Collaboration, Funding and Actually Getting It Done - Interveiwing Ash Anraí-Jones on Save Our Games!
Images from left to right: Ash Anraí-Jones; Save Our Games! logo; Ash Anraí-Jones
Hailey: Could you tell us what Save Our Games! is?
Ash: Sure, so, Save Our Games! is a radio-podcast show set on a pirate ship, the HMS Games. It follows Aubrey Nintendo, the captain and rightful heir to the Nintendo throne, and her cast and crew of fellow video-game and sea-faring rouges, trying to escape the Nintendo empire. Or so we’re told.
Hailey: Oh, right, like, pirate radio show — SOG for short?
Ash: SOG for shorthand, wholeheartedly.
Hailey: Something about Save Our Games! that writing conversations at university doesn’t have time to cover is the huge time investment it takes to create a project like this, and SOG has been years in the works. How have you managed to stick with it?
Ash: So, one of the factors would be that the concept didn’t appear alone. Like, SOG has been workshopped, with the input of other people. When I began writing [SOG], the concept of it appeared as more than a series of vague ideas. I’ve had a lot of projects that never escaped that imaginary realm because there hasn’t been that much like, meat to their imaginary bones.
But between SOG being collaboratively written and voiced, and the elements of it appearing more than just disparate parts of a minute project, I’ve definitely felt dedicated to it, to develop it, and now ultimately publish it.
Hailey: Yeah, like, dedication to the bit with friends, I guess. It’s been a matter of sticking to it on the basis of that you’ve expanded on and shared with a group of collaborated on. And then, on top of that, SOG has materialized in that it’s been given funding and the capability to be broadcast, which is amazing. Could you tell me what that’s been like?
Ash: Yeah, it’s coming out now … I applied to the Arts Council Northern Ireland for funding, and yeah, it’s been useful, like it’s brought particular limitations, but it's helped make [SOG] exist in some material way … It’s given me an impetus to get it done. I know that if I’d been given infinite time to work on it, I'd still just be workshopping it, and rewriting it, and editing it — to the point where the show wouldn’t be realized in some way, whittling it down until I got something that I thought was perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist.
On that too, funding has allowed us to pay and reimburse writers and voice actors, which feels good? Like, we don’t get the opportunity to pay the people we work with, unless we’re on the other side of the industry.
Hailey: Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve started paying people to edit my work because like, c’mon lads, we gotta set some bare minimum standards.
Ash: Exactly. So yeah, the funding’s let us pay people to voice the show, and the deadline helps us have the whole show out by the end of March!
Hailey: You mentioned the collaborative element earlier and how its helped you stick with SOG. How much of Save Our Games! is just yours, or how much of it is shared with your collaborators?
Ash: Hm … I feel like if SOG was just something I did, we’d be stuck at this ‘amazing’ step one, this really good idea, but if I were to barrel on with it alone, I would … be lacking the skills required down the line to make the show what I want it to be?
Also, not that it’s not stressful, editing it alone, but it’s certainly made easier by having others to contribute. It also keeps itself going in a weird way? I was still writing it at my family’s house over Christmas last, because now we had a deadline to meet. I think being forced to carry on with it has been really valuable too.
And also like, I say that, I don’t feel an ownership over the ideas that yourself or others have contributed, like, I’ve sort of thought of [SOG] as a steward to others ideas, that’s progressed into a funded and I hope listenable show.
Hailey: At the very beginning of SOG, what advice would you give your past self?
Ash: Oh, hm.
Big question.
Yeah, hm… fuck, it was a long time ago. I want to say, just get on with it, like, actually getting it done … but also, like most of the world, I didn’t really have time until Spring 2020.
[I’d say] have the confidence to run with others ideas — leaving sections of the script blank for when others would contribute. Yeah, I’d tell myself to get more comfortable with the contributions of others, definitely, if that makes sense?
Hailey: Yeah, that makes sense. Then, finally, if Save Our Games! was a salad, what would be its components, its core ingredients?
Ash: Oh, hm, something eclectic, like, apple chunks, some form of quinoa salad, walnuts… maybe a splodge of chili?
Hailey: Ash. That sounds horrible.
Ash: It likely would be!
Hailey: Why those ingredients? Using ingredients as loosely as possible. Elements, even.
Ash: Well, I mean, it’s a bit of a mess, but what isn’t — there’s definitely something in there for any taste.
Save Our Games! is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. You can find Ash at @looseyleftie on Instagram.
Edited by Hailey O’Gorman