Joe Shooman Interview
Joe Shooman has written biographies of Trivium and Bruce Dickinson; and his latest opus is a bio of Kasabian. His ambitious book (Whose Space Is It Anyway?) on MySpace and its relationship with the music business achieved some excellent reviews. All published via Independent Music Press. He is also a freelance journalist and live reviews editor at The Fly. Visit profile.myspace.com/joeshooman.
Can you give me a brief history of your writing career so far?
Yup, started off at a local paper back home in North Wales reviewing local gigs and that, plus I wrote some plays that won a couple of awards when I was dead young. I was in a punk band so did loads of zines and was heavily active on that kind of scene for a few years touring the UK and abroad a bit. When that came to an end I stopped writing for a bit ‘til I moved to Liverpool to learn how to be a Sound Engineer and started reviewing gigs again on the side, basically to get some beer money. So it went from Daily Post and Big Issue on to Record Collector, Mixmag, The Fly, Music Week, Music Mart, some Metal Hammer specials and quite a few travel magazines/guides. I seem to have outlasted several music mags actually which I can’t decide is a good thing or not.
How did you get your first book deal?
It was a mixture of persistence and being in the right place at the right time. I’d pitched a couple of ideas at people that hadn’t quite hit the mark. Then I got a phone call out the blue asking me if I’d like to write a particular book and I said, ‘yes please.’ It seems easy in retrospect but actually all the work I’d done up to that point was leading up to it so it was the culmination of several years’ working hard to find a voice and develop technically I think.
Being an author and a critic; how do you take criticisms, if any, of your books?
You have to take them on the chin, for good or bad. Once you put anything out for other people to read/listen to, it’s fair game. Same rules apply to books as they do to bands and rightly so, and I think having been in a band helped me realise that it was all opinion and everyone’s entitled to say what they like.
How easy/difficult is it to get your ideas commissioned?
I worry more about not having any ideas, although most of mine are pretty stupid anyway! It’s all about understanding the score with the publishers, bands, and what fans would like to read about. Every project has a different focus and set of demands to take into consideration so it can take a while to work through all that. Conversely, there’s been a case of an idea in the morning which by the afternoon has progressed to pretty much sorting out contracts so it can be very quick.
Which book are you most proud of?
All of them, for different reasons. I like the way they’re all different from each other in subject matter, style, approach, design etc.
Which book was the hardest to write?
Mm, I would say Whose Space Is It Anyway? was tricky as it was all about MySpace and social networking sites with particular reference to their use in the music industry. I enjoyed getting stuck into some of the myths and misconceptions about it but it was very difficult also in the sense that a) the net changes hourly, never mind daily, b) it’s a massive subject anyway as it’s kind of the history of the net and by association, social interaction in a wider sense, c) if you talk to 100 people they’ve got 100 different opinions and to an extent all are correct and d) halfway through I ran out of good swearwords and had to start making things up.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Be ambitious, but not impatient: sometimes there’s not enough delineation between those two concepts. Read loads of books. Watch bands, get drunk, have fun. If you don’t love writing and reading as much as you do music then think about whether you really want to do it. It isn’t a competition. Really. Oh, and buy a pen. I like black ones.
Do you make a living from writing?
Aye.
What is your daily routine?
It’s different every day because of the nature of the job and also as I’m freelance, but generally I’m at the desk by 9ish like any other office worker (it helps to be available during office hours for obvious reasons) and I get on with what I’ve gotta do. Which could be anything from commissioning and subsequently editing the live reviews for The Fly to phone interviews to transcribing to reviewing records/books/DVDs etc, if I’ve got a book on the go then I’ll spend a lot of time researching that, contacting interviewees or travelling around the country to chat to them. The last thing to come together is always the writing on that one.
Outside music work there’s lots of logistical stuff to do with travel writing jobs and so on and that’s a whole other set of factors again coming into play. This week I’ve gone round Southport meeting people and interviewing them for a feature on the town, as well as done ywo gigs, a wine-tasting and a Jamaican cookery class – all for ‘work’. I’m kinda likely to be found writing about new hotels as much as new bands sometimes. There’s usually a gig or something happening in the evening for work or for pleasure so most nights are taken up some way or another also. I wouldn’t have it any other way, though; it’s varied and exciting sometimes.
What are your favourite music books?
I’m gonna keep this to five otherwise I’ll go nuts cause my house is full of the bloody things. In no order:
No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs – John Lydon
Bound For Glory – Woody Guthrie
White Line Fever – Lemmy
Elvis Presley Speaks From Beyond The Grave – Hans Holser
England’s Dreaming – Jon Savage
Who are your favourite writers?
Joe Heller, Dylan Thomas, Eduardo Galeano, Armando Iannucci, Clive James.
What are your 10 Desert Island Discs?
La Peste – Alabama 3
What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
Attwenger – Attwenger
Come On Pilgrim – Pixies
White Album – Beatles
Powerslave – Iron Maiden
Inflammable Material – Stiff Little Fingers
Talking Book – Stevie Wonder
Transformer – Lou Reed
Absolutely – Madness
Which artists have given you the most memorable interviews?
The one that comes to mind recently is interviewing Ben Gibbard on the phone whilst the cold water tank was divesting its contents through my ceiling; he talked me down from being an absolute gibbering wreck ‘cause I was waiting for the plumber to come before the roof fell in. I was terrified – he would make a very good stress counsellor I think. And Engelbert Humperdinck was an absolute gent: top bloke. (The leak got fixed, thank god.
Who would you like to interview?
I spose Elvis is out the question really, or Tom Parker. Paul McCartney?
What’s your next project?
There are two (possibly three) book projects that are being discussed right at this moment; significant characters from the last 30 years of music. On top of that I’ll definitely be starting 2009 embarking on a more academic-type research project involving musicians from Wales and what you might call new media. Inevitably, there’s a novel also being discussed but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. Outside writing I think I accidentally joined a band the other week after a few beers but I’m hoping the rest of the lads have forgotten
Interview by Neil Daniels 2008
