Seb Hunter Interview
Seb Hunter is a familiarly name to metal fans because of his successful ‘mock-memoir’ Hell Bent For Leather: Confessions Of A Heavy Metal Addict. His latest novel is published early 2009. Visit www.sebhunter.com.
Was there a point in your life when you realised you wanted to be a writer?
No, I just fell into it in my early thirties, and have just about managed to stay on the horse ever since. Or should I say thus far.
Can you give me some background info on your writing career?
In 2001/02 I was working in international sales for a UK publisher, and having a bit of a personal and creative crisis (in that there was no creativity happening at all). So one day I just began to write a novel, simply to see if that might help me out of my general rut. The novel was terrible, and was rejected by every literary agent in London, but I enjoyed writing it (plus I actually finished it) – it had given me focus and a creative outlet at last. So I started another one, which was equally as terrible, but what the hell, it was a hobby and I enjoyed it. And then one night walking to the local shop I had a big eureka moment: the idea to write a very honest and self-mocking ‘memoir’ of my failure to make it as a musician back in the late 80s / early 90s, crossed with an irreverent kind of heavy metal primer. I got home and sketched out how I thought it might work, and just kind of got to work on it there and then. The tone which had been so fundamentally lacking in my fictional efforts was suddenly there - I felt it straight away. And from then on I was just lucky. I sent about 20 pages plus an outline to another agent, and a few weeks later he took me on and then a few weeks after that I had a pretty lucrative book deal. Like I say, it was all just luck – the stars aligned for me. And I’ve been clinging on doggedly ever since.
Tell me about Hell Bent For Leather…
Since its publication in 2004, the book seems to have taken on a weird life of its own, and now it looks like a feature film might really happen (recast - somewhat inevitably – as a Heavy Metal Romcom). Some metal fans have a problem with Hell Bent – they see it as just mockery – but, FFS, if metal fans still can’t take a bit of mockery here in the 21st century, then fuck, life must get very tiring. And anyway, most of it’s self-mockery: 9 times out of 10 the butt of the joke is me. Most of the abuse I get is for the heinous crime of ‘selling out’ to indie music at the end of the book. No true rocker would ever do that! As if it’s impossible to like more than one kind of music. That said, the vast majority of metal fans are completely cool about it. I mean, it’s meant to be an everyman, universal experience. This (or variations thereupon) has happened to all of us, right?
In terms of sales figures, how many copies of Hell Bent For Leather have been sold?
It’s sold about 10,000 copies in each edition here in the UK. The paperback still ticks over. It came out in America too, but I don’t have any sales figures for there.
Why did you decide to follow it with Rock Amadeus, a book on classical music?
At the time I thought it was a good, original and fun idea: to give up listening to rock music entirely for a year, to see if a high-cultural ignoramus could feel as passionate about classical music as the rock music he’d loved all his life. An odyssey, if you will. Quite literally. Sadly, nobody really gave a fuck. It only occurred to me (about two years) afterwards that perhaps the only people who might want to buy a book about classical music might be, erm, classical music fans. Who weren’t really my target audience. So it didn’t do very well. It got good reviews though, honest!
Do you make a living from writing?
Almost. Maybe one day.
As far as writing goes, what is your daily routine?
I look after my two-year-old son during the week, so my writing has to fit around him. I generally work Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the days he’s in nursery. This seems to be working out pretty well - the discipline suits me.
Do you “care” what the critics say about your work? Do you read the reviews?
Of course! Who can honestly say otherwise? I’ve been lucky so far in that I’ve only ever had one properly bad review; but it was a true, merciless stinker and it was in – of all fucking places – The Sunday Times. But hey – revenge is a dish best served cold, right? And believe me I shall serve it. Very grown-up of me, yes.
What are your favourite rock books?
Julian Cope’s Head On And Repossessed
All Lester Bangs
Dylan’s autobiography
Revolution In The Head by Ian MacDonald
Paul Morley’s Words & Music
Nick Kent’s The Dark Stuff
Meaty, Beaty Big & Bouncy (a rock writing compilation)
Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise (does this count?)
Dave Lee Roth’s one
More I can’t remember
Who are your literary heroes?
What, as in proper literature? Zola, Roth, Cervantes, Dos Passos, Huxley, Joyce, Yates, Lawrence, BS Johnson, Nabokov, Hesse, Mann, Pynchon, Sebald, Herge.
What books have you read recently which you’d recommend?
How German Is It by Walter Abish
Operation Shylock by Philip Roth
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Get a proper job. And get me one too while you’re there.
What are you 10 Desert Island Discs?
Agharta – Miles Davis
Pet Sounds / Smile – The Beach Boys
Rocks – Aerosmith
Spiritual Unity – Albert Ayler
XO – Elliott Smith
Washing Machine – Sonic Youth
Tago Mago – Can
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 – Bob Dylan
Selected Ambient Works Volume 1 – Aphex Twin
I am Sitting In A Room – Alvin Lucier
What’s your next project?
A book called How To Be A Better Person, published by Atlantic Books in April 2009. I spent two years doing as much volunteering work as possible – from the sublime to the ridiculous (litter-picking, hospital radio, working with asylum seekers) - in search of enlightenment and self-improvement. My first book not about music; indeed my desperate lunge into the commercial comedy jugular occupied by the likes of Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace, Bill Bryson, John O’Farrell et al. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m also one third of an improv group called Crater. www.myspace.com/crateruk
I also wish I could get more work writing for music magazines. I’ve not had much luck there really. Maybe it’s because I’m shit.
Interview by Neil Daniels 2008
