Friday, June 19, 2009

Christian Lander: The Best Selling Author of "Stuff White People Like"





Christian Lander began a little blog on WordPress back in 2008 called “Stuff White People Like" It became an instant over night sensation. In less then a year he has been commissioned by Random House to write a book version and since then his book has sold millions around the world. He took a break from giving book talks and dreaming big to discuss his secrets of success. It was an honor and a privilege to meet such a humble writer like himself who has become one of the most famous writer/bloggers in the world!


When did you first begin these entries on WordPress?I began January 18, 2008…I remember it quite vividly, at the time I thought it would be a stupid blog that would just make my friends laugh but looking back, I see it as an important day.

How long did it take after that for agents to contact you?
I started getting approached by several agents in the first three weeks…

That was fast!
…and it took about three months after that before I chose my first agent.

What made you chose him/her?I asked a lot of people. All the agents were reputable but I really liked this agent that I chose.

What’s your advice to writers who want to become published?My advice is not to try…

That’s right…I did read that somewhere actually.…that’s the snarky way to say it…but realistically my main goal was for my three friends. It’s its own reward because I love what I do...there’s an honesty to it that I think people really see.

Are you open about discussing the advance you got for your book or is it a secret?It’s not something I discuss and I continue to follow that rule… Random House has been very good to me.

Has it been translated into other languages?
It’s doing really well in Australia... it’s also been translated into Dutch and Japanese.

I’m so glad it’s getting world-wide recognition. Oh, I also read somewhere that people initially thought you were black?Yes (laughing) and they were disappointed that I wasn’t. Many people thought I was an Ivy-League black guy…people would have thought it was more controversial and it would have been more instigated. It was fun for a while in the beginning. Some people also thought I was Asian.

How many hits did your site get before an agent approached you?It hit the one million mark.

Oh, I didn’t know that! I’m kind of jealous of you. There. I’m admitting it. Do you think that made a difference in getting so many agents?
It makes it easier for them to market…it has proven itself and it’s not as much of a risk.

Are you still adding new material?

It’s slowing down because I’m definitely feeling a bit burned out on it. The book itself has eighty or so entries something like that and on the web another forty…there was a lot of new material for the book that has been kept exclusive to the book.

Do you recall what your very first entry was about?“Coffee” was the first one I wrote and then so many followed after that…when I get a good idea I just need to get it out and I need to write it as fast and as furiously as possible.

Do you have a favorite?
“Knowing What’s Best for Poor People” is my favorite…

Why?
It was the one where I was most viciously attacking how pretentious I am…

In what sense?
When you read it you’ll get what I’m getting at.

I have to reread that one now. What were you working at, at the time you first embarked on this life changing journey?I was a copywriter at an ad agency…

Dreaming of becoming a writer I assume?Yeah, since I realized I wasn’t going to be a rock star or a major league baseball player…I was a failed writer, a journalist and academic…I dropped out of a PH.D program…

That’s so encouraging…you were struggling a bit and then BOOM, this great book gets written…I read this book in an hour by the way, I couldn’t put it down!
There’s a lot of ways to get it as a writer…I got ridiculously lucky…but it’s not like I hadn’t been trying to be a writer my whole life…my job was in writing and I had done some journalism…but this is better though.

Where have you given book talks?Google, Brown University… I’ve done three book tours since it came out so it’s a long list…

I also read somewhere that you don’t own a car, is that some political message?I prefer bicycles…I’ve never had a car in my life.

Is there another book in the works?
No, I’m moving into TV writing next….

Really? What kind of genre?
I’m hoping to write for a comedy TV show next.

That makes sense. Your writing is hysterical.

Thanks.

What was the reaction from your friends? Were they surprised by the instant fame you received?I think people were surprised about how big it was…people who know me weren’t surprised about what it was…they know this is the kind of stuff that I write.

Have you ever gotten any hate mail?
Yeah, people have accused (it) as being racist. It’s misinterpreting…some people really mean well and some people are idiots…there’s no getting around that at all.

