found that framework personally helpful. I don't want to romanticise pain as the path to enlightenment, but I found that sometimes I learned the most about myself and life when I was pushed to my limits by terrible circumstances. I don't really know how to express myself well on this topic.]
Again, I was quite nervous, but I think I spoke less quickly than in the more recent BBC interview, but I did stop-start quite a bit - my speaking was somewhat choppy, and I think I got more fluid as the interview progressed and I became more nervous. The interview about being a Goth in the Highlands was definitely marred by my having a cold and breaking out into a coughing fit.
