Nuns in Space Interview with the OCS Newsletter

Due to space restrictions the OCS Newsletter was unable to print the full interview with Nuns in Space. We are pleased to include the full interview here, for the first fandom centered blog post on warriornun.com. So, buckle up and get ready to ”Praise God and Kick Some Ass” with these “bad nuns for life”.

OCS: Can I get the twitter names/handles of the band members? 

@imjustjhoy (Jho) she/her

@breadisgood0 (Bread/Lucy)

@khalyix (Aly)

@asrobin37 (Ashley) 

@sapphicallyholy (Anaïs)

@bellepan_ (Belle) 

@Aksbe04 (Aksbe)

@maia1108t (Maia) 

@BeaAikidoMe (Aiyana)

@NUNFLIXofficial (Bea)

OCS: Will each of you give me a little about yourself? 

Jho (she/her): My name is Jho, pronounced like Joey from friends. I took a break from school but when I go back I want to study Criminal Psych. Currently I create memes to make people laugh and keep good vibes in the WN fandom.

Bread (she/her): I am a senior in college majoring in Psychology as I want to go into a human factors related field. I also want to be a pilot but that is a lot of money. I’ve been trying to get better at drawing things like architecture. Right now I try to keep the fandoms’ spirits by making music and memes. I have been dubbed one of the meme twins along with Jhoy by Padre Captain. 

Aly (they/she):  I’m Puerto Rican and a junior in highschool who loves drawing, writing, reading, watching any form of wlw media (especially Warrior Nun), and now singing! 

Ashley (she/her): I’m majoring in Social Work (LGBTQ+Representation and Religious Trauma). I am co-leading our Outreach team for #SaveWarriorNun with Kate (@halfwitt_). I joined the band to write, and I sing. When I’m not fighting for Warrior Nun I am a huge sports fan (playing/watching). I also am a video game streamer on Twitch.

Anaïs (she/her): I’m 23 and studying Pharmacy in France. I’m interested in working in biomedical research in the future. Being a part of this fandom is a breath of fresh air for me and keeps me motivated to be more creative. It helped me get through a tough moment in my life last year so I’m very grateful for the community I’ve gotten to know.

Belle: Hii!! I’m Belle. I’m a senior in high school. Outside of music, I play volleyball, skateboard, and trying to pick up surfing!! I am also conducting research to gain a more conclusive view of how queer audiences feel about the media representation we see today. If you’re interested and haven't already, please fill out the survey: https://forms.gle/7sqcHe6wJ2UVvtCm9. Thank you so much for everyone's support. Sending much love :)) 

Aksbe (she/her): Right now I’m finishing my last year of high school, don’t really know what the future holds for me though, but I am planning on trying to get into a university and study chemistry since it’s a science that i enjoy a lot. I’ve always loved music, and I come from a family full of artists of any kind. The latest generations are more focused on music so I've naturally grown up with it all around me and I still occasionally fall asleep listening to my dad play. Aside from singing, I write too. My secret hope is that I could become a writer, but I am a bit scared to reach for that dream. I am glad to have found family in this fandom, glad that I can inspire and spread positivity with music and especially glad for the show that has brought all of us together.

Maia (she/her): Hi everyone I’m Maia, a first year uni student from the UK studying Politics and International Relations. I only properly joined Twitter because of Warrior Nun and it’s my first time being in a fandom. I never intended to interact much but everyone’s been amazing and the community I've found has been so welcoming and fun. Outside of Twitter I play a lot of music in orchestras and bands, am a novice boxer, a writer and am trying to get back into dance since I used to do that a lot as a child.

Bea: I’m a junior majoring in Nursing with plans to go to grad school and get my masters in Nursing Leadership and Management. I want to one day run a hospital and make patient centered care a priority. I also want to travel around the world and help make health care better across the globe (The dreamer in me does) I also plan to pursue acting on the side, whether that is voice acting or in general. As for a random talent, I have been a competitive horseback rider (jumping) for 15 years, and have taken a break from it to focus on school :)

Aiy (she/her): I’m just someone on Twitter who wants to make people laugh with their tweets and was never deeply involved in a fandom like this before, #SaveWarriorNun!! Outside Twitter, I’m a 22 year old studying to become a Software Developer.