I also read that there have been many knock-offs of your original idea…I think that is just wrong!
Yeah, there’s so much… “Stuff Unemployed People Like,” Stuff Midwesterners Like,” “Stuff Gay People Like…”

That must have been upsetting for you after you thought of it and now so many people are using it and making a lot money from it!
No, not at all. Almost all of them have linked back to me. I think they do really good work. I think it’s cool people are doing it….I don’t have any problem whatsoever with it…they’re writing about stereotypes in a non-hateful and funny way….some of them aren’t that funny but they’re trying. The only thing I dislike is when it’s negative, that’s something I wish I could get rid of but you can’t really stop the Internet. But the idea of people taking the idea and going with it is a positive thing…the world is not about bottling up ideas…it’s an art, I think it’s fantastic… they’re just building off my idea, it’s not taking away from my site…

That’s very liberal you. Have you ever been influenced to write a certain entry by a fan?Someone added one earlier on about hardwood floors and I really liked that and wrote about it but most of these ideas I already had…

Is there a certain length you use in your entries?
No. I just wrote as I saw fit….just where the humor flows and how it fits…..

What are your current projects?
I just got back from the Sydney Writers Festival in Australia and the Bumper Shoot Festival in Seattle and they’ll be some college readings coming up in September.

Do you have many “writer friends?”I still have “writer friends” but now I have “successful writer friends” (laughing)....

Now that you’re a celebrity, do you have to wear sunglasses to get ice cream and that sort of thing?
Well, not exactly…but I have been recognized…three times in Australia, twice in the US and once in Toronto…and once in LA but I was mistaken for an actor on “Entourage” before I had the beard.

Now that you can do whatever you want…what are some things you’ve gotten the opportunity to do because of this highly acclaimed book?I got to be on the Conan O’ Brian show and that was a life long dream of mine that I thought would never happen…

What are some qualities you like about him?
He’s been a hero of mine since I was in high school…he’s very funny and sharp and I thought it was just a dream come true that I just wasn’t expecting…

Is there a writer who you are greatly influenced by?
David Sedaris…probably the funniest writer I ever read and everyone who works for the Onion…oh, he just writes these really funny essays.

I will check him out. Oh, I love the Onion! What about music...that a "White" question?Indie rock… Reggaeton,,,um…let’s see, it’s always dated…Apollo Ghosts, Dirty Projectors, Saint Vincent…

I don’t know any of them…they don’t seem dated.Yeah, that’s how I win.

You’ve written about this in your book too, “Music White People Like,” which is…It’s the “white ipod;” the Arcade Fire, the Pixies, The Beatles, A Tribe Called Quest…

And then there’s the other one, “Black Music White People Like?”That would be Blues, Old School Hip Hop, that sort of stuff....

So, if a fan or just a friend said, “Hey Christian, I’m writing (fill in the blank) and I want to be a success!” your advice to them would be?
The happiest you’ll be is if you consider (it) your own reward and you’ll be surprised about what will come of it…

What about life in general…what makes you happy in life?
Um…I don’t know, no idea…

But Christian! I thought you knew everything! (laughing)
I DO know everything! It’s all subjective. Find something you really like to do…it’s all very Eckart Tolle…I’m hoping when I do something it’ll work…BUT if it stops just like that I’m okay with it…I’ll be totally fine….everything I’ve dreamed of is happening for me. I’ve been on Conan O’Brien and I have this best selling book….I dream big but I don’t believe anything is owed to me, that is an important way to look at things.

Is there a country where your book has been more successful then others?Australia was insane…I got recognized a lot…and the book readings were packed and…many people over there just really embraced it.

Well, Christian, I am so grateful for your time and words of wisdom…your book is very funny but also very well written, it has changed many lives, it has influenced others to write their own versions, and it’s got people talking which is always a positive thing. I wish your book continued success and I hope you write another book one day. Thank you.
You’re welcome.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Talking with Thomas C. Dunn: Writer and Director of The Perfect Witness starring Wes Bentley








