its Ben Myers, the author of several successful books, fiction based like "The book of Fuck" 2004 and several bands biographies like Muse and Green Day. He has also appeared on a number of TV and radio shows discussing music and writing. He has published a number of short stories and poems in small press publications. His latest book about System of a Down "Right Here in Hollywood" is about to be released in the U.S after great success in U.K and Europe.

SOADFans had the pleasure to talk with Ben about his book and his background with System of a Down and other things.

Your book is about to be released in the States, so it must have been received well in the UK. How do you think it did and how do you expect it to do in North America?
Those people who have read the book seem to have liked it. I’ve found that fervent fans of bands tend to be critical and protective of their favourite artists, but reaction from System Of A Down fans to the book have been overwhelmingly favourable. A lot of readers seemed to have picked up on the fact that this is not so much a straight-telling of the story, but rather one fan’s reaction to the band and their work. I like to drop in personal recollections in there too, to show the effect that music can have on the listener, and how it can shape their life in some small way – and I think that is something that people can relate to. System Of A Down managed to excite me at a time when I was getting bored with heavy music, and they also provided a lot of food for thought about the relationship between music and politics, a subject I’ve always been attracted to.

I’d much rather write like that, than assume a cold, critical standpoint. When you’re so interested in a band, it is near-impossible not to write from a personal perspective.

Reviews in the press in the UK have been very positive too. It has been a relatively low-key release in the UK but I’m hoping it will do well in North America. In some ways it’s weird timing because the band are on hiatus, but then perhaps that very fact will help the book too.


Although "Right Here in Hollywood" is an "unauthorized'' biography of System of a Down, were you able to personally get interviews from the band and their crew? Is it difficult to set up interviews with a band when the book is an 'unauthorized' one? or in another way, Since it is unauthorized, do you feel that lends credibility to your work and was that is that a help or hindrance?
Well, writing the book I was at an advantage because I’m a music journalist and had already interviewed the band in person and on the phone, seen them live etc. Writing for a magazine makes it easier to get access, plus I get on very well with the band’s UK publicise who gave me access to their formidable press cuttings archive. I don’t know, maybe he thought that if someone was going to write an unauthorized account, at least it would be by someone who gets the band and is fan. I was also lucky in that I was asked to interview the band and their manager on the phone for a piece for Kerrang! around about the time I was writing the early chapters of the book, so I was able to use some of this new material in there.

The ‘unauthorized’ tag is often seen as a negative one, but I think some of the best biographies are unauthorized. If an artist writes their own account of their career they tend to leave out the stuff that makes them look bad – whether it’s in-band fighting, drug use or whatever - whereas as an impartial observer will possibly provide a wider overview. For example, imagine if George W Bush wrote his own life story, it’s doubtful that he would dwell on his hard-drinking past, or the countless fatal mistakes he has made.

As it happens, in my opinion System Of A Down haven’t really released a bad record which is why I still listen to them regularly after eight years of being a fan, but if they had released a terrible record I would have written about it but because I’m telling a story – warts and all, as they say.


Describe the first interview/meeting you did with System of a Down?
I first saw and met the band at their first headlining show in the UK, in May 1999. It was in Wolverhampton, which is a good town to see rock bands in (oddly, Kenny Rogers was playing the venue the night before). In London people stand there with their arms crossed, waiting to be impressed, but in the smaller UK towns, people prefer to get fucked up on booze and let their inhibitions go. This was one of those nights. I’d only heard the band for the first time that week and was intrigued by their lyrics as much as anything else. In fact, I think I read their lyrics before I even heard them. I’m weird like that. Anyway, I hung out in the evening, watched the show – which was the best live show I’d seen in a long time – and then went backstage afterwards with a photographer to do a quick interview and some photos with the band to run alongside the review I was writing. To the band I was just another buffoon with a tape recorder (and still am today) but they were courteous and articulate, which was nice. They were also covered in gold and silver make-up. They looked ridiculous, but at least it was interesting-ridiculous. It was also obvious that they were four quite different personalities. I should point out, that I interviewed a lot of American metal bands around this time – some were cool, some were as thick as two short planks (ie. morons) – but System Of A Down clearly had something that other bands didn’t. To me, they were more than just another heavy metal band. It was evident there was a heavy artistic and political streak in everything they did - there was intelligence there. I still have the set-list from that night. I think they played every song off their debut album.


