Interview with Thomas Michael and Scott C. Rogers
The following is a transcript from an interview by Thomas Michael and Scott C. Rogers recorded in a bar on the West side of Detroit.
The sound of glasses clinking. Random background noise. Conversations muffled.
TM: How many have you had?
SR: Women or drinks?
TM: (coughs and laughs.) I guess in the end you only remember the good ones.
SR: Women or drinks?
TM: (makes Burt Reynolds laugh.)
SR: Is that recording?
TM: Yes.
SR: Check one. Check one, two... Scott has a big penis... (laughs.)
TM: Don't touch that button...
DEAD TAPE:
SR: Is it working again?
TM: Yes. Now don't touch anything.
SR: That's not what you were saying last night. (laughs.)
TM: Do you remember when you lived on Abington and we got real drunk and we end up writing a poem on ___ belly?
SR: (sighs.) That was a good time. My wife threw those polaroids out.
TM: I burnt mine.
SR: Why?
TM: I grabbed everything that reminded me of her and torched it.
SR: Damn. Well, you kept the notebooks - that's where she. came from...
TM: True. I told you I went back through the original notebook for the manuscript, right? Man, was that like shitting razor blades or what.
SR: I bet. That was a fucked time, my friend. Those words kept you afloat.
TM: It feels weird having it all together now. Fuck, it's a book. A real book. I just don't know if people are going to relate to it or not. They may just fucking laugh and wipe their asses with it. It's hard putting it out there, you know?
SR: I'm telling you it's fucking beautiful. That shit is common ground; everyone has had their heart broken. It's like peeing in the pool - everyone can relate. Besides you've got a good following on Xanga and we're sending it out to some major poetry reviewers and stores. I'm telling you it's gonna be a hit.
TM: You think? I hope people can get it and see it as it was meant to be.
SR: Jesus (slaps hand down on table) You've got all these babes soaking their jeans each time you post a poem - you really don't think they're not gonna dig it?
TM: (stares off into the distance) Stop.
SR: Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?
TM: How many have you had?
SR: Women or drinks?
TM: AWWEEEEE SSSHHHIIITTT!
DEAD TAPE:
Thomas Michael Interviewed for "She."
by Jill O'Dell
As morning breaks and the routines of the day set in, you can find writer Thomas Michael, with a cup of black coffee and maybe a cigarette, sitting down to begin his routine of writing.
"I write everyday. I sit down, read other people's words, just kinda let things sink in and then I see what comes out. I free flow alot. I push things until it makes sense and then I go back in and restructure and rework things, edit. But I'm not one to toil over words."
Michael, 34, of Detroit, has been writing since he was a sophomore in high school. Required by a teacher to keep a journal, he used it to write poems about teenage angst and even went so far as to let other friends write poems in it too. "It was like a commmunity of teenage boys screaming about life." During that year he fell in love with Shakespeare's Hamlet. MacBeth and Jim Morrison's Wilderness Poems.
Today, Michael is influenced by many writers: Henry Rollins, Charles Bukowski, Thomas Lynch, Donald Hall, Hemingway, Chuck Palaniuk, Jack Kerouac, and Cassady.
As much as they all have left an impression on him, from Bukowski's descriptions of drinking, typing and smoking to Palahniuk's raw emotions, none has been more influential on Michael's writing than Henry Rollins.
"I found Henry Rollins stuff my first year in college at Lollapalooza and was just like, this is it! This is someone who writes like me, like I want to write, plain, simple, to the point." He likens Rollins approach to life as "no nonsense".
Michael describes his writing style as "vulnerable". "My stuff is so exposed and out there. I put it out there for people to read, like a raw intensity of seeing my life kinda just fall apart and open up."
And his life, with heartache, pain, emotions and love, has never been more exposed than in the recent publication of his book, "She". This heartbreaking collection of poems written after a breakup show the vulnerability and intensity of Michael's writing style that he talked about.
When his business partner, Scott Rogers, and he decided to publish "She", Michael admits it was tough. "I opened it back up and started fixing, tweaking, so on and so forth, but the first time I read it, after putting it all behind me for so many years, I was like, damn. This shit cuts deep. It hurt all over again, only briefly, but I could remember and feel all those feelings again."
Published by Black Coffee Press, the independent publishing company of Michael and Rogers, "She" has had a great response from readers. "The reviews have been wonderful, Michael said. "It's a very raw and open book, there's not alot in the way of layers and complexities. It's a guy exposing his soul, putting everything out there for the whole world to see."
Michael's favorite thing to write about is love and failure. "There's something to be said for loss, for failing at love or reaching for it. It makes the world go round. It really does. And anyone who says otherwise is probably lying."