Thomas C. Dunn is the director of the captivating movie A Perfect Witness (in Europe, it's titled The Ungodly) starring Wes Bentley (American Beauty). I was thrilled to speak with him about this amazing directorial debut film, his work as a screenwriter and his collaboration with Hollywood greats such as Beth Grant (Little Miss Sunshine) and Kenny Johnson (The Sheild). He also spoke to me about his sucess as a playwright and his ongoing collaboration with writer Mark Borkowski (Cost of a Soul). The two co-wrote the screenplay and continue to write even though Thomas resides in LA and Mark in NYC. I cannot wait to see what they will produce next. A Perfect Witness was one of the best psychology thrillers I have seen to date and I was quite amazed at how the two completed the film in such short time for the film festivals.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer/director?
I’ve been writing since I was really young, mostly short stories--hopefully not my best work, then I started writing poems in high school…short plays, full length plays…now I’ll go back and forth from plays to screenplays. As far as directing, my friend Mark Borkowski showed me this play he was writing and he was stuck on the idea and I told him, “The reason you can’t move forward is because it’s not a play, it’s a screenplay.” We began to collaborate and finished it together…we just kept working back and forth until it made sense to both of us and we had in mind that he would play the lead role of the serial killer and I would direct. It was his first major role in a feature film and my first time as a director. That became ‘The Perfect Witness.’ For the international release, it’s called ‘The Ungodly.’
Wow!
We wouldn’t do the film any other way even when it was suggested…It’s sort of the norm, just from a financial point of view, if people see that Mark didn’t have a big name as an actor or I haven’t directed several other films, there’s always a risk. We had offers to move in a ‘bigger’ actor, a more experienced director…but for Mark’s role as the serial killer, we wanted someone you couldn’t recognize from ten other films. I thought it was perfect for him because you simply don’t know what to expect…Mark’s unpredictable as an artist and a person so he just really fits the role.

You filmed in Philly…that was his choice, right?
Well, we wrote mostly in LA and NY. The film was supposed to take place in Philly but it was cheaper to do it in LA…After we scouted Philly though, I said, “Let’s just find a way to do it in here…It’s got the sort of edgy, inner-city grit and realism we want.” And we found a way to make it happen.

Mark said it only took twenty four days to shoot...
He exaggerated. It took twenty-two or twenty-one, depending how you count—on one of our days, the camera had a problem and we only shot two hours. But I had a brilliant cinematographer, Paco Femenia. He kept the crew going, the actors were locked in, everything was storyboarded and we always made sure we made our days. Sometimes you’re forced to take short cuts, but there were a few scenes, like the elevator scene…when I was told by my first AD we weren’t going to have time to do it, and I just found a way to make sure we still got it in…you know that scene where the nurse is standing in the middle of Wes and Mark and she can sense this crazy energy between the two of them?

Yeah, and I’m so glad you made that decision to keep it, it was quite well done. The bloody scenes were also intense, what was that like behind the camera?
We had a special effects person, Steve Tolin, to help design all of that but in the end it’s interesting…if you look at the scene where the waitress was terrorized…someone once said to me that was a hard scene to watch because it was so bloody but we purposely didn’t show any blood in that scene! The audience pictures a lot more of what’s going on then you actually see. It’s the emotional toll on the victim that was important to us, not showing blood.

Aside from Wes Bentley, were there any other mainstream actors in The Perfect Witness?
Yes, Beth Grant, who plays Mark’s Mom, has been in everything. She’s just an amazing actress. She’s been in Little Miss Sunshine, No Country for Old Men, Rain Man, The Rookie, Matchstick Men…she’s had a career that’s spanned decades. There’s also a small scene where a cop stops Wes and Mark from fighting…

Yeah, I remember him and he actually trusts Mark’s story that Wes’ character is freaking out because he’s not on his meds…
…he’s one of my best friends, Kenny Johnson. He was on The Shield for years and he’s now on Saving Grace with Holly Hunter. And then Joanne Baron, who plays the sister, has done a ton of work and was really a pleasure to work with, so these actors may not all be household names but they’re really experienced, professional and enthusiastic. Even the waitress, Marina Gatell…she’s a well-established Spanish actress, just not as well known over here.

