20 Questions with Henry Baum

 
Henry Baum, author of The American Book of the Dead, and composer of its accompanying soundtrack, The American Songbook of the Dead, recently got together with Cape for a virtual game of ‘20 Questions’, and his candid answers are a testament to the kind of guy he is.

So no surprise that here comes the obligatory NSFW warning that adult language lies up ahead. Ready your minimize-cursor-click reflexes and let’s jump in.

 
Q1: What five words best describe you as a person?

Genius, Godlike, Casanova, Humble, Liar.

Q2: What are five words that describe you as an author?

Mindfucking

Q3: You are a songwriter, what do you find easier, writing songs or books?

I find writing music and melody easier than everything, but I find writing lyrics like pulling teeth. Maybe because I’m used to spreading out in a novel, and I never feel like I can fully express what I want to in such a small space. So I’m not really a born lyricist, and then get down on myself because I think: c’mon you’re a writer, this should be easy.

Q4: The American Book of the Dead seems like an obscure autobiography is that a fair statement?

Definitely. The book arose out of witnessing 9/11 in downtown New York. Many apocalyptic dreams transpired for years afterwards. Also a bad marriage that ended in divorce, so a part of my life was coming to an end. And the premise of the book is that a writer starts dreaming about people who turn out to be real. It sounds made up but: this happened. I had a dream like a dream in the book. I didn’t investigate if the person in the dream was real (because I couldn’t remember a name), but it was like the dream was telling me: write about this.

Q5: When did you write the songs for The American Songbook of the Dead? Were they all written after you finished the book or did you write some of them concurrently with the book?

Thing is I consider myself a writer first/songwriter second, but I’ve been playing guitar since I was 9 and drums since I was 12. Through high school and my 20’s I was in many bands, touring, etc. But I was always a drummer or bassist – writing songs on the side. So some of the songs I’m now recording go back to the nineties, which were never tried out with a band. Like I said above – I don’t like writing lyrics, so I like the songs but a lot of them went unfinished. Having the theme of TABOTD for the songs is helping me get some lyrics down and finish some of these older songs.

Q6: At the end of The American Book of the Dead you seemed to transform LA into an darker version of New York. Were you trying to achieve that kind of contrast?

I was born in NYC, raised in L.A., then spent 10 years of my adult life in New York again. I fairly hated L.A. growing up, being bathed in Hollywood culture, and then writing two novels based on that experience. But my view of New York is sort of the reverse: I saw New York becoming more like L.A., more commercialized, more boring. So it’s like some of the life was being drained out of the country. And L.A. to me represents the city with some of the country’s worst obsessions, which are having an impact everywhere.

Q7: Many reviewers complain about you getting political in The American Book of the Dead, how would you respond to them?

The people who complain about the politics are probably those who don’t agree with the politics. People who can look at Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry and not be terrified. So I don’t really care if they’re alienated. The book is manifestly political, being inspired by Bush’s presidency. It was conceived before I’d ever heard of Sarah Palin, and since then the far right has become more lunatic. If you’re offended by that, maybe that’s the problem: not the book.

Q8: As a songwriter who is your favorite band?

The Beatles. Which is a boring answer. But the thing that had the biggest influence on me as a songwriter was Kurt Cobain’s suicide. I’m more or less from his generation, and came out of my own small version of the same scene – 80’s punk rock and indie rock. His suicide made me took a hard look at just why his songwriting was meaningful to me, – learning the songs, picking them apart. That and learning every song from “Rubber Soul.”

Q9: How hard is it to write a soundtrack for a book?

Hard because I’m hard on myself. I’d like it to be more like The Who’s “Tommy” with different songs representing different characters. But that’s not totally what I’ve been doing so far. Some of the songs are about the place I was when I was working on the book – so the emotion of dealing with my world coming apart, as much as singing about plot elements. I think I might feel kind of silly singing a song from the perspective of the demented president, so the songs are a reflection as much of me the writer as me the character.

Q10: If you were musically disinclined like me, who would you commission to write the soundtrack for The American Book of the Dead?