In your opinion, in what ways have they grown since that first interview? In what ways have they stayed the same? musically or/and personally.
Not really knowing the band members personally, I couldn’t say really. Like most fans, I’ve just sort of viewed them from afar. I remember seeing Shavo and John come to the annual Kerrang! awards in 2000 and they seemed genuinely excited to be in the same room as some of their heroes – as if they were teenage fans again themselves. I’m guessing maybe now they’re worldlier? I don’t know. I interviewed Serj recently and he was as accommodating as the first time I interviewed him so it doesn’t appear that they have turned into arseholes, which sometimes happens with bands who sell millions.

Oh, and I suppose they’re probably wealthier now than they were in 1999 too…


Do you have a favorite member from the band that intrigued you, and you enjoyed writing about most?
Not especially, no. I think the interesting thing about SOAD is that they are four strong personalities, which is what makes them unique and their personal histories and backgrounds are all very colourful. As a band they’re not solely reliant on one member – they are the sum of their parts. I find Serj a pretty fascinating individual and an unlikely candidate to be a multi-millionaire rock star. I mean, he came to heavy music quite late and he was in late-twenties when the band got going, which – and I hate to say it - is relatively old in music industry terms, plus he was running a relatively successful business of his own. Without wishing to sound like a hippy, Serj gives off an air of intelligence and wisdom which is probably quite rare in his chosen genre of music. But then you look at Daron and realize he is a total freak, yet a productive, talented freak. I think freaks always make the best rock stars, which is why I find so many of the current emo/pop-punk pin-up bands so distasteful – many of them are essentially good looking popular guys who probably got the girls at school and were good at sports. They have nothing to shout about, so they write boring pop songs.


In comparison to the other band biographies you have written, how long did this one take?
This book took about the same length of time to write as other biographies I have written. Because I often work to tight deadlines, I tend to write all day, every day until the book is done. As the risk of sounding pretentious, I like to try and immerse myself in the subject by only listening to that bands music or maybe some of the music they grew up listening to (in this case I investigated music from Eastern European and the Middle East) or to check out books or films they are into, to get a feel of it. I had the idea for the book as far back as 2001 when Toxicity went to Number One, so it was always in the back of my minf and I had been stock-piling information, obscure songs and the like for the day when I finally got to write the book. It would have been nice to have gone and seen Armenia first-hadn’t but my budget didn’t allow it. I did however grow my biggest beard yet, which I shaved off when I finished the book. Too itchy.


How did you get into writing band biographies?
I’ve always enjoyed music and writing and writing about music. I started out playing in a band as a teenager, realised I had no ability, so started writing about music instead for fanzines and local magazines. Then when I was at college I managed to get a job writing for Melody Maker, which doesn’t exist any more, but was the longest-running weekly music publication in the world at the time. I got a lucky break, basically. After that I started freelancing for other magazines and writing fiction and poetry too for small press publications. But because space is limited in magazines I found myself with lots of great unused interview material with people like Rage Against The Machine, Marilyn Manson, Public Enemy etc, so I took it all and turned it into my first book, American Heretics: Rebel Voices In Music (2002). It didn’t sell many copies but I think it is a worthwhile document of life in the American counter-culture at the start of a new millennium. Then I moved on to biographies. And the rest is poverty…..


Do you use pen and paper while writing or its like some of us sitting at our computers clicking away on the keys?
I mainly use a computer because it makes editing so much easier, but I also take a pen and paper everywhere. I’ve actually typed so much in recent years that I have Repetitive Strain Injury in my right arm, which invariably prompts people to make lots of jokes about masturbation. Oh how I laugh when I hear another wanking quip.