OCS: Who plays instruments and what made you join the band?

Jho: I play guitar, piano, drums, and trumpet. I used to be in the school band where I played drums and learned to play trumpet. As for what made me join the band, Bread and I were alone in spaces until one day people started joining so we looked for other musicians.

Bread: I play guitar, clarinet, sax, piano, and trumpet but only guitar in the spaces right now. I’m also learning uke. Jho and I were doing music spaces alone, just switching off one after another playing mostly for ourselves until people started joining and it eventually turned into this. 

Belle: I’ve been playing the piano for 13 years, and the acoustic and electric guitar for a little over a year. I also sing and write music. These amazing people picked me up after me soft-launching my music career on twitter!! And it was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Aly: I only sing but I’m hoping to learn how to play the guitar and piano with the help of my lovely band members! During the first concert space, I had sent a message in one of the group chats I was in with Jho and Bread saying I would sing Hymn for Her if the message got 10 reactions, and it did. So, I sang, and surprisingly, people enjoyed it, so I kept on singing on spaces and then joined the band when it was made! And I’m so glad I did because it led me to meeting the talented people I can now call my family.

Ashley: I grew up learning the piano, but never stuck with it. I wish I would have now, but I also was on my worship team for about 10 years as a vocal percussionist. So I still do beatbox quite often.

Maia: I play piano, violin, guitar and flute and I started first with piano around 13 years ago. Piano was my first I picked up around 13 years ago. I learnt classical guitar for about 8 years but since the pandemic have been teaching myself to play other styles on my acoustic and electric. I also picked up the uke along the way. I joined the band after being in a space with them because it seemed fun and a great way to spread positivity.

Anais: I played classical piano as a kid but my teachers never gave me the freedom to choose what I played and it was very demanding so I decided to stop. I started playing guitar in high school so I could play and sing. I’m also tempted to get a ukulele… 

I’ve always loved music as a way to express myself and decompress. It was hard keeping up with it when I started university but being part of the band/fandom is really encouraging me to start playing music again, so I’m super excited to be a part of it with these amazing humans! The goal is to create a safe space to entertain and bring positivity to the fandom.

Aksbe: While my main instrument is my voice I do know how to play the piano, granted, not well, but it was something I studied for 8 years at music school. I am trying to learn how to play the guitar and I do have a bit of help from my dad at that front, since he is an actual guitar teacher. When I joined the band it wasn’t really a band yet. One evening I was just scrolling through twitter when I noticed there was a music space happening. Decided to hop in just to check it out and there weren’t a lot of people so I got asked if I wanted to join in and sing something, I did and now the rest is history.

Bea: I can play tenor, alto, and baritone saxophone as well as my ukulele. I used to be able to play the flute, but that was years ago. Alto saxophone was the main one when I was in band/jazz band and Ukulele is something new I have recently picked up. I one day hopped in a space with Ashley and Captain, and they asked me to read their rendition of WAP in my Beatrice accent, and ever since that day I became a part of the band! Then I brought in my ukulele/saxophone talents!

Aiy: I play guitar, bass, and drums which all started with my dad, who bought me my first guitar when I was 8 years old. I’m actually the bassist for an irl band with close friends, but for now, it’s all for fun and games and we’ve yet to write our own songs and play gigs. It was another day of saving Warrior Nun and I joined a music space Jho and bread were hosting. If I hadn’t overcome the nerves and asked if I could hop on the mic and play a little guitar piece for them, I wouldn’t be a Nuns in Space member playing alongside these amazing and incredibly talented people!

OCS: Can you talk about the evolution of your Twitter music space to a band then discord?

The music spaces started with Jho and Bread. Then everyone else sort of organically filtered in. Since we are trying to save a nun show and we were playing music in spaces so people can relax, the band’s name became ‘Nuns in Space’ or SiN for short. With Discord, people kept asking to be in the band so we created a place where everyone could hangout, listen to music, and chat while we kept the band intact to put on performances and for creative purposes. https://discord.gg/zNB9ZnFk6D

OCS: How did this idea come about? 