Jim O’Rourke. He’s also my God – but discovered more recently. He’s not so well known himself, but has produced Wilco and others. His album “Eureka” has changed how I approach recording entirely. So J.O. and the Flaming Lips.

Q11: You are known for your efforts in self-publishing, how do you feel about groups like Podiobooks and their efforts to bypass traditional publishing methods.

I haven’t dealt with audiobooks because I still have to record the entire soundtrack and complete two more novels. So, years away. But I love self-publishing. I’ve put out books on Soft Skull Press, Another Sky, and other places, but I’ve self-published since 2006 – way before the Kindle revolution, when if you sold something it had to be in print. Now it’s entirely the opposite, and self-publishing’s no longer something you need to defend. Money talks, I guess. So long as people make money self-publishing, it will have respect. Which is a shitty position for people to have, but I’ll take it. I run Self-Publishing Review as well, so this revolution means a lot to me. It allows for complete freedom of expression, for everybody.

Q12: What is your least favorite literary genre? Why?

Romance. Because I hate people.

Q13: In The American Book of the Dead, you don’t exactly ease the reader into the story; I know this has cost you some readers, if you were forced to change the beginning of the book how would you change it?

That’s intentional, and I realize I’m kind of dicking myself. I do the same thing in Part II as well – it just feels right, for some reason. It’s like I’m saying, if you can’t get into the headspace of this first chapter, maybe this books isn’t for you. It’s confusing for a reason. But also: it will get less confusing. This is a three book series, so the first chapter acts as an introduction to the entire series, not just the first novel.

Honestly, I wouldn’t change it. An agent or editor might have told me to start with some action – because that’s what works for other books. But I don’t want to do what’s worked for other books, I want to roll with my own instinct. And anyway, some people have really liked the introduction too, so I may be alienating those people who wouldn’t like the rest of it.

Q14: Tell us a little about the cover art for The American Book of the Dead.

It comes from Jacques Vallee’s book ‘Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact’. He coined the term Close Encounters of the Third Kind – and he’s portrayed in the movie by Francois Truffaut. It’s his graph for the different types of alien contact. In the context of the first novel, it doesn’t make complete sense, because TABOTD Part I isn’t really a UFO novel, it just touches on it. But Part II is going to be about first contact and how that messes with people. UFOs are a major obsession of mine and the arc’s just starting in Part I.

Q15: Of all of the books you have written, which are you most proud of and why?

The American Book of the Dead Part III – which I haven’t even started. I think that’s where I’m going to be the most ambitious. In short – it’s about a scenario where everyone mutates overnight and has the power of ESP, telekinesis, remote viewing, etc. I’ll have to totally rework how society operates. For instance, what’s a PIN number if people can read your mind? It’s going to take a lot of working out. And plus, when I’m done with that, I’ll have the whole trilogy completed.

Q16: Would you rather be remembered as a songwriter or an author?

An author. It’s more satisfying to me – I purge more from my psyche. And it’s more solitary – both to read and to write, which is more a reflection of my life. I’m a solitary person, whereas music is more of a collective experience. Plus, it takes 2 minutes to listen to a song compared to days reading a book. You can move a person’s body and soul with music, but if you speak to a reader you really get into their heads and set up house.

Q17: These days do you consider yourself more New York or LA?

New York, always. But I haven’t been back there since 9/11. I left on 9/15.

Q18: If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?

A blue whale. Or whale of any kind. I have a feeling they’ve got a library’s worth of philosophy in their brains.

Q19: Who would you want to direct the on-screen adaptation of The American Book of the Dead?

Martin Scorsese, or David Fincher, or Paul Thomas Anderson.

Q20: What is the geekiest thing about you?

I love Star Trek? I’m a Next Generation person – and it’s blasphemy but I find Data more interesting than Spock. Also like Voyager, though everyone rags on it for some reason. Didn’t like Deep Space 9 because there’s too much Ferengi. And Enterprise: No, because of Vulcan duckface.

Also I listen to a lot of classical music. Like today, it’s raining, so I’m listening to some Vivaldi concertos I always listen to when it rains. But I don’t think that makes me a geek so much as a pansy.
 

Many thanks to Henry for the awesome interview!