Drew Gummerson's lastest novel, Me and Mickie James, follows the adventures of Down by Law, a pop duo like no other. For a start, Mickie James has a hunchback, but that doesn't matter, he is the talented one. From their base in a disused room at the top of St Pancras Station, they plan to take the music industry by storm. Only first they need gigs, a record deal and a flushable toilet.
Via giants in a minor European theme park, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and an unidentified splinter group of the Viet Cong on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, they find the path to success is anything but a simple three-cord love song. Me and Mickie James is a novel of vivid imagination, energy and humour about love, fate and the power of music.
We caught up with Drew Gummerson to find out more about his gay pop duo and the concept of fame, supporting queer artists, music, writing and how he comes up with all his colourful ideas.
So tell us all about Me and Mickie James.
Me and Mickie James is my new book coming out on 17 July. It’s about a pop duo called ‘Down By Law’, both gay, one hunchbacked, who move down to London hoping to make it big in the music world. The book follows their comic adventures as they end up travelling around the world trying to achieve this.
What inspired you to write the book?
It started out as just one short story. I was writing stories about different parts of the body; a man with one leg, a boy who steals another boy’s penis, a man who loses his feet and so on and then I wrote a story about a hunchback. I liked the characters, so I wrote another story about them, then another. The novel kind of happened by accident.
Me and Mickie James is described as a novel about ‘love, fate and the importance of pop music in all our lives’. Can you explain a bit more about that please?
Ha ha! The words that form the blurb on the front and back of the book are all my own except the line that you’ve picked out which was added by my editor! But the book describes what I feel about life. Fame for its own sake seems to be a goal that is promoted in the media. Down By Law want to be famous but they find again and again their music connects them to people, brings happiness and somehow makes changes in ways they couldn’t have foreseen.
Do you have any favourite scenes in the novel?
You know, like most writers, I often can’t see any worth in my own work, but I like it when Down By Law perform for the orphans of war on Christmas Eve. I love those Dickens Christmas stories and I wanted to recreate something warm and sweet and festive. Needless to say, that bit of the book was written at Christmas.
Have you ever been in a band yourself?
No, not at all. Although I used to play the organ...
So how did it all begin for you; when did you start writing books?
There is actually a specific start date. It was in 1999. I had to leave Sydney, where I’d lived for 2 years. I wasn’t happy to be back in England and I thought, right, now is the time to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do, which was write. Whether I was published or not, I would carry on writing.
"I was writing stories about different parts of the body; a man with one leg, a boy who steals another boy’s penis...and then I wrote a story about a hunchback...The novel kind of happened by accident."
Are there any queer-specific works or artists that you would say have influenced your writing?
Absolutely. I discovered Christopher Isherwood’s writing when I was about 17 and the first things I wrote were in the style of him. Goodbye to Berlin is my favourite book and one I’ve read again and again. Written in the 1930s, it doesn’t seem to have dated at all. Later in his life, Isherwood became a campaigner for gay rights. He’s a great role model all round.
As well as being a book about music and sound, Me and Mickie James evokes rich and often surreal visuals; are there any particular films or pieces of visual art that have inspired you?
A lot; but to start with, the animated film Belleville Rendezvous and all the Wallace and Gromit films. The group in Me and Mickie James get their name from a Jim Jarmusch film, Down By Law (obviously!). He’s a big inspiration. I especially love Stranger than Paradise and Mystery Train.
Again, your characters are highly visual in that they seem, to me, to be associated with various shapes and colours – pink hats, blue hair, a giant that casts shadows, the big breasts of DD10, a hunchback and so on. Do you already have a clear image of your characters in your head before you write, or do they naturally ‘take shape’, so to speak, as you write?
I don’t know how other writers work. But your previous question was spot on. I start with the image in my head and then think how to describe it. Jarmusch is really great with these sharp images - for example, the Japanese Elvis on the train at the beginning of Mystery Train, or there’s a great long shot in Stranger than Paradise, a huge expanse of white snow with the characters standing completely dressed in black. Belleville Rendezvous has the most brilliantly shaped characters - the oblong gangsters are fabulous.
How did the idea to give Mickie James a hunchback come about? Had he always had a hunchback from the moment you created him?
Yes. The story started with him having a hunchback. That came first. I wrote the first paragraph, them being in a pop group and moving down to London, having absolutely no idea where the story was going to go. Quite by chance there was a lot to work with - Mickie James hates the way he looks but he is also in a pop group which means he is going to be looked at.
In keeping with what seems to be the book’s focus on the culturally, politically and socially transcendent nature of music, the fact that Down By Law are gay never seems to be an issue for the other characters. In real life, how important do you think it is to actively support queer artists?
That’s a tough question, isn’t it? You’re interviewing me now because I’m gay and I’ve written a book. I’m grateful for that and hopefully people reading this will go out and buy the book. You’re supporting me and the whole website you run is offering services to gay people.
I’m very aware and appreciative of how much things have changed. It’s not so very long ago that it wouldn’t have been possible for Me and Mickie James to be published and especially not from a mainstream publisher.
But, more than this, I hope people will read the book and like it because it’s a good book. I don’t love Ali Smith’s, or Sarah Waters', or Jeanette Winterson’s writing because they are lesbians, but because they are great writers, athough I might have been drawn to them in the first place because of their sexuality. Have I answered the question?
"I’m gay and I’ve written a book...I’m very aware and appreciative of how much things have changed. It’s not so very long ago that it wouldn’t have been possible for Me and Mickie James to be published."
Your book certainly seeks to comment on contemporary notions of fame and celebrity; in your opinion, who is the most overrated star on the planet today?
There’re loads of celebrities around who are just famous for being famous. But they’re not overrated because no one rates them, do they? I find the whole concept of Andrew Lloyd Webber quite depressing. I mean the whole thing, people dressing up and going to his shows and thinking that it’s entertainment. Is it a kind of brainwashing that I never had?
Have you ever wanted to be really famous?
No, not at all. I would hate it.
So have you travelled as far and wide as Down By Law? What is your favourite place on earth?
I’ve travelled around America on the Greyhound buses, lived in the Czech Republic, Japan and Australia. It all happened quite by accident. My favourite place is Sydney. I love it there.
What is your favourite Down By Law track?
I like the reworked version of ‘Kinky Goggles’ the narrator plays for the Japanese boys on the bongos: "Dinky goggles on a pinky boy".
So what’s next for you?
I’ve got a couple of short stories coming out in collections over the next few months and another story will be on Radio 4, with the details as and when on my website. And I’m working on another novel.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Umm... Buy my book!
Find out more at www.drewgummerson.co.uk.
Read our review of Me and Mickie James and our Drew Gummerson's feature, My Life in Gay Music.
Me and Mickie James, by Drew Gummerson
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House Group
Released: 17 July 2008
ISBN: 0224082442
Buy Me and Mickie James online now and save some money to put towards Drew Gummerson's first novel, The Lodger.