Q: What is McHelmski Studios?
A: McHelmski Studios is
three guys – Brandon McCarron, Christopher Wilhelm, and John Zalewski
– who wrote a couple of songs together. Needing a name for ourselves,
we decided on McHelmski Studios.
Q: What does “McHelmski”
mean?
A: The word McHelmski is
actually an amalgam of our last names, blended together in the way which
seemed the most pleasing.
Q: How did the website come about?
A: The website came online
October 12, 2003. It was mostly just a project we started to amuse ourselves,
and a way to keep the friends we left behind after high school updated
on what we’ve been up to. It’s a means for us to showcase
our creative projects, both individually and as a group, in a public
forum.
Q: What are each of you responsible
for as members of McHelmski?
A: Brandon McCarron is our
musician. He wrote all the music for “Grammatically Incorrect”
and “The V Song,” and will write the music to any other
songs we do in the future. In addition, he composed the albums Stuff
I Made and More Stuff I Made, both currently available for download.
Christopher Wilhelm is our writer. He wrote
the lyrics to both our songs, and is working on lyrics to other potential
projects. He is also responsible for a significant portion of the written
material posted on this site (though Brandon and John have both added
some of their own work as well).
John Zalewski is our technologist. In addition
to owning and operating the equipment used to record the song lyrics,
he also keeps this site running.
In addition, all three of us have added our
vocal talents to our songs, though Brandon has clearly done the most
(and the best) work in that capacity.
Q: What was the reason for the
site’s redesign?
A: The original site was
something that we had created right after high school. After a couple
of years in college, we had matured, and we wanted a website that reflected
that. The original site was an eyesore, so we went with a more toned-down
design. Furthermore, we wanted to distance the new projects from some
of the older stuff. Chris is particularly embarrassed by much of his
old work in the Writings section, most of which was written while he
was still in high school. The current site retains everything that was
good about the old site, and removes everything that wasn’t.
Q: Whatever happened to the Quote/Picture
of the Day?
A: The Quote of the Day
and the Picture of the Day were aspects of the site that were dropped
following the redesign. There were two reasons for this. First, the
majority of the quotes and pictures were not made by us. They were just
things we found online or took from movies and television. When the
site was changed, we decided to make the focus more on the three of
us, which meant eliminating content in which we were not directly involved.
The other reason is simply laziness. It started to become a chore for
us to find good quotes and pictures every time we updated, and since
we stopped having fun with it, we stopped doing it.
Q: Why is John the only one with
a link under the Photos section?
A: Mostly, it’s because
he’s the only one who ever takes any pictures. Brandon used to
have his own photos page, but eventually decided to discontinue it.
Chris does not own a camera, and has no interest in owning a camera.
He prefers the proverbial “thousand words.”
Q: Why doesn’t Chris have
a link in the Life section?
A: When the site first started,
we were all using an online journal service called Blurty. (Links to
the old Blurty journals still exist in the Archives pages, but most
of them no longer work.) We eventually switched to Live Journal, as
it was more widely known and most of our friends were using it. Later,
we got tired of the whole online journal scene and started using sites
like Facebook and MySpace instead. Chris, however, is not a fan of social
networking sites, and chooses not to use them. So, until he can find
an alternative, his life will remain a mystery.
Q: What is that picture in the
top left corner of every page?
A: That is a picture of
the three of us, rendered into stained glass using an image editing
program. An unadulterated version of the picture can be found here.
Q: What is the purpose for the
Heroes section?
A: The Heroes section came
about mostly due to Chris’s fascination with comic books and super
heroes. Using the program Hero Machine, Chris created a super hero version
of himself, and insisted Brandon and John do the same. Once all three
were realized in their hero glory, a decision was made to put them on
the site and to write short descriptions for each character. Chris is
responsible for both Charan Ghedes and Bam Proch!, while John elected
to handle Kaptain Khaki himself.
Q: What is that god-awful sound
following the More Better verse in “Grammatically Incorrect”?
A: That is the sound of
a rapidly deflating rubber balloon. It was something we included during
recording because we thought it was funny at the time, but in retrospect,
it was kind of stupid.
Q: Who is Mr. V?
A: Mr. V was the assistant
band director and music theory teacher at our high school. We admired
him enough that we wrote a song about him, detailing some of his quirks
and habits. We called him V, or Mr. V, because his actual last name
was too long.
Q: What is Shaquita Minor?
A: Shaquita Minor is a band
to which Brandon McCarron belongs. The music posted on the site is merely
a sampling, however. They have many more songs than what appears here,
but Brandon wanted to keep some separation between Shaquita and McHelmski.
Q: How can I contact you?
A: The most efficient way
would be to email us.
brandon@mchelmski.com
chris@mchelmski.com
john@mchelmski.com
Or, email all of us at mchelmski@mchelmski.com
Alternately, you can leave a post on our
message board. We all check that on a semi-regular basis, so somebody
will eventually reply to you.
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