We're All Friends Here: Getting Into Pants Rayder

  

   After asking Evan for their email for an interview, I was warned that I’d be let into the surreal, yet friendly thought processes of team Pants Rayder. The next day, I got an email full of Quaithe-level, existential ruminations and this. After a little snafu (I didn’t send the questions), we finally got answers To my questions, though. Although if you are looking for deeper meaning, they're not a bad start. Special thanks to Fru Molnar for organizing them.

Here’s Evan, Lisa, and Aaron of Pants Rayder!

Where and how did you guys meet?

EVAN: Aw jeez, so many ways. I met Lisa first, outside of a Bassnectar show in '09. Aaron and Bridget were both craigslist randos who moved in with me when I lived at the McKibbin lofts. Fru I met last, (on OKCupid) and that precipitated me moving out of the lofts within a year.

LISA: I met Evan through the bass music scene and knew we were destined to be friends because he was as stoked to dance at said parties as my friends and I were.

What got each of you into the books?

AARON: I had heard about the books over a few Magic: The Gathering games with ex-roommates in Philadelphia years and years ago, but only hopped on them after a wandering Belgian who lived with us at the lofts on and off for a spell left his copy of Le Trône de fer: L’Ombre maléfique behind. I figured if a book series kept the rabid attention of an ayahuasca-addled, psy-pirate globesquatter, then I should probably check it out. Devoured book one on the beaches of the Andaman Sea [Myanmar] in five days then ran with GRRM blinders for the next six months of my life. The only way this trivia could be more fun for me would be if we could pipe it back two years to then, but guess that just means I'm due for my first re-read.

LISA: A girl at my old office recommended them to me - and I had already a vague interest in reading them because of the buzz around the upcoming show. I generally like to read the book before seeing the live-action adaptation, so I hopped on the series and put my social life on hold while I burned through them. (I confess I also definitely read them at work in online pdf form too; it was a 24-hour reading cycle for me.)

EVAN: Aaron, Lisa, and my brother were all really into them, and they all have great taste. So I suspected I was missing out and was jealous of how much fun they all had nerding out at social occasions. I was hesitant to commit to so many thousands of pages, but that ended when both Aaron and my brother pointed out that objecting to something because you might like it a lot and enjoy it for a really long time was actually not an objection at all, and I couldn't really argue with that.

What Other than the books are you super into?

AARON: Other than books (where I am mostly sci-fi, comics, or no-fi), I dig games (board/tabletop, card or PC), coffee (smooth and buttery), and beats (boring and caustic). [I] spend most of my day [3D] modeling for a variety of applications, [and] spend most of the rest of my free time wanking poetic about animation and new digitally-aided fabrication techniques.

LISA: I am a huge sci-fi/dystopian future novel consumer. Evan recently got me into this - for lack of a better way to describe it – political space opera series "The Expanse"*, and that is my current obsession. I also recently finished Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam series, which I cannot recommend enough!  Some of my favorite authors (besides GRRM) are Lethem, Vonnegut, Simmons, Dostoyevsky, Marquez, Atwood, Gaiman and O'Brien. I am very into RuPaul's Drag Race (just take my word for it that it's a necessary watch), films (comedic, sci-fi or contemplative -- everyone go see the LEGO movie, it encapsulates all of those things), music (moody-folk/house/reggae/dub) and highfalutin' cuisine.

EVAN: Comics, usually Image and some Vertigo (anything by Brandon Graham, most things by Hickman and Brian K Vaughn, Revival, the Wake just got really good, Pretty Deadly has been amazing so far). Bass music, house music. Baking and Mexican Food. And our dog, Ginger Punim (she's the best).  

What interests each of you the most of the world/fandom?

EVAN: I love the history, ancient and otherwise. I love hearing about the founding of cities and seeing how the details of their culture are the result of the history that created them, [like] The Doom, Nymeria, the Targ Invasion, and the Dance of Dragons. I LOVED the Greens and the Blacks for filling in a lot of that. Bran the Builder and the early days of the watch, Children of the Forest - I love how thoroughly the characters' worldviews and values are the product of that history and how their trying to earn their own place in it (or stumbling into it anyway). 

LISA: It's funny - I haven't ever really been a part of fandom culture like this much before - but I'd say my favorite aspect is the way that fandom helps you to connect immediately with complete strangers over a story, character or artist that you both feel passionately about - it also causes you to see your current friends in different lights - and creates new bonds over different silly stuff (as with our group!). 

AARON: Think Lisa really hit the nail on the head here. Such robust and fully-fleshed out worlds that merit consuming tome upon tome are rare, and finding a few friends that are willing to take a gamble like that in the oughties or twotensies, just so. It is incredibly fun to have a whole 'nother world of political machinations, archetypes, and history about which to converse and debate with your friends. Usually less depressing than discussing IRL political machinations, and so far I feel like GRRM has earned every minute he has made our non-reader friends feel like aliens on summer rooftops.

If you could stump one of the Sellswords, which one and what would be the question?

EVAN: Probably with something about Essos, maybe filling in the map with all the place names. I think the Free Cities have really gotten shafted in terms of coverage in the trivia, so far. Or something really detail oriented, like naming all the known Valyrian Steel swords in Westeros and the houses they belong to.

LISA: God, I am probably the worst on our team in regards to obscure knowledge of the books - I read them about 3 years ago so that gap has taken its toll on my recall. We joke though that if you all asked a question that was like, "Describe what (insert obscure character’s name here) was wearing / their hair color when they first appeared in the books," we would OWN that. We'd be like, oh well he's the guy with the red shirt, who came in off a boat with his silver hair blowing in the wind to talk about this major event, and he has a mole on the upper right quadrant of his forehead...

AARON: Oh, golly. I don't know if I would have a chance at stumping the Sellswords. Every week for me is a huge learning experience. I think I might just like to talk to all of them about what they think Petyr Baelish wants and where Euron has been. You guys are great, thanks for e'rything!

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*Evan would like you to know that "The Expanse" is written by two people under a pseudonym and one used to work for GRRM. It is similar in structure and "while its very own thing, it scratches that ASOIAF itch."