Outside your freelance work for rock magazines you also write fiction, (spam) poetry and band biographies. Do you prefer one over the other and if so, why is one better than the other?
I just enjoy writing. I suppose I enjoy writing fiction the most, because there are no rules, no facts to check and less research involved, but fiction and poetry are tough businesses to make a living in. Which isn’t to say I write music biographies for money because again, once you add up the thousands of hours spend working on them, the money is actually pretty low, but, hell, it’s better than the real world isn’t it? I don’t know many people who publish poetry and write about metal, punk and hardcore but I enjoy both. Actually, I recently dreamt that I had to get a job and woke up in a cold sweat. It was more a nightmare than a dream, actually.


Can you define Spam Poetry?
SPAM poetry is a form of poetry that I started writing and compiling around about 2000. It basically involves taking the nonsensical and abstract SPAM e-mails I get sent and turning them into works of poetry. It’s poetry for the technological age, but it also owes a debt to writers such as William Burroughs who used to up other people’s work and randomly re-arranged it into new forms, so that new images and themes emerged. In years to come SPAM poetry will hopefully show the symbiosis of literature, advertising, technology and commerce that seems to define this era. I recently complete a full collection which I think I might call Increase The Size Of Your Dick, as that seems to be the recurring ‘subject line’ in most SPAM e-mails. I expect it to sell about seven copies if it gets published. Maybe less.


How do pick a subject for a book? and in particular the subject of the "Book of Fuck" (2004)
The Book Of Fuck was a novel that I wrote after several failed attempts at other novels and rejections from publishers, agents etc. I gave myself the task of writing a short novel in around seven days and it was based on some of my experiences in the music business, which is a thoroughly ridiculous la-la land that I can’t really take seriously. At the time I was being flown to LA and such places to interview rock stars, only to return home to my flat which was dilapidated by anyone’s standards: no heating, holes in the ceiling, mice running wild, likeable junkies for neighbours. One day I was in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, the next I was shivering on a mattress in a shit-hole in South London. So I wrote a book that basically reflected this strange drunken time, when I was in my early twenties and couldn’t quite believe I had deceived magazines and record companies into giving me work.


What made you want to start up a record label? and what do you look for when signing bands?
I get sent quite a few demo CDs and see lots of great new bands live, so I thought I would give it a go really and contribute something. We started in 2003 and the label is called Captains Of Industry (www.captainsof.com / www.myspace.com/captains) and I run it with my brother and a couple of friends in the spare hours that we have. We are no-budget, very small-time and therefore take no money from the label for ourselves, but we’ve managed to put about forty releases out and put on some great shows in various cities. A couple of releases scraped into the lower end of the UK charts. For System Of A Down fans I would recommend three of our bands, Silicon Vultures, Gay For Johnny Depp and Marmaduke Duke. We have no real policy when it comes to choosing bands, but it probably helps if they are pro-active and capable of getting things going on themselves – bookings tours, making videos or whatever. We’re old fashioned punk rock romantics I suppose, adrift in a sea of aggressive capitalist techniques. But it’s fun.


What's Ben Myers' next project?
My second novel is coming out in the UK at some point in the next twelve months and is called The Missing Kidney. It’s more a collection of odd short stories with the starting point of an operation that I had a child to have a kidney removed. But it’s not really about that. It’s more of a twisted portrait of a changing England. I’ve also started writing a third novel and have a few stories in a few anthologies and have co-authored a collection of poetry with two write friends, Tony O’Neill and Adelle Stripe. We are called The Brutalists and we are almost presenting ourselves as a punk rock band who prefer to write words than play music. We’re quite DIY, and pretty raw. We can be found here: www.myspace.com/brutalists . And people are welcome to come and say hello or call me a fool here: www.myspace.com/bigbenmyers  / www.benmyers.com.
 

Ben Myers' System of a Down book "Right Here in Hollywood" will be out in the U.S by Sept/Oct 2007 through Disinformation www.disinfo.com

You can also order it now from Amazon.com.

Thanks Ben! :)

Thanks to all the SOAD Fans contributed with questions

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