THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310071
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Jennifer Dziura
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
AT 3:04 P.M. on a Saturday, I find myself at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, awaiting the arrival of the young alternative musician-type I'm supposed to interview. At 3:19, I am greeted by Deral Fenderson, who sports a head of bright green and purple hair, thick black-rimmed glasses and a T-shirt that brags, ``I partied at Andy's Bar Mitzvah.''
Deral, a 21-year-old Blacksburg resident who grew up in Virginia Beach, has recently put out his first album, titled ``I'm Not Doing Anything.'' The album is the first released by Noony Noony Nooize Rekurdts, a label based in Blacksburg.
``I'm Not Doing Anything'' has had a unique conception. As Deral states in that little folded thing in the cassette case: ``This album was recorded . . . in a room on the third floor of the Holiday Inn located on 5th Street in Charlottesville, Va. I was there doing a flu study for the University of Virginia. They gave me three meals a day, cable television, and I was alone by myself in solitude. Oh, by the way, I didn't get sick, and they paid me $725.''
Deral, I discover, is his stage name and he has brought two female friends with him, both of whom are eager to feed misinformation to me.
``Deral wears dresses,'' said the taller of the two.
``And he kills small animals,'' pipes in the other. ``Oh, wait,'' she says. ``He told me not to say anything about that.''
The four of us end up at a table in the food court discussing Deral, his music and his job at a Blacksburg barbecue palace.
Concerning the latter, Deral says: ``The job at the barbecue palace - it's a blast. I make the cole slaw and the potato salad. . . .'' When not barbecuing, however, Deral Fenderson can be found producing music, or something similar to it.
``Stiffnecked,'' a song featured on ``I'm Not Doing Anything,'' is a mournful tune about, well, having a stiff neck. It includes such clever lyrics as:
``My neck is really stiff, it hurts
I want to hack it off, blood spurts
jugular is cut in two, stained shirts
flowing red all over you. . . .''
Another song, ``Burn,'' is dedicated to an ex-girlfriend of Deral's. It states:
``You don't make me smile no more.
When you left you broke my heart for sure.
I've cried for days and weeks, I've begun to tire
so I'm gonna come and set you on fire.''
Deral offers this biography: ``I was born off the spores that grew off this plant . . . and when I was a little boy, my plane crashed, and these natives raised me and taught me to play guitar.'' On a more accurate note, however, Deral talks about marketing his tape.
Noony Noony Nooize Rekurdts isn't quite into mass production - it's more like those jars of preserves with the hand-lettered labels at folk festivals. Deral personally numbers each of his cassettes, and he even autographed a few of those folded cassette-case things during our encounter in the food court. ``You are special. X,'' he wrote on one. ``You are more special than the owner of tape (NU)23. X,'' was the inscription on the next.
Deral sells ``I'm Not Doing Anything'' for $4, mostly to people he knows. He hasn't made a great deal of money with his music, which may explain one of his newer goals: to become a writer for the Hallmark company. A recent Valentine's Day card created by Deral states: ``Rose are red/ violets are blue./ My heart is full of blood/ because of you.''
At this point, the reader may begin to notice a blood-death-fire theme. by CNB