David Masciotra Interview, 2014
The Comp Magazine recently interviewed the young exciting author, political scientist, and music aficionado David Masciotra on his relationship to writing and how seemingly disparate disciplines intersect to comment on the current state of music, politics, passion and perseverance.
Can you describe your relationship with writing and your fondness of music and
politics?
I just had the opportunity to interview and write about someone I greatly admire: Jesse Jackson. Jackson has devoted his life to political activism and social change. Perhaps it is a sign of selfishness, but I don’t possess the quality necessary to live such a life. In an interview with John Mellencamp’s rhythm guitar player, and longtime friend, Mike Wanchic, Wanchic relayed that Mellencamp – through song – decided to adopt the political role of “passive commentator.”
I’ve loved to write since I was a little boy. Since the formulation of my consciousness, it’s been my passion. As a political agent and aware citizen, it enables me to live as a passive commentator.
Any writer worth anything writes primarily for himself or herself. My favorite writer Gore Vidal once said, “Style is knowing exactly what you want to say, saying it exactly the way you want to say it, and not giving a damn about anyone else.” Writing is an act of self-exploration, and through writing, the writer makes exciting, and sometimes disturbing, discoveries about himself. After I’ve done that, my social aspiration is to do what my writing idols and heroes have done for me. Create the space for provocation and reflection resulting in the broadening of thought, the rearrangement of priorities, and the emergence of insight. I can only hope that if I’m successful it will push people toward a love and justice orientation and ethic.
Music comes into it, because it is also a passion of mine, but I don’t play any instruments and I can’t sing well. Writing about music, and literature, as I often do, enables me to take on the role of critic – spotlighting that which I love and believe makes the culture more interesting and exciting.
What areas of music do you tend to gravitate towards?
I have absolutely no interest in the computer generated drivel that currently passes for popular music. I have a deep appreciation of soul and jazz, but my first and fondest love is rock ‘n’ roll.
Rock ‘n’ roll explores and expresses the intensity of living that is available. The aggression, the spirit, the avidity, the lust all come together to get you grooving and grinding. My next book, Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky), is about one of my favorite singer/songwriters, John Mellencamp, and my book coming after that – a 33 1/3 book on Metallica’s The Black Album (Bloomsbury Publishers) – is about one of my favorite bands.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Gov’t Mule, Motorhead, AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Cult, Elvis, Mellencamp – if one of these has a song playing in a room near you, and you don’t get it, you should sign yourself up for an enema.
Do you recall your first live show? If so, what is it?
My first live show was Garth Brooks, who was a boyhood hero, and remains someone who I will always love, because he started my love affair with music. I recently had the chance to attend one of his comeback shows as a critic for the Daily Beast. It was great interviewing him, and seeing him play again. I’m not the huge fan of his music I once was, but I still respect and like him.
There was an emotional moment toward the end of the night, at the recent show, when he played a song he wrote called “Standing Outside the Fire.” The song indicts our social understanding of personal passion and vocation. We consider people “weak” or “fools” if they throw caution to the wind and pursue their passion and dreams. “Life is not tried / It is merely survived / If you’re standing outside the fire”, Brooks sings. The song had a profound impact on me when I was a child, because I, intuitively, believed the truth in Brooks’ words, and internalized them. It is a good song – regardless of musical taste – for college students to play and consider, because so much of our culture is mindlessly and heartlessly market driven. You should think only about your future paycheck, become a careerist cyborg, live as a dull materialist without meaning. Brooks is right in his song when he sings about how that is actually the choice of the weak. It is the route for the unimaginative.
A student should not merely think about career, but also meaning, purpose, and passion. Fulfillment is important. As one of my favorite writers, Jim Harrison, once said, “You must follow the affections of your heart and the truth of your imagination. Otherwise, you will feel badly.”
There are many people feeling badly in this culture, because they’ve adopted such a narrow vision for a short life.
Back to your question, I’m drawn politically – whether it is Jesse Jackson or Jimmy Carter – and musically – whether it is John Mellencamp or Metallica – to people who widen the vision, and present a holistic engagement with life. With my writing, I’m simply trying to join the club.
What is your favorite musical experience?
There are too many to identify a single experience. At the top of the list is the song, “Beautifully Broken.” I’m friends with a band from Joliet called The Righteous Hillbillies. A good friend of mine, Brent James, is the lead singer and one of the songwriters, along with Kev Wright.
Brent and I wrote the song “Beautifully Broken” together. He wrote the music and I wrote most of the lyrics. We’ve had that partnership on a few songs. “Beautifully Broken” is probably the best of your collaborations. It is on their new album, Trece Diablos. It is a thrill to hear a talented singer put melody to the words I wrote. Plus, it is the creative embodiment of the friendship I enjoy very much.
As a spectator and fan, there are so many moments like the Garth Brooks rendition of “Standing Outside the Fire” – moments when the emotional power of music to draw an intimate connection between performer and observer becomes intensely real. Neil Young has a profound ability to do that, as do many of my favorite bands and artists.
My most fun musical experience is, every year for the past three years, going on the Simple Man Cruise with my mother. The Simple Man Cruise is a rock ‘n’ roll vacation – a floating party. Lynyrd Skynyrd hosts it, and other great bands like Blackberry Smoke and The Georgia Satellites come along for the ride.
What do you hope to achieve when working on a writing project?
There isn’t really much one can reasonably hope to achieve with a book. Most Americans don’t read serious writing, and everything has gone audio-visual. Attention spans are dwindling, and ignorance is rising. People spend more time staring at a two inch screen they pull out of their pockets than reading books.
My big hopes are simple: Is this something that I enjoyed writing? Is it something other people will enjoy reading? Does it resonate with some people? Does it add, rather than subtract, to the culture?
Making the criteria of judgment about the work itself rescues you from the petty conception of success that rules too much of America – money and status. Those are cheap substitutes for a life of spiritual satisfaction, social relevance, and personal meaning.
Do you have any future projects planned?
Right now I’m working on the Metallica book I mentioned earlier. I had the thrill of interviewing all the members of the band, along with Metallica’s former producer, Bob Rock, and former bassist, Jason Newsted, for the project.
I’m having more fun writing this book than on anything I’ve ever written. My first book, Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen (Continuum Books, 2010), was about Springsteen’s rock ‘n’ roll, but in it, I used the music as a predicate to provide a political manifesto. Springsteen’s music is tremendously political and he’s a dedicated activist. The task of exploring his career through a political framework was easy, but also pretty heavy. I wrote about war, racism, poverty – serious crises of America’s failure to truly democratize.
Mellencamp: American Troubadour, set for April release from the University Press of Kentucky, is not nearly as political, but it also deals with heavy topics. Mellencamp’s music is often melancholy. I explore that melancholia, and I hope, provide some interesting background on Mellencamp’s life, and the inspiration behind his songs, while engaging with the darker aspects of life.
With this book on Metallica, I have the opportunity to write about something I love just for the sake of writing about something I love: The aggressive, reckless, raucous rebellion of hard rock and heavy metal energy and intensity. It gets serious, but it is also about the angry joy of the music – the joy that comes from, as Cornel West puts it, “living out loud.”
David Masciotra is a writer and educator. Masciotra’s writing has appeared in The Daily Beast, Splice Today, PopMatters, The Atlantic, The Indianapolis Star, Front Porch Republic and other relevant publications. David Masciotra will release “Mellencamp: American Troubadour” (University Press of Kentucky) and “Metallica by Metallica” (Bllomsbury) in 2015.
Interview by Chester Alamo-Costello
