Sasha and Spark have a Pint and Chat about Metal

It’s time for Sasha to take a little vacation.  She has friends who live in Scotland, so she decided to spend a week in the capital city of Edinburgh.  While there, Sasha met up with fellow music aficionado Spark MacDubh.

Sasha:  I’m not familiar with many of the beers on tap.  What do you recommend?  I prefer something dark and heavy, kind of like your tastes in music.

Spark: If you want dark and heavy booze, it has to be Guinness.  I’ll grab us a couple o’ pints.  Some advice, though: if you drink more than eight pints o’ Guinness tonight, wear a nappy tomorrow.  That’s a diaper to you, Canadian girl.  Sometimes Guinness’s after-effects take you by surprise, and wi’ no warning.

Sasha:  Oooh, you’re a man after my own heart!  I love stout, and I’ll be sure to stop after seven and a half pints, just in case.  So, we know we have common ground on alcohol; let’s see about music.  As you know, I played drums and sang in a hard rock cover band before giving it up to solve crimes and chase deadbeats, although some would say I’ve got a harder edge as a sleuth than a rocker.  Whatever.  But when it comes to music, methinks your tastes are much harder than mine.  

Spark: My favourite current bands are Amorphis, Insomnium and Wintersun— 

Sasha: Love the names!

Spark:  They all hail from Finland.  That’s no accident.  Per capita, Finland spends more than any other country on musical education.  That’s why it’s the breedin’ ground for heavy metal innovation.  The Scandinavian bands I favour are modern-day composers who aren’t afraid to head into unexplored musical territory.

Sasha:  I’ve actually heard of the first two bands, but not Wintersun.  What’s one of their best songs?

Spark: Death and the Healing.  It’s sublime.

Sasha:  A lot of the metal you listen to is leaps and bounds away from my own tastes, but then our differences may have more to do with labels or categories than anything else.  Seems there are many sub-genres and categories for metal... 

Spark: Don’t get me started on that!  I tore strips off music journalist Buck Fosterman for persistently labellin’ bands.  If musicians accept his labels they end up painted into a corner, robbed o’ their musical freedom.  Once upon a time there was heavy metal.  Most rockers were happy wi’ that term, although my bastard godfather Lemmy was and still is a notable exception.  Lem insists that Motörhead isn’t a heavy metal band, but a rock ‘n’ roll band.  Good on him.  That’s his prerogative.  More than once I’ve seen Lem walk onstage and announce his arrival with the phrase, “We are Motörhead and we play rock ‘n’ roll.”  He mixes up the opening line from gig to gig, though, to keep the element of surprise.  My favourite opener from Lem was when he greeted Glasgow Barrowlands with, “We are Motörhead and we’re gonna clean your clock.”  And they did!

Sasha: I’ve actually seen Motörhead in concert a few times.  They’re a force to be reckoned with, for sure.

Spark:  Aye, they’re special.  So where were we?  Labels!  As metal grew and became more diverse, some folk became confused by the new sounds, so they invented names for these styles.  Each subgenre then developed its own distinct culture and fashion.  One tribe splintered into many.  Some metal factions now hold the elitist view that their metal is the only real metal, sometimes refusin’ to mix or associate wi’ other tribes.

Sasha: That’s ridiculous.  Good music is good music, regardless of whatever damned adjectives are thrown in front of it.

Spark:  I agree.  What was once a unified whole has become divided, though.  I’ve heard clueless eejits talkin’ shit aboot traditional metal, thrash metal, glam metal, power metal, speed metal, trash metal, sleaze metal, nu metal, goth metal, death metal, doom metal, Viking metal, symphonic metal, avant-garde metal, industrial metal, classical metal, black metal, white metal, folk metal, funk metal, pagan metal, everythin’-bar-the-kitchen-sink metal, and – the most idiotic label of all – hair metal.  The man who coined that term should have his bollocks dunked in a fish tank full o’ piranhas.  

Sasha: Funny you should say that.  I was saying the other day that I want to do just that to an ex-boyfriend, except I called ’em nuts instead of bollocks.  

Spark:  Remind me not to piss you off.  Anyhow, these labellers talk as if they’re authorities on metal, but they’re usually just closed-minded folk who think it’s healthier to put up barriers than to remove them.  That’s not the case.  Cross-pollination is healthy.  I like music that’s extremely heavy and beautifully melodic.  Any fud can plug in an electric guitar and make a noise, or scream into a microphone.  The trick is makin’ music that resonates in people’s souls, makes every hair on their bodies stand on end, sends shivers doon their spines, cleans them from the inside.  That happens when amplified music incorporates techniques discovered centuries ago in classical music: key among them are the tritone and the circle of fifths…but don’t get me started on that!

