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Welcome again fellow Vagabonds. I have here with me today author and artist, Kent Evans. He is on tour for his new book A Crash Course on the Anatomy of Robots, his new Evans will talk about his new book, his love of music and more. There will also be a giveaway to one lucky winner. That lucky winner gets a Kindle copy of A Crash Course on the Anatomy of Robots and the album that accompanies the book. So let's get this started.
OBVB: Welcome to Offbeat Vagabond! To start
things off, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
KE: I’m
a young Asian punk poet rock star wannabe living abroad and caging my
demons in paper cages to be unleashed on the brain-dead masses
(laughs).
Well that wasn’t at all douchey… Sorry, those answer the
question?
OBVB: Which love came first; music or
writing? And how long did you want to do both?
KE: Writing - by just a hair. I started
constructing poems when I was around 12 or so, and started playing
guitar and singing when I was 14. After that, it just seemed natural
to try and combine the two when I could. I would say I had started
experimenting with versions of poetry with music probably around the
time I turned 19 or so.
OBVB: What artist or artists influenced you
to start making music?
KE: When I was young Roger Waters, the
Misfits, Metallica, the Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails
had a huge musical influence on me. The first time I really got into
Bob Dylan and heard Lou Reed New York was when I
started to realize that I could find a way to incorporate my poetry
not just as lyrics but as two different art forms that can complement
one another. I sadly realize the irony in two of my younger heroes,
Lou Reed and Metallica, having just collaborated to create what
is perhaps the worst example of attempting this.
OBVB: What authors inspired you to write?
KE: I was a voracious reader at a very
young age. I had plowed through all of Dickens, Stephen King, and a
ton of classic Sci-Fi before I even got to high school. Once I got to
prep school (Fairfield), I went through the equivalent of a
Liberal Arts degree worth of the classics. All of this was great and
really gave me the background to write traditional fiction and
poetry, but it wasn’t really till University where I discovered
writers like Raymond Carver, Denis Johnson, and Hunter S. Thomson,
that I really realized that I didn’t want to write staid literary
exercises or stories about Satanic Alien Vampires for the rest of my
life. Even now I am still finding writers I hugely admire. David
Mitchell would be my current favorite. That guy can write his ass
off.
OBVB: If you could write any genre besides
your own, what would it be and why?
KE: Well, the fact is I have, and do write
in many genres. I started with a lot of sci-fi and horror when I was
in my teens, and in my twenties did everything from pop-culture
pieces to corporate and academic. I guess I wouldn’t mind going
back to writing something more fantasy laden, I was just so
determined not to get pigeonholed back then. Genre fiction doesn’t
give you much street cred. It pays the bills, but the literary
community basically tries to ostracize you; which is totally unfair.
Ray Bradbury was a great writer and a poet in any genre. They gave
McCartney a Pulitzer for straying into the apocalyptic field. I don’t
understand why they’re so rough on anyone that tries to do the
opposite.
OBVB: What was the most challenging thing
you had to face when getting publishing?
KE: Well, beyond the stock answer of
nightmare endless agent queries and the brutal process of editing, I
would just say time. I have a hard time letting go of a project till
it takes flight or sinks. Because of that, until a work is out there
or dead in the water, I find it very hard to move on to the next
project and this drives me nuts. Throw in edits and waiting ages for
a release date and by the time the book actually comes out you are
your own worst critic and biggest detractor of the book. I actually
read reviews and focus on the negatives nodding and cursing “YES,
why the hell didn’t I fix THAT?!”
OBVB: A Crash Course on the Anatomy of
Robots just released, can you tell us what it is about?
KE: The book is sort of
a love song to being an artist, travel, the death of my parents, and
disastrous relationships. The Crash
Course bit comes from how the novel is
arranged, which is thematically, rather than the more traditional
chronologically.
The robot
bit refers to a perceptual anomaly in robotics. The uncanny valley is
a statistically valley that occurs with certain humanoid objects.
Basically up to a certain point, non-human things are more and more
endearing the more human they appear (think the Smurfs, Yoda). Then
right around when they are practically human there’s this
mathematical nosedive where everyone just gets creeped out and
disgusted by these things cause they are so close that all you see if
how they’re not human (think that weird human Barbie chick). In the
book, this is used as a metaphor for social interaction and a sense
of loss in traumatized people – like Damien.
OBVB: What gave you the idea to tell
Damien's story?
KE: Well, as I say in
the book I am not Damien, but I suppose Damien is me. By that I mean
he’s definitely got more than a little bit of me in there, but he’s
more self-absorbed and aggressive – hard to believe I know. It’s
fiction, but more than a few events of my own life have made it into
the novel, though it would be a mistake to think that you’re
reading a novel about me. It’s more like more the novel was
inspired by certain events in my life.
You
could say my mother’s death in 2003 from cancer right before Malas
Ondas came out, my fucked up
relationships following it, and fleeing to Southeast Asia in 2006
would be the prime motivators. Damien’s struggle in the book was
part of my way of piecing together what was happening to me. I came
back from Asia sane again (the same can’t quite be said for
Damien), and started compiling all my writing and notes from the
time. Jillian Medoff, a fantastic writer and former professor of mine
at NYU, helped me get through the initial attempts at forming the
novel. Then I spent a good deal of time with my editor Carolyn
Fireside battling away at drafts till we finally had something I
think is pretty unique.