Jho and Bread: We share a birthday and we wanted to know what else we had in common so when we learned we played guitar we hosted spaces so we could play together. Eventually people started coming and we got more people to sing so it’s not just people listening to the two of us playing the same songs. William Miller popped into one of our spaces before we became official.

OCS: Did James suggest it? 

No, actually William Miller came to the first official music space, and tweeted in the comments. The one that was taken to heart was the ‘Do it! Start the band!’ tweet. We created a group chat, an ongoing doc on google to write songs, and have started impromptu and scheduled music spaces since.

OCS: How does the collaboration work when you all live in different places?

It is difficult. We ultimately try to start at a time where everyone can at least sing a few songs. We are working from CST time to GMT+8. We have settled on 8am EST for the big music spaces. We love the collaborative effort of everyone so making sure we get the most people in, is very important to us.

OCS: After the music video drops, what are your plans/goals for the band for the future?

We actually have a Warrior Nun Anthem in the works. We don’t want to give too many details. But we have asked the amazing (unofficial/official WN video-editing team Julia: @frogskuld, Leah: @Leah_WarriorNun, and Shaw: @immmasmashitup) again for another music video. We also plan to write more parodies. And, of course we will continue to hold music spaces to bring the community together and experience the fandom's amazing talent! Check out the band Twitter page @spacenuns  to see individual posts from all the members, and we will soon be posting collaborative videos as well. :) 

OCS: Also, can you go into the music space? Tell the reader what it's about and how they can get involved if interested?

The spaces are just a place for the fandom to come together and experience the love of music! We will be hosting “official” spaces from our Twitter page @spacenuns and will send out reminder event posts from our personal Twitters. We try to keep it as relaxed as possible. We usually run through the band members first and ask listeners to request the mic. Once we all perform one song, we start pulling up people from the listeners. You can play an instrument, sing, or both. The number one rule: Always hype everyone up! We face a lot of hate in the world and we just want to do whatever we can to build each other up with love and acceptance. The coolest part is that people outside the Warrior Nun fandom are finding our spaces and we have been able to explain what we are doing and why representation is so important. We hope you all come and join our next space! Let’s use our talent to Save Warrior Nun!

WN WAP parody follow-up questions

After the video was released, I had to know more. I sent this message to Ashley along with several questions.

OCS: First off, I laugh my ass off everything I watch the video. And the lyrics pop into my head at random times (thank you very much). I have a few follow up questions. Who came up with the song choice? Who was the mastermind with the Duretti lyrics? And Michael and the goo? How did you guys collaborate on this without just laughing the whole time? Final question: When does the fandom get another amazing piece from Nuns In Space?

Ashley @asrobin37 kindly indulged my curiosity and replied with this write-up.

Song Choice: Jho was singing Confetti By Little Mix and said Confetti rhymes with Duretti. Then Jho said "from the top make it drop like a crisp fried Duretti" then Bread and I (Ashley) opened our shared song doc and started writing. Bread wrote the 'Michael Goo' line" Initially, we were trying to write our anthem which is an original but got distracted and ended up writing all of WN WAP parody. Which happens a lot.

We have 13 songs on our doc, only 2 are finished at this moment. We definitely laughed more once it was finished, and we ran through it. The process Bread and I used, is we wrote out every main character’s name and tried to create a lyric that connected to the show. The video editors definitely deserve a lot of credit for finding the perfect scenes to use for the song. We asked 2.0 to step in to do the Beatrice accent because it has been fun to hear it in random spaces. So, it felt important to connect it to the song. We got two recordings, and then Bread got to work adding the music and looping it. The whole process took about 6 hours on a Twitter space.

Jho just wrote a parody song about Rhino being a worm. We will put music to it and release it on our SoundCloud soon. We have another parody that Aly, Bread, and I started, but that one will be a surprise! The goal is to also finish the WN Anthem Original and record that soon too. We tend to just write songs as they come into our head.

A sincere thank you to everyone in Nuns in Space for this interview and for our current and future entertainment. I want to encourage everyone to check out Nuns in Space @SpaceNuns and their Soundcloud account at https://on.soundcloud.com/bbHcK.