Guy Mankowski's Blog - Posts Tagged "post-punk"
The Next Big Thing
I was honoured to be tagged by Ruth Dugdall, one of my favourite authors, for the 'Next Big Thing' blog-hop. Here are my answers to the questions asked-
What is the working title of your book?
How I Left The National Grid
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I have always been fascinated by unsolved disappearances. This book was first inspired by the disappearance of Richey Edwards, the androgynous and fiercely intelligent lyricist of the Manic Street Preachers who one day vanished into thin air. A fascination for individuals like him made me want to write a book in which someone tracks down a musician who has purposely retreated into the cracks of society. I have long had a passion for post-punk music and it struck me early on that undertaking this book for a Creative Writing PhD would give me the chance to explore this interest. It also gave me the opportunity though to explore the nature of the modern age and what hiding places, if any, it still affords us. As I have begun the book in the course of my research a passion for psycho-geography and an interest in performativity has also informed its development.
What genre does your book fall under?
There is still a bit of a question mark around this. At present the book would class as literary fiction about music (because the novel is about a man hunting down the reclusive singer of a post-punk band called The National Grid- who never existed). However, as the book is being undertaken as a PhD the quality and realization of its research component is key. So far the research has concerned how musicians impart personal meaning through the ways their songs are performed. I have also been looking into modern architecture to gain an understanding of how the modern age was constructed, and therefore how one can vanish into the ether it generates. I suspect these interests may make the book harder to classify in time.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Someone who does not come with any baggage. When I see Martin Freeman playing a hobbit it just makes me think ‘why is Tim from The Office hunting for a mystical ring? Shouldn’t he be at his desk?’ I would want to give someone a chance to make an impact on the public consciousness by playing the main role. That is why films such as ‘Control’ and ‘This Is England’ are such a success. They allow us to suspend disbelief.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A man tries to rectify his failed career by tracking down a reclusive and eccentric post-punk rock star, without realizing what he is getting himself in to.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I haven’t written the first draft. I am about two thirds of the way into it.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Ben Myers’ ‘Richard’ and Paul Auster’s ‘The Locked Room’ from ‘The New York Trilogy’. Any books which are about how essentially unknowable people are.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Firstly Richey Edwards but after that the writing of Simon Reynolds, who in ‘Rip It Up And Start Again’ showed me how many exciting and ambitious ideas were disseminated during the post-punk era. This led me to create a fictional band for the purposes of the book, who were allegedly active in the Factory Records music scene of late eighties Manchester. The main character however was very much influenced by Lee Mavers from The La’s, Mark E Smith from The Fall and Gary Numan, whose dystopian visions inform the novel. I was also influenced by authors who’ve invented artistic back catalogues for their characters in the course of their novels. People like Siri Hustvedt in ‘What I Loved’.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The book is not a simple quest novel. It will hopefully interest people with a passion for post-punk music, Factory Records era Manchester, psycho geography and modern architecture. That is if it ever gets finished.
With thanks to @RuthDugdall- who sent The Next Big Thing Questions to me.
What is the working title of your book?
How I Left The National Grid
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I have always been fascinated by unsolved disappearances. This book was first inspired by the disappearance of Richey Edwards, the androgynous and fiercely intelligent lyricist of the Manic Street Preachers who one day vanished into thin air. A fascination for individuals like him made me want to write a book in which someone tracks down a musician who has purposely retreated into the cracks of society. I have long had a passion for post-punk music and it struck me early on that undertaking this book for a Creative Writing PhD would give me the chance to explore this interest. It also gave me the opportunity though to explore the nature of the modern age and what hiding places, if any, it still affords us. As I have begun the book in the course of my research a passion for psycho-geography and an interest in performativity has also informed its development.
What genre does your book fall under?
There is still a bit of a question mark around this. At present the book would class as literary fiction about music (because the novel is about a man hunting down the reclusive singer of a post-punk band called The National Grid- who never existed). However, as the book is being undertaken as a PhD the quality and realization of its research component is key. So far the research has concerned how musicians impart personal meaning through the ways their songs are performed. I have also been looking into modern architecture to gain an understanding of how the modern age was constructed, and therefore how one can vanish into the ether it generates. I suspect these interests may make the book harder to classify in time.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Someone who does not come with any baggage. When I see Martin Freeman playing a hobbit it just makes me think ‘why is Tim from The Office hunting for a mystical ring? Shouldn’t he be at his desk?’ I would want to give someone a chance to make an impact on the public consciousness by playing the main role. That is why films such as ‘Control’ and ‘This Is England’ are such a success. They allow us to suspend disbelief.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A man tries to rectify his failed career by tracking down a reclusive and eccentric post-punk rock star, without realizing what he is getting himself in to.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I haven’t written the first draft. I am about two thirds of the way into it.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Ben Myers’ ‘Richard’ and Paul Auster’s ‘The Locked Room’ from ‘The New York Trilogy’. Any books which are about how essentially unknowable people are.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Firstly Richey Edwards but after that the writing of Simon Reynolds, who in ‘Rip It Up And Start Again’ showed me how many exciting and ambitious ideas were disseminated during the post-punk era. This led me to create a fictional band for the purposes of the book, who were allegedly active in the Factory Records music scene of late eighties Manchester. The main character however was very much influenced by Lee Mavers from The La’s, Mark E Smith from The Fall and Gary Numan, whose dystopian visions inform the novel. I was also influenced by authors who’ve invented artistic back catalogues for their characters in the course of their novels. People like Siri Hustvedt in ‘What I Loved’.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The book is not a simple quest novel. It will hopefully interest people with a passion for post-punk music, Factory Records era Manchester, psycho geography and modern architecture. That is if it ever gets finished.
With thanks to @RuthDugdall- who sent The Next Big Thing Questions to me.
Guy Mankowski on Writing How I Left The National Grid (in Novel Kicks magazine)
The writing process for How I Left The National was so distinct from that of my two previous novels, that it was almost like learning to play the keyboard after you’ve been playing guitar. This seems an apt, if somewhat pretentious description, given that this novel follows the story of an eighties post-punk musician, Robert Wardner. Wardner vanishes after a particularly controversial appearance on Top Of The Pops. During this performance he commits a shocking act which, during the more buttoned-up era of 80s Britain, causes enough of an impact that he never recovers.
My first novel, The Intimates, was mostly written over an intense eight-week period when I was 21. I lived and breathed the novel every single day almost in a hallucinogenic way. My second novel, Letters from Yelena, was written over a year and a half, and its writing coincided with a research trip to Russia in which a great deal of information about the world of Russian ballet was absorbed. This novel was set mainly in 80s Manchester, only a few hours away from me.
Somehow, it took over three years.
For my first two books ‘the voice’ of the protagonist was the starting point. But finding Wardner’s voice took a long time. At first his voice was rather rich, descriptive and even romantic. He described stealing away on trains, without a ticket, to spend nights in seedy underground clubs in Brighton. He partied the night away with other struggling musicians, painters, and drag acts.
But then I started to research what a post-punk singer would really be like. I listened compulsively to post-punk records, such as Magazine’s Real Life and Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. I took to social networking to learn more, and tweeted a question to Jehnny Beth, singer from the Mercury Music Prize shortlisted band Savages. I was surprised when she invited me to interview her. This led to further interviews, with contemporary artists like Gazelle Twin and LoneLady. I drank pints with them in empty pubs, and talked of how the urban environment had shaped the sound of their music. I learnt what a struggle it was to make music in an age of austerity. When you are competing with all those endless identikit X Factor contestants, with the weight of Simon Cowell (sometimes literally) upon them.
I spent a lot of time getting familiar with Manchester, dancing in its nightclubs and undertaking inner city walks. I wanted to get to know the setting that Wardner would have come from in intimate detail, so I could call upon it at will. I even created a fictional address for him, in a rather grim sink estate in Manchester. I wandered around there for long enough to be deemed suspicious.
I watched interviews with musicians such as Mark E. Smith, who I had been conscious of when conceiving Wardner. I realized that Wardner would have carried a ferocious, if cerebral, anger. He would not be as melancholy as he had been in early drafts and, like Mark E. Smith, he would live in the moment. He would be direct in his action, if opaque in his reasoning. Wardner was re-written to be more uncompromising. His voice began to emerge strongly: succinct, brittle, passionate.
Other characters were inspired by more mysterious means. I am loathe to give too much away, but characters were variously inspired by intriguing people in rock biographies, and by intriguing people I met in fleeting encounters. As I redrafted the novel my focus was on putting these characters in situations that allowed them to be portrayed at their most colourful. At this point the project came alive for me. I had at my disposal a cast of damaged, brilliant, eccentric and sometimes downright frightening characters. From there on, it was a pleasure to be in their company.
Getting the book published, though, was another story.
My first novel, The Intimates, was mostly written over an intense eight-week period when I was 21. I lived and breathed the novel every single day almost in a hallucinogenic way. My second novel, Letters from Yelena, was written over a year and a half, and its writing coincided with a research trip to Russia in which a great deal of information about the world of Russian ballet was absorbed. This novel was set mainly in 80s Manchester, only a few hours away from me.
Somehow, it took over three years.
For my first two books ‘the voice’ of the protagonist was the starting point. But finding Wardner’s voice took a long time. At first his voice was rather rich, descriptive and even romantic. He described stealing away on trains, without a ticket, to spend nights in seedy underground clubs in Brighton. He partied the night away with other struggling musicians, painters, and drag acts.
But then I started to research what a post-punk singer would really be like. I listened compulsively to post-punk records, such as Magazine’s Real Life and Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. I took to social networking to learn more, and tweeted a question to Jehnny Beth, singer from the Mercury Music Prize shortlisted band Savages. I was surprised when she invited me to interview her. This led to further interviews, with contemporary artists like Gazelle Twin and LoneLady. I drank pints with them in empty pubs, and talked of how the urban environment had shaped the sound of their music. I learnt what a struggle it was to make music in an age of austerity. When you are competing with all those endless identikit X Factor contestants, with the weight of Simon Cowell (sometimes literally) upon them.
I spent a lot of time getting familiar with Manchester, dancing in its nightclubs and undertaking inner city walks. I wanted to get to know the setting that Wardner would have come from in intimate detail, so I could call upon it at will. I even created a fictional address for him, in a rather grim sink estate in Manchester. I wandered around there for long enough to be deemed suspicious.
I watched interviews with musicians such as Mark E. Smith, who I had been conscious of when conceiving Wardner. I realized that Wardner would have carried a ferocious, if cerebral, anger. He would not be as melancholy as he had been in early drafts and, like Mark E. Smith, he would live in the moment. He would be direct in his action, if opaque in his reasoning. Wardner was re-written to be more uncompromising. His voice began to emerge strongly: succinct, brittle, passionate.
Other characters were inspired by more mysterious means. I am loathe to give too much away, but characters were variously inspired by intriguing people in rock biographies, and by intriguing people I met in fleeting encounters. As I redrafted the novel my focus was on putting these characters in situations that allowed them to be portrayed at their most colourful. At this point the project came alive for me. I had at my disposal a cast of damaged, brilliant, eccentric and sometimes downright frightening characters. From there on, it was a pleasure to be in their company.
Getting the book published, though, was another story.
My Interview Series With English Pop Rebels and Outsiders for 'Albion's Secret History'...
As part of the release of 'Albion's Secret History: Snapshots of England's Pop Rebels and Outsiders' I was honoured to get to interview some of the English artists I discuss in the book. The chapter on Gary Numan is entitled 'Interzones, Edgelands, Psykick Dancehalls and Shamans: Gary Numan, Joy Division and Mark E. Smith'. In our discussion Gary and I discussed the putting together of the Numan persona, his unpublished fiction that informed it, and his experiences of fame. You can watch the interview here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ajm...
I talk a lot in the book about The Long Blondes, and how they drew from the legacy of Pulp and Suede, in putting together their Modernist image. The chapter on them is entitled 'Pencil Skirts and Motorway Modernism: The Long Blondes and Black Box Recorder'. I was honoured to chat to Kate Jackson about her time in The Long Blondes, her art, and her work with Bernard Butler.
My interview with her was wonderfully candid and covered many very eclectic topics- from the influence of Barbara Windsor to what it was like seeing her fans dress as her. It can be found here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTCBM...
I talk a lot in the book about The Long Blondes, and how they drew from the legacy of Pulp and Suede, in putting together their Modernist image. The chapter on them is entitled 'Pencil Skirts and Motorway Modernism: The Long Blondes and Black Box Recorder'. I was honoured to chat to Kate Jackson about her time in The Long Blondes, her art, and her work with Bernard Butler.
My interview with her was wonderfully candid and covered many very eclectic topics- from the influence of Barbara Windsor to what it was like seeing her fans dress as her. It can be found here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTCBM...
