WHY DO YOU DO IT? WHAT DRIVES YOU?
It is simply who I am, poetry is absolutely everything to me. It’s not a choice to write, but a hunger and a need to create. I don’t know who I am without it. My heart won’t let me quit even if I try to.
WHAT IS ONE THING YOU DO FOR SANITY MAINTENANCE?
Music helps me regulate my emotions and stay sane.
I listen mainly to country music, opera, hip hop, and black metal, as well as other forms of extreme metal. I’ve heard people say metal heads are often relaxed people, because they get their anger out in the music. I definitely wouldn’t say I’m a relaxed person; I’m a chronic stress-head and overthinker. But depressive black metal in particular really helps me keep some of my darker emotions in check. That said, I can also put on Brooks & Dunn and just drift away for a while, which helps too.
I also read a lot of comics (especially Batman) and pulp Westerns for pure escapism.
WHAT IS THE SCRAPPIEST THING YOU’VE DONE TO MAKE OR SAVE $$?
Back when I was still drinking, I sold my book and music collections multiple times in order to continue drinking. Considering how much these things mean to me, it’s inconceivable to think I parted with them at the time. I’ve been able to collect everything back thankfully, but I must have been pathetically desperate to sell my beloved books and records.
YOUR TASK IS TO PRESCRIBE ONE BOOK OR FILM TO THE COLLECTIVE. WHAT IS IT?
It would easily be the cinematic masterpiece PARIS, TEXAS (1984), directed by Wim Wenders, written by my hero Sam Shepard, and starring Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski. Anyone who has seen it will know why. The dialogue will melt your heart and stimulate your mind and change everything for you. It’s my all-time favourite film and in my opinion, it is art in its purest form.
Current obsession?
I have a lot of obsessions that are always there, but some of them seem to periodically come to the forefront of my mind. At present, it’s UFOs, flying saucers and alien encounters and abductions. I’ve been obsessed with UFOs and flying saucers since I was a kid, but recently I’ve found myself writing poems about them and reading about them more obsessively. I am also obsessed with the Western-themed Black metal band Wayfarer.
MOST USEFUL FAILURE?
I am a firm believer in everything happening for a reason, and in hindsight I think most failure is useful to a writer. It’s hard and it hurts like hell, but I think realizing you’ve failed allows you to learn and drives you to create something better. It’s also a strength to have proof that you tried. Failure in art is just part of the process.
Sam Shepard is number one, closely followed by Australian poets Robert Adamson and Brendan Ryan and authors John Marsden, Sonya Hartnett, Ron Koertge, Louis Nowra, Karen Comer, Sharon Kernot, Kevin Brooks and Robert Cormier. Other all-time favourites include Sylvia Plath, Sarah Kane, Allen Ginsberg, Basho, Buson, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Artaud, Edgar Allan Poe, Ezra Pound, J.G. Ballard, Cormac McCarthy, Joe R. Lansdale, Elmore Leonard, Louis L’Amour, Frank Stanford, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Thomas Moore, Elle Nash, Dylan Krieger, James Lee Burke, Scott McCulloch, Emma Ruth Rundle, Franz Wright, Bill Knott, Homer, Ovid, Chaucer and Shakespeare. I have a lot of favourite writers.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
I’m writing a new YA verse novel that I don’t want to reveal anything about just yet. And I have a new poetry collection finished that should be out sometime next year. I have now started work on a collection of poems about UFOs and related phenomena called CATTLE MUTILATIONS, which I’m really consumed by and excited about.
DISCIPLINE OR ANARCHY?
In terms of the work and getting things done, I’d have to say discipline. But I’m a lifelong punk and metal guy, which has hugely influenced my view of the world, so I’d have to go with anarchy.