Michael doesn't have any novels planned in the future but admits he has three poem books ready to go. He anticipates the next published poem book to be a collection with at least 150 pages or more. He wants it to be something "people can get lost in for awhile, something that they can dog ear the pages over and keep going back to."
Although he's not sure where his writing career will go, Michael definitely feels strongly about his life as a writer, a poet, a weaver of words.
"I will write no matter what. I will always write. And poetry will always be my vehicle. I believe in it. I think it's one of the main reasons I haven't written a novel. I believe in poets, writers who spent all their time writing verses, lines. There's something to be said for that. The dedication. Because at the end of the day, you're probably never gonna be on the New York Times best seller list. You're not going to sell thousands upon millions of copies. Your life will consist of quality, not quantity. Where it will take me, I have no idea. But I'm open to it. I can't wait."
Interview for Celluloid Cowboy
Tim M: So the title is Celluloid Cowboy, what does that mean?
Scott R: Well, it has different layers. I was just finishing my first novel DUCT-TAPED MOUTH and the name came to me. It just sounded right. Then I started thinking of what the hell it meant. I played with the idea for awhile and then it just hit me; Celluloid Cowboy is a fake cowboy. Sometimes we lead our lives as fake cowboys in a sense and sometimes we are the real thing.
TM: There’s a line where one of the characters says to the other, “we all can’t be Celluloid Cowboys.” So that’s what you are referring to?
SR: Exactly. That scene is these two guys watching these kids play in the snow and the character Wayne sort of sees the future and it’s not a pleasant one for these kids. Yeah, he says that line and that’s exactly the underlining meaning there.
TM: The style of the novel is interesting. It’s very simple, straight forward and sort feels like a graphic novel in a sense. You line everything up, scene by scene, action by action. It starts slow and then picks up and by the end you just have these one liners.
SR: Right, towards the end it is just quick and bare thoughts and actions. In a moment of crisis you aren't contemplating your navel but ducking or running and screaming.
TM: And the narrator, he’s this educated dumbass.
SR: He’s a slacker and emotionally not developed. He is educated but lacking in real intelligence. He’s not one you’d picture as a success story by any means. But there is something there, maybe deep down.
TM: The chain of events dig him out of this pathetic lifestyle.
SR: They do. Well, at least I think they do. He’s at the cross roads and must make a decision. Does he make the right one? In a sense yes, but also no.
TM: I found myself laughing out loud a lot. I love the turd bomb and the cat scene.
SR: Humor is a big part. I don’t think you could really like him if you didn’t laugh along with him. Again, he’s not the class president or anything. He’s just a guy with some issues and no direction.
TM: I saw a lot of redemption too.
SR: There is. He is trying to make things right. He knows life is very botched and wants to get it back to where it was real, safe and had meaning.
TM: Can we talk a little about your style?
SR: Sure.
TM: I mentioned before it’s very simple and free. How do you generally write?
SR: I’ve taught myself to do it anywhere and anytime. When I first had the idea that I wanted to be a writer I had this grand image of Kerouac or Henry Miller, you know? They were people watchers. Their characters are based off of real people. I tried to do that at first, but then ran out of people and also time and effort. To write like that is hard. Then I saw the film Pulp Fiction. It blew me away. I loved the chaos, the characters and humor.
TM: So do you picture the scenes before hand or do you take lots of notes?
SR: It depends. If I’m writing dialogue I tend to hear or listen to it in my head and let it play out and scramble to jot it down. However, mostly I just envision what is happening. It’s sort of like watching a movie in my head. As for notes, they would be just bits and pieces that I’ve written here and there.
TM: Do you do any kind of research?
SR: For this novel, since I knew the landscape there was no research involved. For some of my short pieces it really depends on the subject at hand. Most of the time my characters have about as much knowledge as I posses on most matters. I guess in a sense I write what I know.
TM: Why the small press and POD route?
SR: Artistic control. Kind of why Greg Ginn started up SST back in the day or Henry Rollins doing 2.13.61. I’ve always been a fan of the independent artist putting his own stuff out.
TM: Who did you go with?
SR: For POD and distribution it was Lulu. They had the best offer and everything that I needed. I own the ISBN and manuscript, they just print and ship. Getting this started I wanted to keep the over-head as low as possible. My goal is to publish more writers who would otherwise never see the day of light through your normal day to day publishing ventures.
TM: So this is the start of something bigger, eh?
SR: I hope so. I liken it to a neo-Black Sparrow.
TM: And you are playing both John Martin and Charles Bukowski?
SR: Yeah, sort of.