Gary Hanak
Gary Hanak is passionate about filking, as most filkers tend to be. Few, however, have secured as many accolades as St. Louis’ own, self-titled MoFilker. For Hanak, there’s been the win of a Pegasus, the filking equivalent of a Grammy. There’s been his election of the Ontario-based Filking Hall of Fame. He’s appeared at most of the filking genre’s major conventions. And, for well over two decades, he’s headed up the filking component of St. Louis’ premier sci-fi and fantasy convention, Archon, which is happening in Collinsville this very weekend.
And at a con well-known for folks who like to party, Hanak suggests that the filkers at Archon take a backseat to none.
“It’s an interesting genre,” Hanak says. “[On Saturday], most of the convention’s planned from 10 or 11 in the morning, running until 6 p.m. Well, the filking room doesn’t even open until 9 pm. More than once we’ve watched the sun rise from the filking room.”
Filking, for the few who don’t know, is something of a folk subset, with lyrical themes that tend toward the same interests of other sci-fi and fantasy fans. Or, at least, that’s generally been the case. During the past year, Hanak suggests that the style has become more involved in contemporary affairs/current events, making it “the new protest music.”
While cosplay isn’t essential, it’s not uncommon for filking acts to also take on looks that skew to the artists’ lyrical bents. Filking’s been a regular part of SciFi/Fantasy cons since the 1960s, and as Archon hits 41 years of age this fall, filking’s been around, more or less, since the beginning. And Hanak’s been a part of Archon, for some 25 years, as a key organizer.
His own take on the short, lively history of filking suggests that “in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the cons weren’t very organized. At night what did you do? You’d sit and around and play music. They’d have folk sessions. As urban legend has it, instead of writing ‘folksinging,’ someone wrote on a flyer, ‘filksinging.’ Filksinging became filking. At science fiction cons, you have the biggest amount of high IQ, low-income people in the world. They never forget anything and, since the beginning, the name filking’s stuck.”
Hanak, working with other volunteers, generally doesn’t book himself as a performer at Archon, so as not to give himself preferential treatment. And while that’s the goal, he winds up guesting with a variety of acts and, of course, sits in on the song circles. He says that he works to attract a selection of performers to Archon: young, old; new, experienced; local, national. But with shoestring budget that he gets to tap into only once every three years, there’re a lot of components that go into bringing entertainment to life and stretching a dollar’s a skill he’s learned.
Says Hanak, “one of the tenants for inviting guests to Archon (that is, those who are offered compensation, such as memberships, accommodations, and such) is that they be professionals, and make their living, or at least a good part of it, doing what it is they are being invited to Archon for. With authors, media folk, and artists, that’s pretty easy. For gamers, costumers, and especially filkers, not so much. There are, believe it or not, more than a few folks who are trying to do that now, but that’s a relatively recent thing. For music, in particular, the ability to make a living at it, and whether you do or not, is an almost completely unrelated factor in how good you are,” Hanak says. “I know many who are extraordinarily talented, but either don’t want, or were unable for whatever reason, to be able to survive on it. Therefore, I’ve tried to downplay that need to ‘be a professional’ when it comes to filk guests.
“So, by and large,” he adds, “not being able to offer much of anything (except to my once-every-three-year invited guests), I try to find the best quality performers I can who are willing to come to our convention, essentially on their own nickel, and participate with the marketing of their own stuff their sole compensation,” he adds. “Obviously, local is more likely. I do have a regular contingent that comes down from Chicago, and others from Iowa, Indiana, and other far-flung areas when they happen to be able to make it to Archon.”
This year’s scheduled filking performers will include folks on tour (Leslie Hudson), others in-town for recording (Canticle Productions), some travelers (Chicago’s Random Fractions) and even an author who doubles in filking (C.S. Marks, the author of the “Elfhunter” saga). Those performances will spread out over Friday and Saturday, inside the convention’s halls. At 9 pm on Saturday, though, the fun starts inside the Doubletree Hotel, neighboring the Gateway Center. There, inside what’s typically a nondescript hotel meeting room, filkers trade tunes and stories, as Hanak suggests, until the music stops.
“There’s more than one instrument available for anyone who wants to play and didn’t bring a guitar,” he says of the sessions that break out after the con’s signature Masquerade on Saturday night. “We encourage people to participate. One of the things that’s important is that anyone who wants to can play, not just the people with the hottest licks. Everybody gets a chance to pick, pass or play; it’s all about participation. That’s what Archon’s about.”
As anyone who’s attended knows, it’s also about pretty free expression, across all fields of SciFi/Fantasy fandom. You’ve got your elves, your Trekkies, your zombie hunters. Interest groups gather for marathon sessions of board gaming, anime viewing, costuming. Vendors from across the midwest sell everything from space music to Japanese toys to self-published books. Visually, there’s seldom a moment in which you don’t turn a corner without finding something eye-catching, be it a Klingon pushing a baby stroller or one of 56 Doctor Who’s polishing off an oversized pretzel.
Hanak, at least on a recent afternoon, wasn’t dressed in any particular way to indicate his filking habit, dressed simply in a Hawaiian shirt, ballcap and blue jeans. He looked like the type of guy who may’ve just finished a gig at a local homeless facility, where he pulled from the 309 songs loaded onto his iPad. Or like the type of dude that would have a folk duo (alongside Roberta Mueller) named Not Wired Right, the kind of self-deprecating band name that fits a fella who makes light of much, especially himself and his musical endeavors. Or the type of guy who champions the music he’s tapped into, an easy-going salesman for his genre.
This weekend, Hanak will be in the freewheeling element that he’s helped create.
“Archon is a fun convention,” he says. “At some conventions you go to learn, or to work, to interface with other people in your field. Archon’s where people who run other conventions go to relax. In short: it’s fun.”
Archon runs from Friday, September 30 through Sunday, October 2 at the Gateway Center in Collinsville; full info can be found at: archonstl.org. Hanak’s own site is found at: mofilker.com.
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Attention Archon attendees: every year at the con, we look for the best looks to feature in a recap about the event and we’ll be doing that again this year. Look for your friendly stlmag.com writer/photographer in the Gateway/Doubletree hallways this year.
Here’s coverage from past years:
