[Interview] Theodora Roglev aka DocCovington
Por: Titus
Interview by Titus Torres
Few years ago Brazilian xenites discovered DocCovington’s fan music through an article published hereand many of them, being also Buffy fans, became fans of these great fan songs. So you will know more about the woman behind those great voice and lyrics. Let’s start!
1) How did you become a Xena fan?
I knew about ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’ and had watched two of the movies and thought it was fun, but didn’t take it serious enough to follow the show. When ‘Xena’ aired for the first time, I caught an episode. At first, I was a little baffled about the whole thing, thinking, “Geez, what is all this nonsense about? A female warrior in a bad fantasy version of old Greece? Oh boy, another American action show I can do without.” Needless to say that it didn’t take long for me to get addicted, like so many others. 😉
2) How old were you when you started writing songs? And what about your poetry?
I’ve always loved writing, especially poetry. As a child, I used to write short stories, mostly murder mysteries. Then I lost track of writing for quite some time during my teenage years. As for writing songs, that whole thing started when I moved back to Austria (I grew up in Germany) at the age of 21. I joined a rock band, and the guitar player (Fredi) and I became close friends. I infected him with the “Xena virus” and we decided to write a couple of songs about the show and its characters. It was more of a fun thing, and we would perform the songs live at Xena Fan Club gatherings in Germany.
3) Which musicians have influenced your work? What’s always in your playlist?
I own several hundred CDs, ranging from classic music (I grew up in a household of opera singers) to jazz, country, rock, pop and even speed metal. My playlist varies all the time, it really does. So it’s hard to say who has “influenced” me the most. I think I’ve always tried to find my own tune. But in case you’d like a little insight of who’s among my all-time favorites: Bruce Springsteen, Poets of the Fall, The Music, Melissa Etheridge, Jamie Lidell, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Wynton Marsalis, only to name a few.
Theodora and Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris, in Buffy)
4) How did the idea of making fan music come up? Was the first song a Buffy or a Xena song?
The first original fan song I wrote (which was after covering “A Jewel in Texas”) was “The Ides of March”, dedicated to the Xena episode of the same name. I really got hooked to the whole concept of fan music for a while. The Buffy songs came later.
5) Are you still a fan of Xena Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
I’m no longer a “hardcore nutball”, if that’s what you’re asking. 😉 But I own the whole series of ‘Xena’ on DVD. My ‘Buffy’ DVD collection I sold many years ago, but I still think Joss Whedon is a genius.
6) What is or was your favorite XWP episode? Why?
That’s hard to say. For a very long time, it was “A Day In A Life”, because that really cracked me up big time whenever I watched it. Every episode that let my favorite character, Gabrielle, shine is a favorite of mine. And let’s not forget “The Xena Scrolls”, which provided me with a fitting online nick. These days, I don’t think I could name one favorite episode, because there have been so many wonderful episodes that included interesting character growth, great villains, exciting drama, etc. “The Bitter Suite” definitely sticks out for its fantastic music — Joe LoDuca really outdid himself there.
7) Tell me a something about “Ides of March” – which seems to be the xenites favorite song – , how did you have the idea for this song? Was it at the first time you saw the episode?
Oh my, that was such a long time ago. I remember the episode really touching me deeply, even making me cry, and I thought, “Wow, what a perfect series finale this would have made for the show!” I was truly overwhelmed and kind of felt entitled to honor the great writing by putting my own emotions into words and notes. I have to say I was really disappointed with the course the show took after the season four finale; it just didn’t do the previous seasons and this great episode enough justice.
8 ) When did you decide to do an acoustic version of A Jewel in Texas? Are you and Chris Jeffery friends?
Chris and I were merely online acquaintances, but from the e-mails we exchanged I have to say he’s a really sweet and very talented guy. I think he works in the music/sound engineering business. I don’t recall all the details, but I remember listening to his two fan songs, “A Jewel in Texas” and “Gone”, over and over again. And at some point the idea popped into my head to cover “Jewel”. I talked to Fredi (a.k.a. SoundSleeper), and we got together at our rehearsal room one Sunday afternoon and just did it.
9) You said you haven’t been active in the fandom for about 10 years. Which other TV shows did you get addicted to recently? And what other hobbies you have apart from music?
Well, I hope no one’s going to judge me, but for the past 21 or so years, I have been a dedicated Trekkie. Among my all-time favorite TV shows are “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”. I never went to a Star Trek convention or anything, but I really worship those two particular Trek shows. I’ve also been a huge fan of “Cagney & Lacey” since I was a child. But as for recent shows, there has been only one after ‘Buffy’ that I used to follow with excitement every week during its first four years: “Grey’s Anatomy” (don’t laugh, the show used to be pretty cool with its sense of sarcasm etc.). I stopped watching when my favorite character, Dr. Erica Hahn, was written out of the show (that was some dirty business going on behind the scenes). With her the show’s unique flair also went down the drain and the whole thing turned into a soap opera … and I’m not a fan of those, mind you.
My other hobbies include film-making (that’s a more recent thing I just got into), photography (still a noob with that, too), playing computer games, pen&paper role-playing (although I haven’t done that in about four years), movies & TV, exercising, traveling. Hmm, looks like I am quite the geek. 😉
Theodora and Amber Benson (Tara McClay in Buffy)
10) Last weekend the 16th XenaCon took place in LA. Have you been to a Convention?
I’ve only been to the conventions organized by the German Xena Fan Club back in the 1990’s. One was held in cooperation with the Dutch Xena & Hercules Fan Club in the Netherlands. Fun times.
11) Based in the time you were active in the Xena fandom, if you would synthesize XWP and the whole fandom in one sentence, what would it be?
“Ahhhhleleleleleleleleeeeya!”
12) Thanks for the interview!
It was my pleasure. I didn’t think anyone would remember DocCovington as part of the ‘Xena’ fandom after all those years!
