Iditri (fivemkelps): Hello, how's everything going on for you?
Oh, and a complementary turtle image

laven: Hi! Theoretically good as I might be landing my first job next week, but rn I'm getting sick :/ let's just hope it's not COVID haha
how bout you?

[in response to turtle image] of course of course

Iditri: Things are good here as well. Actually what pushed you towards working on Genius actually? When did you joined and first interaction and related stuff?

laven: i think my first point of contact, or like, conscious point of contact was Hamilton lyrics. when I was like 14 15 I got HEAVY into Hamilton (and later other musicals). it's actually kind of a weird reason I needed the lyrics.

so, I also got into this karaoke app, Smule, where people would basically do "productions" of musicals. you could audition by recording yourself singing, then you'd get cast and then we'd basically do the whole musical (well, usually not the whole thing bc people went inactive), everyone would join the songs and we'd have whole recordings of each song. I was in countless of these groups and took it wayyy too seriously.

I ended up researching the precise harmonies and when which ensemble member would sing etc etc. that's where Genius comes in. it was the only lyrics website that used the musical format, which was just what I needed with these complicated song structures (back then they even had the html tables counterpoint stuff), and it became my primary source of lyrics. this is one reason why I'm such a defender of the musical format, bc by my example you can see how practical it is in such cases.

editing I started for a different reason though haha (god this is getting way too long), and it was German translations. I don't really remember why I started doing it, I think it was just fun for me. I think I started off with Billie Eilish translations back when she hadn't even released "Bad Guy", and went from there.

The only reason I became Transcriber was so that I could mark my translations real myself haha, and when I got into mentoring was when I actually discovered this wonderful community. sooooo this was my long long introduction, but this seems a good a place as any to get into it haha

shit this looks insane on phone crying smiley

Iditri: Woah, that's interesting. Looking at that, you're pretty old contributor if you were here when Billie Eilish hadn't released "Bad Guy" at that time. I think she released around 2018 or 2019 I think? The song was plastered all over the channels even in my region. Especially the English channels like VH1

laven: yeahh tracing it back I created my account in 2019. I'm one of those annoying people that prides themselves on having known their favourite artist since the beginning, I discovered her when I was like 13 with "ocean eyes" haha. it's actually kinda crazy to have grown up next to Billie since we're literally 2 months apart in age, and seeing the INSANE level of celebrity she has become
Iditri: I think when I found her, she didn't have like "billieeilish" as her username. It was like erm..avocadoes or soemthing like that xD
And I can understand, it's kind of proudful moment to see the artist you listen to grow into such immense popularity

laven: yess, wherearetheavocados was iconic

Iditri: Anyways now that we're on the topic of music anyways we'll continue to the favourite artists. Please tell us a bit about them

laven: ooh no I'll try not to infodump too much xdd

tbh I listen to A LOT of lofi nowadays for work and have gotten a bit lackluster on artists. but let me pick out 3 I really like and say a bit.

so, going through my favs, i think I wanna highlight some smaller artists that I LOVE

first, Kiki Rockwell. she incorporates a lot of folklore, fairytale type stories into her music and it is very, kind of, mystical. like recently, she did a song about mermaids, but she has gotten into Greek mythology, witchcraft, all that kinda stuff. her music videos are always whole movies and amazing, and some of the songs capture the longing so beautifully. I can't wait to see her grow as an artist.

another artist from that realm is Paris Paloma, who also makes folksy music, but has dove a bit into rock recently too. It's fucking awesome that we're both fans and can talk about her music haha, only downside is you take all the IQ from me :b

then, one more small artist is Brye. you may know her from her viral tiktok song "Lemons" (the remix with Cavetown is fucking perfect). since then, she has grown sooo much as an artist, and has gone into more of an acoustic teen pop kinda route, and her sound has become extremely professional. like honestly her music is at the level of a-list artists, and she deserves to get so much recognition as well.

