Calliope Musicals‘ fun and uplifting interview with 9-year-old Mabel from Music Felon in the beautiful heart of the hill country, at UTOPiAfest.
MF Mabel: What is your favorite grade?
CM Josh: A
MF Mabel: No, not that type of grade. 4th, 3rd…Everybody thinks that type
CM Andrew: 8th grade, maybe 5th grade
CM Josh: 2nd grade
CM Carrie: I really liked 4th grade. I had this really awesome teacher. Her name was Mrs. McQuiston
MF Mabel: Why does everyone like 4th grade?
CM Carrie: Are you in 4th grade? Ah man, I didn’t even know that.
MF Mabel: I have one of the only boy teachers.
CM Carrie: Oh really? I’ve never, well in high school and middle school I had boy teachers but I never had elementary boy teachers. Who is that?
MF Mabel: Funny.
CM Josh: Is he a goofy guy?
CM Andrew: Is his name Mr. Williams, Mr. Sanders?
MF Mabel: What?
CM Josh: Mr. Ted? We’re going to keep thinking about it.
CM Carrie: Is it a common name?
MF Mabel: No, not at all.
CM Josh: Galifianakis
CM Carrie: (laughing) Is Zach Galifianakis your teacher?
CM Andrew: Mr. House
MF Mabel: That’s part of it.
CM Andrew: Mr. Roundhouse
MF Mabel: It’s a color.
CM: Redhouse, Bluehouse, Greenhouse
MF Mabel: Three of you are wearing it.
CM Carrie: Yellowhouse
CM: Purplehouse
CM Josh: Whitehouse
MF Mabel: Yes
CM Carrie: Mr. Whitehouse! I will say that took not that long.
CM Andrew: Well she did give us some very good clues.
MF Mabel: How’d you get your band name?
CM Carrie: So, my mom actually suggested it.
MF Mabel: Your mom did?
CM Carrie: Yeah, my mom. She was like, you know what about Calliope and you know Calliope is one of the seven muses in Greek mythology. You’ll learn more about Greek mythology probably when you get older. She’s the goddess of epic poetry and her name means beautiful voice. And Musicals because we wanted it to be more of an experience.
MF Mabel: What part of the country has the best crowd?
CM Josh: UTOPiA
CM Carrie: UTOPiA is definitely among our favorites. We’re a little bias.
CM Josh: It is actually one of our favorites anywhere.
CM Carrie: Joshua Tree California has amazing crowds too. We play a festival that is strikingly simular to UTOPiAfest.
MF Mabel: Do you camp?
CM Carrie: We do.
CM Josh: We camp, it’s in the desert.
CM Carrie: So it’s dust everywhere, sand everywhere.
CM Josh: Scorpions
CM Carrie: We saw a scorpion…
CM Josh: It was about as big as your hand
CM Carrie: (holds her hands in a circle) wasn’t it like this big?
CM Andrew: I think it keeps growing now that we keep telling the story
CM Carrie: (spreads her hands apart to about the size of a basketball) No, it was probably this big. It was like a crustacean, it had a hard shell. It was crazy.
CM Andrew: My voice got really high when I squealed when I saw it.
CM Josh: Caribou
CM Carrie: Oh yeah. There’s a really great place in Canada, a great festival. It used to be in Nova Scotia and now it’s in New Brunswick and those people are excited about music. It’s fun.
MF Mabel: Are you camping or glamping?
CM: Camping
CM Josh: We don’t know how to glamp.
CM Carrie: We’re not prepared enough for that. Glamping takes too much prior planning. So, we just keep it pretty basic.
MF Mabel: Do you like to camp?
CM Carrie: yeah, we love to camp.
CM Andrew: While we’re on tour we camp all around the country.
CM Josh: Yeah we don’t really stay in hotels. We camp. Most of the time
CM Carrie: We stay in hotels sometimes.
MF Mabel: Do you have any advice for me that you would want to know as a kid?
CM Craig: That’s a tough question
CM Josh: Brush your teeth.
CM Andrew: No. that’s like…
CM Carrie: Don’t brush your teeth. That’s a waste of time.
CM Craig: It’s all going to be OK. Whatever is bothering you, it’s all going to be OK.
CM Andrew: That’s actually good advice.
CM Carrie: It is going to pass
CM Jerry: Become a musician. You’ll make a lot of money
CM: (lols)
CM Carrie: You are going to become rich and famous. No, you want be.
CM Andrew: That’s a good one that Craig said.
CM Carrie: Yeah, just knowing that things that seem like a really big deal at the time, probably aren’t as big of a deal as you think of. There’s somethings that happened to me when I was in the 4th grade and I thought I would never bounce back from. I had this boyfriend and he broke up with me.
CM Andrew: (covers Josh’s ears)
CM Carrie: And the very next day I sang in the talent show, I will Survive by Gloria Gainer. The cafeteria ladies were apologizing for my breakup. I was crying. I was so sad and thought that I would never really be able to love again.
MF Mabel: That was in 4th grade?
CM Carrie: Yes
CM ???: She’s like wow get ahold of yourself
CM: (more lols)
CM Carrie: but I made it out.
CM Josh: Then she meet me in 5th grade and we married.
CM: (more lols)
CM Carrie: I did not meet him in 5th grade but we are married. My heart is no longer broken. That was good advice guys.
MF Mabel: One more. How do you do the Snoopy dance?
CM Carrie: There’s lots of ways. Everyone has their favorites. There is one dude that has a Mohawk and he does this. (Peanuts dancing and more dancing) If you just watch pretty much any peanuts thing there will dancing.
MF Mabel: Which is ones your favorite?
CM Carrie: I’m best at doing this one. (arms up and kind of jazz hands) That’s the one I’m best at but (arms down, hands out, and looking side to side) this one’s my actual favorite.
CM Josh: It’s hard to perfect.
CM Carrie: It’s really hard if you’re not a 2d cartoon character. Yeah, those are the Snoopy dances. You can break them out any time you don’t know how to dance.
MF Mabel: That’s all the questions.
CM: Thank you.
CM Carrie: Thanks Mabel. That was probably my best interview ever!
CM Josh: We’ve done a lot of interviews and that was up there. Definitely top 5.
Calliope Musicals, 1/8/2016, Empire, Austin, Photos – Write-up
UTOPiAfest 2016, Four Sisters Ranch, Utopia, TX: Photos – Write-up
Peanuts dance