By Netera Landar
You never know who you are going to meet in Second Life. I just happened to attend a political rally where RoseDrop Rust and Justine Johndory were singing. Not only was I impressed by the event, but I also met Maestro, who has incredible talent. I checked out his account on reverbnation.com.
I was lost in his song, “Wicked Thing This Way Comes.” When a song is written well, it takes you away. How far away is up to your imagination. He told me that he wrote the song about 12 years ago and that he’s made some small changes. “Under the quiet of the night, under the moon’s soft glow….” he sings, and you are transported to somewhere dark because of a curse. All is cold. Beware.
I asked him to tell me about the name Konstantin the Mithrilweaver on his ReverbNation account.
“Well, Konstantin is my last name. Mythrilweaver comes from when I used to make chainmail armor, as the knights wore. I was using aluminum instead of steel because it is lighter to wear. Somebody asked me at a Ren Faire, ‘What is the metal you use?’ Thinking quickly of my love for Tolkien’s writings, like ‘The Hobbit,’ I said, ‘It is mithril,’ since aluminum was almost impossible to refine until the common era, so in the 1400s, it did not exist in the world in the form we know now. And he answered, not expecting that answer, ‘So you fancy yourself a weaver of mithril, do you?’ And I answered, ‘A mithril weaver? Well, me thinks I may just be good, sir.’ “And the rest is history.”
You never know who you are going to meet in Second Life. I just happened to attend a political rally where RoseDrop Rust and Justine Johndory were singing. Not only was I impressed by the event, but I also met Maestro, who has incredible talent. I checked out his account on reverbnation.com.
I was lost in his song, “Wicked Thing This Way Comes.” When a song is written well, it takes you away. How far away is up to your imagination. He told me that he wrote the song about 12 years ago and that he’s made some small changes. “Under the quiet of the night, under the moon’s soft glow….” he sings, and you are transported to somewhere dark because of a curse. All is cold. Beware.
I asked him to tell me about the name Konstantin the Mithrilweaver on his ReverbNation account.
“Well, Konstantin is my last name. Mythrilweaver comes from when I used to make chainmail armor, as the knights wore. I was using aluminum instead of steel because it is lighter to wear. Somebody asked me at a Ren Faire, ‘What is the metal you use?’ Thinking quickly of my love for Tolkien’s writings, like ‘The Hobbit,’ I said, ‘It is mithril,’ since aluminum was almost impossible to refine until the common era, so in the 1400s, it did not exist in the world in the form we know now. And he answered, not expecting that answer, ‘So you fancy yourself a weaver of mithril, do you?’ And I answered, ‘A mithril weaver? Well, me thinks I may just be good, sir.’ “And the rest is history.”
In real life, Maestro is a voice actor. He does radio commercials,
character voices, and admits that he’s pretty good at imitating
accents.
Maestro began writing country music in 1984. His music was popular in the small Texas town where he’s from. He wrote a song a few years later, which George Jones recorded, and he got paid for it. For a teenager living at home, that was a lot of money. He signed away his rights and later learned that he didn’t receive credit on the album for his lyrics. Maestro said that was not all that uncommon back then. He began writing more Country and Southern Rock songs, and then this year chose to write Soft Rock and Blues.
He’s not sure of the exact number of songs he’s written, but said he has probably written the lyrics to over 200. He records all his own material and released one digital album in 2014.
Having listened to “Wicked Thing This Way Comes,” I had to ask him if he likes writing about the supernatural.
“I like the whole Edgar Allan Poe vibe,” he admitted. “For a while, I got well known for giving performances with a voice and delivery like Christopher Lee’s (the white wizard in The Lord of the Rings), using my newly deeper voice. I like gothic themes and classic monster movies, like Dracula from the 30s, the Wolf Man, from the 50s, and I like the more recent underworld movies, as well.”
Asked what genres he likes to sing, he replied, “I like most kinds of music. Until I was in my thirties, my voice was much higher. I got really sick, and it damaged my vocal cords and lowered my voice a bit. Now, I am a baritone naturally. I have sung in Second Life and recently started singing songs locally.”
Around 2005, Maestro began writing poetry. He also participates in poetry slams and has won more than 30 over the years.
“I have been performing in the spoken word poetry genre for almost 20 years now. On reverbnation.com, I have been ranked #1 in my genre several times over the years,” he stated.
In terms of performance art, he said. “I’ve gotten some notoriety in the RL poetry scene across America,” he said. “I also do what I call bardics, where I read and sing in the same piece, which makes me fairly unique.”
He also wrote a satirical piece for the opinion section of his local paper. Readers appreciated his wit and encouraged him to focus on it.
When he has free time to come in-world, he enjoys exploring, going to concerts, and visiting friends.
“I enjoy poetry, socializing, and doing artistic things, like building in SL. I have a massive tower on my mainland in the Horizons area that I modified from its original dimensions,” said Maestro. “I also built an 8-story castle in the air.”
Check out his reverbnation.com page: Konstantin The Mithrilweaver: https://www.reverbnation.com/konstantinmithrilweaver/
Maestro began writing country music in 1984. His music was popular in the small Texas town where he’s from. He wrote a song a few years later, which George Jones recorded, and he got paid for it. For a teenager living at home, that was a lot of money. He signed away his rights and later learned that he didn’t receive credit on the album for his lyrics. Maestro said that was not all that uncommon back then. He began writing more Country and Southern Rock songs, and then this year chose to write Soft Rock and Blues.
He’s not sure of the exact number of songs he’s written, but said he has probably written the lyrics to over 200. He records all his own material and released one digital album in 2014.
Having listened to “Wicked Thing This Way Comes,” I had to ask him if he likes writing about the supernatural.
“I like the whole Edgar Allan Poe vibe,” he admitted. “For a while, I got well known for giving performances with a voice and delivery like Christopher Lee’s (the white wizard in The Lord of the Rings), using my newly deeper voice. I like gothic themes and classic monster movies, like Dracula from the 30s, the Wolf Man, from the 50s, and I like the more recent underworld movies, as well.”
Asked what genres he likes to sing, he replied, “I like most kinds of music. Until I was in my thirties, my voice was much higher. I got really sick, and it damaged my vocal cords and lowered my voice a bit. Now, I am a baritone naturally. I have sung in Second Life and recently started singing songs locally.”
Around 2005, Maestro began writing poetry. He also participates in poetry slams and has won more than 30 over the years.
“I have been performing in the spoken word poetry genre for almost 20 years now. On reverbnation.com, I have been ranked #1 in my genre several times over the years,” he stated.
In terms of performance art, he said. “I’ve gotten some notoriety in the RL poetry scene across America,” he said. “I also do what I call bardics, where I read and sing in the same piece, which makes me fairly unique.”
He also wrote a satirical piece for the opinion section of his local paper. Readers appreciated his wit and encouraged him to focus on it.
When he has free time to come in-world, he enjoys exploring, going to concerts, and visiting friends.
“I enjoy poetry, socializing, and doing artistic things, like building in SL. I have a massive tower on my mainland in the Horizons area that I modified from its original dimensions,” said Maestro. “I also built an 8-story castle in the air.”
Check out his reverbnation.com page: Konstantin The Mithrilweaver: https://www.reverbnation.com/konstantinmithrilweaver/
Netera Landar