It did really well in Europe, right?
Yeah. You know, our original title for The Perfect Witness was The Ungodly, but it had to be changed in the US. We were told any title that can be viewed as potentially negative toward God, distributors won’t pick up, because there’s this nebulous fear of some religious backlash. It’s absurd. We’re catering film titles to the US bible belt which probably wouldn’t watch it anyway. But in Europe and everywhere else, it’s being released as it should be, as The Ungodly. The UK release, for example, is in September, 09.

Were there many challenges to making an independent film?
Yes, time, money, resources. But the lack of some of these also forces you to be even more creative and that can actually improve the end result. So there’s no excuses. I made the film I wanted to make. It can be a double standard when it’s finished though because we all complain about Hollywood releasing big budget films with tons of effects and very little story then when certain films are made independently, we complain because they don’t have those same effects. So I think it’s important that we balance going to see blockbusters with also seeing independent films. Even supporting local musicians at shows and buying their CD’s there, it really make a big difference to truly independent artists and helps shape the landscape of what films and music are made in the future.

How did you guys get the money to do the film?
A lot of the money came from Spanish funds and some of it was private equity, just individual investors.

How did you get the money from Spain?
A Spanish company had read one of my other scripts and approached me about funding it. Mark and I had just completed writing The Perfect Witness though and when I told the Spanish company about this other screenplay, they asked to read it too. They called afterwards and said, ‘we love it. Let’s do this first…’ We were really the first US/Spanish co-production and we needed to hire some Spanish actors and crew. It was a great asset to the film though because we got access to European talent that we might not have had. I went to Spain for some casting, parts of post-production…I also worked with the composer in a little village on a mountain outside of Barcelona. As a result, I think the film has a European feel blended with Americana and I really like that about it.

And you wrote a lot of plays?
A play I wrote, The Thread Men, was just published by Samuel French as one of the best short plays of 2008…

What’s The Thread Men about?
These two people get locked in an elevator together: one is a psychiatrist and the other one acts increasingly crazy. The elevator just becomes this pressure cooker. And the audience starts to realize that these two characters share some secrets from their past…It becomes increasingly tense and dangerous as the psychological chess match between the two of them plays out.

Hmmm, I like the sound of that…sounds like you were an English major?
Yes…I was around film all the time but didn’t take film courses. I graduated as an English major from UCLA.

Do you feel this (English) degree helps you?
Not particularly. I mean, it exposed me to new writers and novels and gave me an opportunity to write. At the same time, I think I was already on this path of discovery and was learning before university and am still learning long after…

When did you meet Mark (co-writer and actor of The Perfect Witness) anyway?
I met Mark when I was in college. We would be working on stuff together back then and it would get to 3 in the morning. I’d say, ‘I have to leave to finish a paper that’s due in the morning.’ And he would say, “what, a new play?” I would say, ‘Mark, a paper. I’m in college, remember?’ He always forgot I was still a student (laughing). We would be collaborating on this intense play and then I would go home and have to write a Chaucer paper.

Wow, LA seems so cool.
Mark and I have a crazy story of how we really first got together…we did a play, Everyman. It’s a 15th century play written in verse. It alternates between two character dialogues and monologues. Mark was playing the character ‘Knowledge’ and I had this small, five line part. The lead guy suddenly quit though and the director…he was crazy…said, “Anyone else want to do the lead?” And I said, “I will.” It was that simple. The director would just leave the theater and everything was up to the actors to do themselves.

Sounds awful…
The play opens with the main character, ‘Everyman,’ dying and having to make an accounting of how he lived his life to God. Even though it’s this Christian-morality play, Mark convinced me to mime overdosing from heroin in the opening scene. Mark was modernizing it. The director just shrugged. So one night, during a rehearsal, the theater fills up with 50 women from some Jewish women’s group that had pre-paid to see a different show. The director rushes backstage in a panic and tells us we have to put our play up, even though it’s a Christian play. Half the cast had already gone home for the night but Mark just wrote their names on my hand and told me to go on and do it. I had to improvise almost the whole thing, looking down at my hand and skipping around actors who weren’t there, ad-libbing in verse…I’m on stage, sweating and anxious as hell, doing my best, and I can hear Mark laughing hysterically behind the curtains…and that was our first time working together.