Sasha: Ah, yes, the circle of fifths...  Hmmm.  I tend to prefer older music, classic rock, I guess, like Led Zeppelin and Steppenwolf.  Once upon a time, these were considered very hard, but compared to some current bands, these guys are much lighter, although it seems odd to refer to them as “light”.    

Spark: I love Zep and, to a lesser degree, Steppenwolf.  Had Led Zeppelin not existed, the musical landscape would be less interesting.  We wouldn’t have amazin’ tracks like No Quarter and Immigrant Song to listen to.  Also, think aboot the folk who – inspired by Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham – started bands and followed in Zep’s footsteps.  Thousands of today’s greatest bands wouldn’t exist were it not for Led Zeppelin, as they’d never have been inspired to pick up an instrument.  Steppenwolf deserve universal recognition for creatin’ the term heavy metal.  As you know, they coined the phrase ‘heavy metal thunder’ in their track Born to Be Wild, to describe the sound o’ roarin’ motorcycles.  Blue Öyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman later used ‘heavy metal’ to describe riff-laden, overdriven music.  Pearlman may have been the first to use those words as a description o’ music, but if he hadn’t first heard the Steppenwolf song those exact words wouldn’t have occurred to him.  The mighty Saxon – Barnsley big teasers and unflinchin’ defenders o’ the metal faith – named a track Heavy Metal Thunder as a tip o’ the hat to Steppenwolf.  So, Your Honour, members o’ the increasingly drunken jury, we see that both Led Zeppelin and Steppenwolf are immortal.  Let’s raise a glass to those feckers!  Shit, mine’s empty.  Two more pints o’ Guinness comin’ up faster than you can skelp a nun’s arse wi’ a banjo.

Sasha: I’m a little rusty on nurse skelping, but if you give me some time to practice... I think I already know the answer to this, but I’ll ask you anyway:  Do you think metal bands today owe a nod of thanks to Zeppelin and others from those days?

Spark: More than a nod.  A vigorous bang o’ the heid.  Metallists also owe classical composers a vast debt.

Sasha: OMG!  I’m so glad you said that!  So many people today overlook or just plain ignore the relationship between classical music and rock!

Spark:   For sure.  Rock stems from the blues, but true metal has more in common wi’ classical compositions.  The heavier the metal, the more this is the case.  Much Scandinavian metal has no musical relationship to the blues or rock ‘n’ roll.  If ‘blues’ is pictured as one geometric set and ‘melodic death metal’ another, there’s no intersection.  So if Paganini were around today, he’d be in a Norwegian black-metal band.  Fact.

Sasha: I don’t disagree.  So, tell me: what do you think of the musicianship of today’s metal masters?  Who are the best guitarists these days?

Spark: I enjoy different aspects o’ each guitarist.  Joe Satriani excels in composition and execution.  Jeff Beck has amazin’ feel.  Angus Young is a heid-bangin’, fretboard-scorchin’ master.  Michael Schenker never wastes a note.  Neal Schon always knows exactly the right note to play.  Paul Gilbert’s playin’ makes my jaw drop.  Yngwie Malmsteen’s a technical wizard but he spends too much time doin’ widdly-diddly, how-many-notes-can-I-cram-into-a-second pish.

Sasha: Yeah, Malmsteen does tend to be a bit of a show off at times, but he is a major talent.

Spark:  My fellow Scot Martin Taylor does guitar techniques that I’m still tryin’ to figure oot…he’s immense.  Juan Martin’s flamenco is superb.  Alexi Laiho is a shredding monster.  I could be here all night listin’ guitarists I respect.  There are thousands.  Last but not least I’ll mention David Gilmour because his solo in Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb is perhaps the most sublime one ever recorded.

Sasha: Gotta ask about drummers, since that’s my instrument of choice.  I’m actually not very good – I just like to hit things.  But for my money, no one can touch Keith Moon.  

Spark: Keith must have been a heck of a dude to meet and hang oot wi’.  Not only could he play drums to an insane level, he was ridiculously entertainin’ to watch: the perfect combination o’ craziness, ability and magnetism.  Didn’t matter what microphone-swingin’ stunts Daltrey was doin’ or which aerobatic manoeuvres Townshend was pullin’ off, they couldn’t take the limelight off Keith.  My eyes were on him when The Who played.  Lookin’ elsewhere was risky, as I might miss one o’ Keith’s crazy facial expressions!  You’ll get no argument from me aboot Keith Moon’s talent, Ms Jackson.  He was a wizard.  What a loss.