Iditri: But tbf I don't know about Brye for I don't really use tiktok that much. I'll surely check them out.

laven: hell yeah :D then lemme give you 3 songs: "Jenna", "Lemons ft. Cavetown" and "Diet Culture"

Iditri: Woah, maybe I've crosschecked them once or so xD

I know we're sticking to music too much. A bit silly questionnaire but like is there any album which you'd listen to without skipping? Like any album that you can listen with zero skips for how much you enjoy it. It doesn't matter how old or new. Just the one where you can't skip any song whatsoever
laven: hmmm okay so I usually don't skip songs bc I do other stuff while listening, but there are certainly usually some that I don't like that much.

scrolling through my albums, this one stood out: Teatro D'Ira Vol. 1 by Måneskin! I remember back when they won Eurovision in 2021 I listened to all their music and it doesn't happen often that I like music by a specific artist that much, especially Rock, which I'm usually not a big fan of.
the album is really short, 8 songs, and they are all bangers. sadly I didn't enjoy their recent album (RUSH!) very much since the music was, and I'm sorry to say, quite boring and lacked the drive of their other stuff. I'm hoping they'll get back to fire songs soon, but, well, other people will enjoy it if I dont

Iditri: Interesting. sticking to the topic, do you prefer the physical form (Casettes, CD or Vinyl) or digital form of music?

laven: well, digital is just more practical, cuz you can literally have EVERYTHING on your phone. I had this thing where I bought all my favourite albums as CDs, and there is definitely something about having your favourite thing to hold in your hand. but I would lie if I said I used them much. I don't have any preferences about quality and stuff, so it's not super important to me

Iditri: I see. I'll go silly and ask. What's your favourite colour?

laven: haha all good. they are yellow, light blue and lavender. in that order :D

Iditri: And fruit? :P

laven: banana. it's basically the only one that I'll eat bc I have a thing with the wet texture of most fruits (probably some sort of neurodivergence)

Iditri: Do you also think apple juice tastes like vomit?

laven: that's the last question I expected xddd

but to be serious, as a German, apple juice is my birthright and I could never hate it. used to drink it like every day haha. I see what you mean though, it has a bit of that taste in it

Iditri: So apple juice is your favourite :O

laven: mhh no, it's just the classic. i think my favourite might be mango or maracuja
Iditri: Just curious. Are members of Musical Genius handful?

laven: looking for the drama I see. tbh, there just aren't that many members
most people that are kind of a part of it keep to themselves and do their favourite obscure musicals :D (which is absolutely fine!)
when we had our big discussion about a rehaul of the musical format, it was basically just me, higherfasterlouder and timoo (who is NOT a musical guy, just the goat :D) discussing. HFL is a great person though, interactions have always been pleasant!

because of this, I've thought about doing mentorships with some ambitious contributors, but sadly there's no time for it right now. it would be great to grow the community though and I hope it will someday smiley

Iditri: Nah xD. I was asking xD

Where do you see yourself in Genius within a year or so, and also have you ever felt like totally demotivated to do genius stuff?

laven: since there's a LOT going on in my personal life rn (job, trying to move, ...) Genius is just not a priority right now. sometimes it helps me to feel productive and I have a streak of doing it, but apart from my mentorship (mentoring a scriber), I just try to not put too much on my back.
Although, if we're speaking about it... yes, I have felt totally demotivated xd In fact, right now I'm trying to go over each song of Epic: The Musical to perfect the formatting and metadata. in the first two sagas, each song exists TWICE, and I'm literally at the last song of those, but can't bring myself to do it rn. so maybe that's my goal for next year lmao. finish going through all of Epic :D

Iditri: Which genre of video games do you like?

laven: so, I'm usually not a big fan of sandbox-like games where you can kinda do whatever you want bc I have a hard time with decisionmaking, so naturally I like story-based games that are more linear. that's why I'm a huge fan of the Zelda series.
Right now I'm finally playing Ocarina of Time after I realized I could ...totally legally... download it onto my Wii and it's been a blast! I just love exploring worlds and solving puzzles and not having to worry about what to do next. some other favourites are Metroid Dread (yes I'm a Nintendo girlie) and Hades

Iditri: That sounds fun :D
It was fun interviewing you. And thanks for lending me your time so that we could have this event. Hope you have a great day (whatever of it is left actually) and tschau :p

[a rad image of frog and tutle together]

laven: yess, thank you too for letting me ramble about my favourite things <3 I hope you liked it and prepare for round 2 next week

[a rad image of turtle with sunglasses]