You’re writing screenplays now?
I just finished a new script I will work to direct, called The Assassin Club…and currently, I’m working on a screenplay that will be filmed by a Greek director, Vangelis Liberopoulos…I just got back from a month in Athens doing research and now I’m writing it…It deals with the Greek riots that lasted about a month last December after a 15 year-old boy was shot by a policeman.

Anything that stood out to you when you were there in Athens?
When you get behind some of the things that happened, it’s really amazing. Take for example, the cops who worked 20-22 hours a day during the riots. Many of them had second and third jobs because they only make about $15,000 US a year. Because of the hours they worked during the riots, they had to quit these extra jobs so they’re really struggling for money. The government steps in though and gives them a bonus of 500 euros for all their hard work. Three months after the riots end though, the government says, ‘yeah, you know that bonus? It was more like a loan that we’re now deducting back out of your pay checks.’

That’s not right!
I spent the whole month in Athens hearing some really interesting things. As a writer, it’s important to be a good listener. If you mean what you say and do what say, you gain people’s trust and they can really open up to you. I think if you stop any one person in the street and sit down and hear about their life, they will become fascinating…

What are the European films festivals like?

They’re all so different. For example, in Brussels, there were 500 people screaming at me in a French to sing when I got on stage to introduce my film. It’s their fun sort of way of heckling the director. I just started ad-libbing the Willy Wonka ‘Oompa Lompa song’ with my own lyrics. It ended with something like ‘Oompa Loompa doompity da, here-is-my-film-enjoy-Voila!’ They just went nuts!

Are there any celebrities you’d like to meet…I always ask this cheesy question.
I don’t have a strong desire to meet this or that specific person. I’ve met a lot of celebrities and I mean, I absolutely appreciate their talent but I don’t really know them as people…Maybe there’s ones I’d like to work with but not just to meet…When I see independent artists creating music, writing scripts, etc., not really knowing if anyone will ever hear or see the end result of their efforts, that’s actually inspiring to me. I can appreciate them just as much for their hard work, belief and talent…

What was Wes Bentley like? I want to meet him!
He’s a great guy. He worked extremely hard on this film. Usually actors get some breaks, to relax in their trailers every now and then but we really worked him non-stop. He did a great job…he was in every scene!

How did you support yourself when you were still just an up and coming writer/director?
I did all kinds of jobs but just continued to write as I worked. Anything, everything. I mean I was a stockbroker in New York for two years a long time ago...

What a contrast!
Yeah, and I convinced them that I couldn’t work on Fridays so I would work four days, wrote three. I saved money and after two years, took off and traveled for 10 months through Asia, just writing, learning, jumping trains, crossing borders…I think experiencing other cultures is a huge asset for a creative person.

How do your parents feel about you having such a creative lifestyle?
They’ve never said throughout my entire life, ‘do this or do that’. They’re always there for me, unconditionally. They’ve allowed me to make my own choices and supported those I made. Sometimes parents try to steer their children at the expense of ruining their relationship with them. Just love your kids, support them and let them follow their passion…

That’s very true, if everyone did what made them happy, people could get a lot more done. Thank you so much for meeting with me to discuss your work. It’s fascinating, I love it.
Thank you and you’re welcome.

Chillin with Chris Campion: Writer, Playwright, and Singer of Band








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjkHZWQIfeo

WNEW: What's remarkable about this book is that it reads almost like a screenplay, with the author's monologue and the characters' dialogue so vividly intertwined it feels more like you're watching it happen around you, not reading it on the page. Campion has no doubt told and re-told these stories from many a barstool, perfecting the sequence of events but retaining that off-the-cuff delivery that makes them feel so real. Nowhere is this more genuine and hilarious than during the early scenes in the book that deal with his childhood in Huntington. From stories of sneaking out to watch his brothers play rock band in the garage, to the very humbling tale of moving home after dropping out of college, Chris's remembrances reveal the loving family that plays witness to his undoing. Phillster: Speaking with Chris Campion was a real roller coater ride. He is the author of the recent book, Escape from Bellevue and the lead member of the popular indie rock band, Knock Out Drops. We spoke about his humble beginnings, some of his adventures and his influences both musically and literary.
Tell me a bit about your temporary leave from your band.
We were an indie rock band putting out records for years and my life spiraled down a rabbit hole which is the major part of the book so coming back from that…you know I was a drug addict and an alcoholic, the title is when I was in Bellevue from 1998-2000 and our band had a bad history in the music business (during that time)…in the chapter, “Always a Bridesmaid” I illustrate this how we were always on the precipice of something big…we were always the opening for bands like the Violent Femms and Soul Asylum…but couldn’t go beyond that for whatever reason.