Sasha:   Agreed.  No one can touch him when it comes to drumming.  What about song lyrics, especially lyrics in metal songs?  Seems to me that the words in songs by Wintersun, Insomnium and bands like that are much darker.  I’m not saying I wish people were always singing about rainbows and unicorns, but do the lyrics in realllly hard music ever bring you down?

Spark: No.  Quite the opposite.  That shouldn’t surprise you, though.  My surname, MacDubh, means ‘son of the dark’.

Sasha:   Ahh.  I didn’t know that!  Um, this may be a bit personal, but what’s the story behind you making a deal with the Devil?

Spark: That wankstain!  Don’t get me started on him…

Sasha:  A lot of people in the music biz are wankstains, don’t get me started on them!  There are days when I regret leaving the music biz.  And I can remember – in my early days on the Toronto music scene – when I would have given my right arm, a kidney, and my firstborn for a contract with a major record label.  And now, in my life as a P.I. , I see person after person trade off money, favors, or a part of themselves – usually their integrity – to attain whatever is of the utmost importance to them.  

Spark: In your line o’ work, I bet you see it every day.  I’ve seen folk trade their souls, desperate to clamber onto some bandwagon or other.  My thinkin’ on the subject is in line wi’ a piece o’ biblical scripture.  ‘What profiteth a man if he gaineth the whole world and forfeiteth his soul?’  Mark wrote that.  Perhaps the original rhetorical question.  Here’s another question, a non-rhetorical one this time.  Whose round is it?  Yours?  Excellent!  I’ll have a pint o’ snakebite.  Ta very much, Sasha.

For more on Spark MacDubh (and his author Mark Rice) check out Metallic Dreams on AMAZON and follow Mark on Twitter @Metallic_Dreams

 

Interview with Douglas Wickard, author of A PERFECT SETUP

YAY!  Right in time for the release of A PERFECT SETUP, here's an interview with author DOUGLAS WICKARD.

You’ll have to forgive me for starting out with a softball question, but tell me: How good does it feel to have your new book out?   

It feels very good. This one has been a real rollercoaster for me, so to have it launched feels...well, good.

Here’s another softball for you:  For those who are not yet familiar with your writing (fix that folks!) what is your 100 word pitch for A Perfect Setup?  

A moment of weakness…an afternoon of passion…a brutal murder hits close to home…the explosive sequel to A PERFECT HUSBAND.

For every author, writing is a mixed bag of emotions: it’s frustrating, cathartic, challenging, heady, joyous, and about 672 other things.  At what points during the first draft writing process did you feel strong emotions (whether positive or negative)?  

Writing as Sami always brings up strong emotions. I think it’s one of the reason’s people identify with her so much. She’s real, flawed, courageous without knowing it and genuine. Her raw emotions arrive on the page, sometimes to her detriment. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Time for a loaded question now.  Characters are like an author’s children; it can at times be difficult to be objective about them (at least for some people).  How has Sami changed since we last saw her?  What aspects of her personality evolved in this novel?  

When I first started writing the sequel I had no idea where it would go. I knew I had to make her believable. I couldn’t have Sami not be in some sort of emotional anguish after the events of A Perfect Husband. I thought about the psychological ramifications she suffered and let that be my starting point. In A Perfect Husband Sami fought (at the expense of a serial killer) for her independence, some autonomy. In A Perfect Setup Sami takes it one step further…  

Now it’s time for a completely UNoriginal question!  Setting.  New York City.  I wonder if anyone has ever counted how many novels (not to mention short stories, plays, songs, poems, movies, TV shows, and so on) have been set there.  It’s got to be in the thousands.  So, why do you think NYC is such a popular setting for creative products?  What is it about the city that makes it resonate with people?  And do you think you could achieve a similar tone, a comparable mood, if you were to set your story in Boston or Seattle?   

Well, Sami is a New Yorker. I’m a New Yorker. I lived there for twenty years. I know the City, the cracks in the sidewalks, it’s my old stomping grounds. It’s the natural place for Sami to reside, particularly with her career in publishing, etc.  It’s the right fit for her.  My next book takes place in San Francisco. I feel cities have their own personality, setting, atmosphere…it lends to the ambiance of the novel. If I wrote Sami in another City it wouldn’t feel right for me. Unless of course, she decided to move, then, I guess I would have to follow her.   

