Frequently Asked Questions.

Who are you?
Your typical Australian farm boy turned city computer programmer. Part time filker and guitarist. Full time Christian, Star Wars admirer, husband and God willing, at the end of this year, father.

Why did you call it 'Songbook of the Whills'?
The Whills, according to George Lucas' novel of the original screenplay, were the watchers of the Star Wars universe, recording the happenings of heroes and villians in 'The Journal of the Whills'. I pictured this as the companion volume.

What is filk music?
Definitions abound. I like to think of it as 'parody music of cool movies', but it's not limited to parody songs.

Can you put my song on your page?
Kinda. The Songbook of the Whills is part of TheForce.Net's humour section. Email your song to humor@theforce.net and it'll be put on TFN with mine.

How did you start writing filk?
I've been rewriting songs since I was about eight. I've never made a conscious decision to write for the filk genre, it's just where much of my fun mind-wandering seems to end up.
I didn't know that people actually liked what my brain spat out until 1993. I'd written a few songs and posted them to rec.art.sf.starwars (now rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc) just to try and give the guys a chuckle. Four songs ('Y.O.D.A','In the cantina', 'The Max Rebo band' and 'Han') were distributed without my name and have now spread to thousands of sites across the globe. They've been seen at conventions, theatre restaurants, published in Collector's Universe magazine and who knows where else, all without my name. Some even with someone else's name, who won't respond to my emails. Feel free to try.

I've heard a Star Wars cantina song. Is that yours?
No. That was by Mark Davis. Mine was written slightly over a year before. Although his song caused me to lose tooth enamel at first and I thought he stole my idea, he did put in the effort to write his lyrics himself, so good luck to him. Filkers' minds work on similar tracks (see the notes on Y.O.D.A)- I recently wanted to write a Lord of the Rings song, and the bleedlingly obvious choice was Abba's "Ring Ring". Though I've never seen another version of it, I guarantee that someone has written another filk version.
Mark insisted recently that he hadn't heard of mine when he wrote his.

I've got a great idea for a song
Then develop it! Filk authoring is so much fun and not all that hard. Keep turning it over in your head and singing the original song, and let your lyrics click into place!

What else have you done?
Everything is at Cav Central.