By GustavoLeao / 04:52, 7 March 2008 / General Star Trek

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SFX posted an exclusive interview with Star Trek The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner, in which he talks about his new CD. Here are few excerpts.

What made you get started on this project?

Spiner: "I wanted to do a CD, and vocally I'm most suited to singing American standards - because I grew up with that kind of music, listening to people like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, so that's the kind of music I most prefer."

And did you ever see those legendary artists perform live?
Spiner: "I saw Sinatra live! Actually it was at LeVar Burton's bachelor party. We all went to Las Vegas. There was Jonathan, Michael Dorm, LeVar and myself, and we went to see Sinatra - he was at the end of his run. It was incredible: he wasn't at the top of his game because it was really near the very end, he would lose the lyrics and vocally a lot of it was gone. But every now and then there would be a line or a phrase and you would go, 'That's Sinatra!' It was quite incredible and a wonderful experience."
 

You've got some great performers on the disc - have you worked with them before? What was it like?

Spiner: "All were amazing. Obviously Maude Maggart is a sensational singer. She got involved due to the fact that I bought a Toyota Prius! It's all about being green. I was driving a Mercedes that was powered with something like rocket fuel! It was the fastest car - I loved it, but it was irresponsible so I convinced myself that I should be driving something more politically correct. I got a Prius, and it turned out that the car came with XM satellite radio, so I had that hooked up - and I loved having it. Suddenly I'm listening to old time radio shows while I drive. There's a whole series of shows based on the decades - I switched mine to the '40s. There's a show from New York called High Standards and I heard Maude sing on it, and she sang a Cole Porter song called 'Looking At You'. I was knocked out. I looked up her website, bought her three CDs (she has four now), and thought, 'It's gotta be her or I'll be so disappointed'. It was fun for her too because she'd never acted really and she's good."

"And Mark Hamill - that was just a lucky stroke! I knew Mark a little bit and my friend Mac who did the arrangements is good friends with him. So he asked Mark if he'd do it, and sent him a script - and he liked it! 'Let's do it!'"

You mentioned Maude's website and of course you've got your own site - what's your relationship like with the online community? Fandom is more of a dialogue these days than when Star Trek was on the air, internet users can be both supportive and critical...

Spiner: "It's a strange thing. I have a MySpace page now as well. Some people said, 'I bet he just made a website so he can sell his disc.' But I don't feel ashamed of selling my CD. I say to them, 'When you work, don't you get paid for it?!' I discovered this aspect of the way online fandom communicates: for the most part people are really nice. But you know, anonymity makes people brave! They feel able to be really nasty if they want. But I guess that's all part of the deal; love and hate are really close, there's a fine line and sometimes they overlap. People can hate you because they love you. It is an interesting thing."

Is the CD only available through the site, or can you get it in shops?

Spiner: "Right now it's only available on the site, except for here in the UK. Very soon you'll be able to get it in the Dress Circle store in London. It's the only store I know of in the world that is going to carry it, and that's just the sheer coincidence of me walking in there the other day and talking to them about it."

The full interview is here.