How did you go about getting reacquainted with them?
In 2000, I got sober and the band had been derailed by all of this so we got back together and put back together an album in 2003-2004. Around that time I was always in the habit of telling stories during the shows to make it part of the wider experience. We had this record that we were going to do when I came back from one of our tours and I had this idea to do like a rock-in-roll theater show…

That’s taking music in a different direction…
…and we ended up slapping it up, doing it in a hundred seat theater and it just took off beyond our expectations and we ended up extending it to three shows and along the way this thing happened on the radio, we picked up an agent, I wrote a book proposal, and the story (Escape from Bellevue) got picked up by Penguin.

That’s great publicity for your band…
Yeah, we graduated to a 300 seat theater, the Village Theater, when that show wrapped I wrote the book I was commissioned to do and the book came out March 19, 2009.

How inspiring, it’s all so adventurous.
Now it’s about doing performances around the passages; sometimes with the band, other times by myself…next Sunday I’ll be in Long Beach (the Cabana) and next Thursday we’ll be promoting in Riverdale doing a reading, then there’s a Boston Show at the Paradise Rock Club (one of the most famous venues up there, like Irving Plaza), after that at the Steven Talk House in the East Hampton area, I’ve been doing a ton of interviews with The New York Times, Newsday…

You’re keeping busy. Does your band get more groupies the bigger you guys get?

(laughing) The term is just like…it paints an image of giggling young women and I wouldn’t say the people that followed us around were groupies but you know with any band…our followers were primarily outside of New York and then when we moved here we built it up…we played with bigger bands, so the groupies were usually theirs (laughing). We have a lot of fans; you know I don’t know about too many groupies.

You escaped from Bellevue, right? So tell me about that…
Well, it is the climax of the story so I can’t tell you too much about that…there’s a lot of humor in the book, which is the Irish way…

Oh, you’re Irish?
Well, I’m Irish American…I don’t consider myself like Steve McQueen, I’m more like Benny Hill, you’re going to have to read the book to get that answer.

So if I’m not mistaken you got an advance to write this?
Oh, yea, it was really cool, we did that huge show that I mentioned and I wasn’t sure how we were going to do and then you know, the book…the idea of doing that was presented to me and then after I did the deal, there’s a kind of euphoria…at first you’re kind of jumping and then there’s this kind of terror…and then you start freaking.

That must have been serious pressure, you got paid well for a book you hadn’t even written yet…how did you manage it?
You know I had this 17 chapter outline. And I had this really great editor; it was great to have a good editor who can kind of say, “Okay, cut the fat off this…” I think it’s good to always stay within your outline. It definitely was kind of a terrifying thing, there’s this fear that nothing’s going to come out.

I bet…
I was playing gigs in New York at the time…I actually had to go away and get some work done. I decided to stay at my friend’s house in New Hampshire. It was winter time, very desolate, no internet and I just buckled down and then I came out to the city and I kicked out about 6 or 7 chapters…

That’s a huge accomplishment.
It’s obviously an amazing day when you get a book deal, just like it would be to get a record deal or art deal…with a book, it’s good to get someone to pay you and trust you but it’s also one of those ‘be careful what you wish for scenarios.’

Is your book completely autobiographical?

Yeah, although there is a note to the reader that because I was incredibly high at times…it’s not a social studies book, don’t hold me to any timeline, you know?

(Laughing) That was nice of you to give them a heads up…who are your literary influences?
My influences would be…Hunter Thompson would be one…Frederick Exley.