How do you tap into the bad guys?  In our last interview, the teaser you gave then for this new book was Trust No One.  How do you get inside the heads of villains?  Where do you get the inspiration for the bad guys?   

I feel we ALL have some dark swirling around in us, waiting to be tapped. It’s a question of how we choose to act out on it. I personally love writing about deviant minds, the psychological breakdown of a person. How did they get that way? But, I also want to make my bad guys understood. A dear friend of mine told me years ago to always make the killers likeable.   So, I try to give a bit of back story so the audience has some compassion, some empathy. With Smitty, some readers had an absolute attraction to him.

A follow-up question for the above.  Is it ever a wee bit disturbing to discover where your imagination will take you when it travels to the dark side?   

No.  I love it. I feel very safe with it. Trust it. Listen intently to it. I hope it never shuts up!  

How do you decide on character names?  

They sort of appear, organically. My original name for Samantha (Sami) was Renee. But, when I was going through the final edit, I changed it to Sami. And, it stuck. 

No pressure, as you’ve just given birth to A Perfect Setup, but what is your next project (or current work in progress)?  

I plan on launching ENCOUNTER on Halloween. This was the novel I wrote right after A Perfect Husband dropped. But, with the success of Sami, my agent suggested I write the sequel. So, ENCOUNTER will finally see the light of day. I’m introducing a male detective by the name of Dan Hammer. From South Carolina. Charleston. Possibly…another new series.

When it comes to crime fiction, there’s always talk of means, motive and opportunity.  In terms of means, what is your favourite method of, uh, disposing of someone.  And what motives do you find most interesting to work with?  Most compelling?  

Whatever the killer directs me to do. I have no boundaries when it comes to this. I do a lot of research. When I’m in that ‘zone’ there are no restrictions.  I try to get inside the head of the perpetrator, feel what they feel and feed off their sick psyche. Sounds horrible, I know. 

The last question is a freebie, sort of... What is the one question you wish I had asked, but didn’t?  Now go ahead and ask and answer that question.  

Another sequel for Sami?  Yes. Sami will have a few more adventures. But, first I want to explore some stand-alone projects. My next project after I launch ENCOUNTER is DEVIL MAY CARE. I am still debating where I’m placing that one…I think Colorado. But, I’m not sure yet. 

For more on Douglas Wickard, check out his website HERE

Check out his Facebook page HERE

And follow him on Twitter @DouglasWickard

Guest Blogger Mar Preston On: Police Procedurals

Hi, I’m new here and I’m told there’s never been a guest blogger who wrote mysteries of the type they call police procedurals. There’s no mystery about what police procedurals are. Remember Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, even Hawaii 50?   

They’re a kind of crime fiction seen from the point of view of the detectives solving crimes −from Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police to Ed McBain’s fictional New York 87th  Precinct. Don’t forget Joseph Wambaugh who brought the LAPD alive, updating Dragnet?

I’m dropping some illustrious names here for you to check out if this whets your interest. And here’s a link to Stop You’re Killing Me, a great site that pulls together everything you’d like to know about mysteries. 

I write two series of police procedurals, one set in the Santa Monica Police Department, the other in a fictional mountain village in Central California.

Readers are smart and sophisticated and they want a convincing depiction of the working life of the detective. A lot of research and fact-checking must happen before turning out a police procedural. Get it wrong and you’ll feel the sting of readers’ disdain in a review on Amazon!

Authors are expected to portray in an exciting way the tedium of a real-life homicide investigation, evidence-gathering, forensics, autopsies, and the ever-changing law that governs search warrants and investigations. It helps to know that bloody crime scenes smell like the meat counter at the butcher shop.

You get that kind of detail by attending a writer’s homicide school such as one offered by Sgt. Derek Pacifico (Ret.) of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.  Pacifico gives an insider’s view of the working life of a real homicide detective. You learn that cops don’t talk about vics and perps and call themselves dicks. Getting the nomenclature right is essential.

The Citizen Academy offered by many local police departments gives residents a look behind the blue curtain as to the complexity of real life police work. The Internet is also a rich source of facts.

The hardest part is sometimes guessing the relationships between members of the police department. What do they call each other on and off duty? You’re talking about a hierarchical, authoritarian paramilitary organization. So how does a patrol officer greet the Chief of Police coming out of the john? What’s the real life relationship between locals and the FBI?

In upcoming blogs I’ll tackle some other issues: clues, informants, telling the story, and the difference between a whodunit and a thriller. I hope you’ll visit my website for further chats about police procedurals.  

For more from Mar, follow her on Twitter @YesMarPreston

and check out her books on AMAZON.