[Cover photo credit to Michael Pottle]
As sci-fi fans gear up to celebrate Star Wars Day this May the 4th, Los Angeles singer-songwriter-guitarist David Haerle has released “The Great Galaxy Sci-Fi Convention Show” song and video. Paired with an “out-of-this-world” animated video by Michael Pottle, there’s a personal backstory behind this song.
Haerle explains:
“My late brother Christian was about four-and-a-half years older than me and had a great love of science fiction, fantasy and horror films. In particular, he had a passion for the special effects behind the scenes of sci-fi films as well as their musical scores (think effects artist Ray Harryhausen and composer Bernard Hermann). In 1978, while attending the Los Angeles Auto Show at the LA Convention Center, my brother said ‘Someday I’m going to put on my own convention here.’
Well, he went back the following week and booked the convention center for November 18th of that same year. Christian was all of sixteen at the time and, sure enough, Galacticon came into being with a little help from our parents and his friends. It was a blast. The following year in 1979 my brother held the convention at the historic (now demolished) Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd.
This song pulls from my own memories of attending those two conventions as well as the World Science Fiction Convention in Miami, FL a few years prior, which I went to with my brother and his friend Danny. These memories are teeming with fans in costume, panels, screening rooms playing new and classic films, and of course the ‘dealers’ room,’ where all sorts of collectibles and sci-fi related merchandise were offered up for sale. I was most excited by the flashing ray gun I bought and held as I ran from room to room at the convention. My brother left for the final frontier in 2019. This is a tribute to him and to dreaming big.”
The track was written and produced by David Haerle himself, alongside co-producer/mixer/engineer and frequent collaborator Jose Salazar. Haerle plays lead vocal, electric and acoustic rhythm guitars, is joined by his longtime band, including Carson Cohen (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Reade Pryor (drums, percussion), Ken Belcher (electric guitar, backing vocals), Jose Salazar (keyboards, electric guitar) and Ursula Knudson (backing vocals, saw).
Haerle’s Garden of Edendale was released in the summer of 2018. His second album, Death Valley, was released in the spring of 2020. His third album, El Camino Sierra, was released in April 2023. His fourth LP is set to be released later this year.