I’m not familiar with him.
He wrote A Fan’s Notes, a sort of memoir with a wink that he wrote in the 1960s and dialing it back…John Irving, John Steinbeck…

Those are great writers…
Obviously, I’m sort of doing monologues for people in the book, that’s the narrative tone and that was my objective and that’s what I feel like I’ve accomplished.

Are there any movie offers yet?
Well, that’s going on right now…we had an offer to convert it into an HBO series. The book only came out two months ago. In the fall, we might do a college theater show to promote the book. It comes out in paperback next year. It’s doing well in the Tri-State area where I’m from and we’ll be doing the West Coast swing soon.

Can you compare it to promoting albums?
It’s definitely different than promoting my music especially because I am a first time author.

I just love how you’re affiliated with my favorite radio station in the world, 90.7. I love how your already successful band got a big reception on that show.
I love all of what they play on that station. You know you can hear Modest Mouse or The Replacements…I just love that they don’t have to adhere to…I hate commercial cock rock. My taste is coming from an indie background…I feel like it’s the best radio station in town…

I do too….
….and discovering people and playing new stuff…it reminds me of when I was a kid growing up in Long Island…we had WLIR, and at the time they would play XPC and early U2, they played them two years before Bloody Sunday…they played them in 1980, it was an alternative to classic rock, you know elsewhere they played “Born to Be Wild” forty times a day. I mean I did grew up with this…you know Stones, Beatles but 90.7 keeps it current and they also do county, like The Jay Hawks and Steve Earl and to get on there for me at the time…I mean I didn’t even that Julian Welby was there…at my show!

It seems like she really played a big part.
She came down with her husband and they both loved it and then they asked us to come in and it was that fast. We got played during prime time, it was all lickedly-split…people were getting ready in the apartments to go to work and that’s when my soon-to-be agent heard it …

You were on this positive flow.

I did not plan for it and say, “You know if this succeeds, I’ll write a book…” it just ended up being…ever since we started doing that show in 2005, everything’s been new, everything is a dream, you know life gets more and more interesting it seems.

Do you feel curtailing your wild lifestyle had anything to do with it?
I don’t think anything could have been possible without it (sobriety), you know the “getting it” part is all in the book…circumstantially I would never have been able to write a book. But there are a lot of drunk-great writers like the two I mentioned earlier but I don’t think I have that kind of discipline. You know I was always able to write songs and play but I’m an alcoholic so eventually I couldn’t function. When I drink or drug that’s it for me.

What is the odyssey that is part of the book’s title?
You know the realization that I had this story of the band, it is kind of an odyssey in a sense, starting with me as a kid….the singer of Deep Purple lived next door to me so I always had my sights set on becoming a rock star but then there’s always been a quest for faith at the same time. I had a falling out with it (faith) when I was eighteen years old in college. But at the same time I never stopped trying to foster a relationship with god and I really missed the companionship of it and so you know that’s a big part of it too. As I descend further and further into alcoholism, it’s all very colorful, having all these crazy adventures. I’m really just trying to grapple with faith so the story is really how I try to get that…so there were many of these sort of moments…I would say quite a few along the way that were turning points; things like interventions. There was a time that I was ostracized by my family and I’m in a big Irish family…all my extended family was there.

What were some negative pressures holding you back?

I got to a point where I bought into the mythology of writers, look at those I’ve mentioned and then there was also people like Dean Martin or Jim Morrison and I bought into that stuff and didn’t want to get sober. I just thought it was…I was pigheaded about recovery at first…I was very much against that…I think for me when I was in rehab and this was like my second rehab…this guy who was a former drug lord…and we were in this detox together and as we’re both unpacking our gear I asked him where he was from. He took off his shirt and showed me gun shot wounds and said, “That’s where I’m from mother ******” and then he looked at me and I showed him my thirteen stitches from when I fell off my bike…

That’s hysterical.
…and he ended up being one of my best friends in there and I realized that this guy who came from a completely different background…at that moment all the armor came off. I would cite that as probably one of the biggest moments of my life and that was something that put me on a bright and shiny path, not to sound too corny.

You don’t…I wish you and your band and of course, your book continued success. I love the concept of your book and happy to see your positive choices in life have taken you to incredible places…it really affirms the importance of living life to its fullest.
Thank you.