OBVB: You have a soundtrack that goes with
the book, can you tell us what is on the album? What kind of music
can we expect?
KE: I
started writing the music with my experimental drum and bass
progressive funk metal collective We’re
Not Vampires. Me, Moises Ruiz and
Benjamin Santana from Quantum,
messed around with some riffs I wrote, and eventually started
throwing a lot of spoken word into our shows. When we started talking
about Robots
coming out later this year I was already in the studio working on a
soundtrack for Bermudan director Antoine Hunt. I had recruited Ramon
Hernandez from Barro Negro
and Mike Severens (Guanajuato Symphony
and Tom Petty,
among others) to bring in drums, bass and cello respectively. Moi
provided some additional production, as did my best bro and longtime
collaborator Kienyo (DJ Sujihno from Nossa).
Once
we started playing it just fell into place and seemed like a perfect
fit for the Kindle version to best utilize both the technology and
showcase myself as a multi-platform artist. When you buy certain
versions of the novel electronically it gives you the option to hear
those pieces narrated/performed with musical accompaniment. More
traditionally if you buy a physical copy you can either download the
album from all major distributors, or order a physical CD from
Amazon. For a novel with Robots in the title it only seemed natural
to embrace the benefits that come with new technology.
OBVB: You also have another book out, Malas
Ondas: Lime, Sand, Sex, and Salsa in the Land of Conquistadors,
what is it about? Is it a lot like Crash Course?
KE: Malas Ondas was about recovering
from a relationship whilst discovering and self-destructing across
Mexico. It’s similar in the sense that it is somewhat
Autobiographical (much more than Crash Course in fact), and
the story is told using multiple techniques (narrative poetry, email
updates, and journal entries). Malas Ondas however is written
as a chronological travel memoir relying heavily on narrative verse
and covering roughly 4 months of time in one country. Crash
Course, on the other hand, is structurally experimental and
written in everything from 3rd person fiction to direct
conversations with the reader and jumps back in forth in time over
decades and several continents. I would say Malas is a good
quick read on the plane or the beach, though hopefully not as
insubstantial as the stuff you would usually bring on such trips. I
would like to think Crash Course is something you might spend
a bit more time mulling over, something more reactionary.
OBVB: We have seen plenty of confessional
fiction books become a movie, can you see your book in that same
category sometime in the future?
KE: Ha, well I suppose that I could in the
right hands. I’m actually a huge film buff, and would love to be
involved in something to that end. My fear of course is the fear of
many writers, in how ones words are translated to the screen without
employing some silly narration device, or simply losing the heart of
the novel. I can already see myself getting all control freaky and
wanted to act in, score, and direct the thing.
OBVB: Last but not least, do you have any of
other projects in the works that we should be keeping our eyes open
for?
KE: Well, the Original
Soundtrack is out and available everywhere and we’re really
proud of it. Not only along with the book, but on its own, I really
think it came out pretty dope. Also, I’m touring continuously for
the next two months throughout the Northeast, South, Texas, and West
Coast so I would say come catch me at a signing. I’m
going to be playing with music at a good deal of my readings for the
tour starting September 18th
in New York. I’ve got some great musicians like Carl Restivo (Tom
Morello’s Freedom Fighter Orchestra, Rhianna),
Drew Trudeau and Anthony Valenzisi (Lions
of Judah, Sicboy), Laura Wilson (Gypsy
Fiddler extraordinaire), along with some surprise guests who are
gonna help me recreate and re-interpret the album. It gonna be a
blast, be sure to catch us.
OBVB: Thank you for visiting Offbeat
Vagabond. Hope to have you here again.
KE: Thank you, it was my pleasure.
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Kent Evans Bio:
Kent Evans is the author of
Malas Ondas: Lime, Sand Sex and Salsa in the land of conquistadors, a
semi-autobiographical novel about self-destruction throughout Latin
America and finding that corniest of motivators – love. He was a fixture
on the spoken word and experimental art scene throughout the 90’s, and
the internationally acclaimed artist has performed at such venues as the
Madison Square Garden Theater, Acadamie Beaux Arts in Paris and
Nuvorican Poets Café in Greenwich Village.
Kent has appeared on
NPR for shows including Nuestra Palabra, the Front Row, and Living Arts
showcase. His creative non-fiction and opinion pieces have appeared in
numerous national pop-culture and literary zines and publications.
Having
also done technical and academic writing for various Fortune 500
companies, Kent is currently pursuing his artistic craft through music
and fiction. His performance of choice involves gathering
non-traditional musicians – DJ’s, classical players, Latin funk bands –
and performing poetry in a live Jazz/Trip-Hop format.
His forthcoming novel A Crash Course on the Anatomy of Robots releases September 17, 2012 from Pangea Books.
Half
Cantonese and half UK, Kent was born in New York City in 1975 and grew
up between New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. He graduated in
psychology and dramatic literature from New York University, and began
traveling extensively throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia,
and the Caribbean. He fully expects to answer that “but where are you
really from” question the rest of his life.
Follow Kent Evans Here:
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Check out my 4 star review here:
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Giveaway Time!!!
One lucky commenter will win a Kindle-version of A Crash Course on the Anatomy of Robots and A Crash Course on the Anatomy of Robots soundtrack. US only. Just fill out the Rafflecopter. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
*One winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter
*Contest ends September 21st
*Open to US only
*Prizes provided by publisher
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