Out Of The Cellar: Jordan interviews "Hell Bent For Leather: Confessions Of A Heavy Metal Addict" author Seb Hunter
Good day Anarchy! This month I decided to have something a little different in the Cellar. It's still music related and I'm sure you're gonna love it. I interviewed the writer of the book Hell Bent For Leather: Confessions Of A Heavy Metal Addict. Mr. Seb Hunter. I think that the title pretty much sums up what the book's about. Seb tells us about his life as a musician and general Heavy Metal junkie. The book is very, very funny and I'm sure whether you love Kiss, Poison, Hanoi Rocks, Metallica, Guns N' Roses damn even Nirvana you will love this book. Seb has also written another book which I'm currently reading, it's called Rock Me Amadeus... Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Handel. You like that don't you? Haha. Oh by the way, if me and Seb start talking about British tv channels and stuff don't get confused! Anyway, enough. On with the interview!
Jordan: Hey Seb, so first off let's take a look the the future, when can we
expect to see a new book? What will it be about?
Seb Hunter: I'm halfway through my third book, which documents my attempts to become a
"better person" through doing as much different volunteer work as possible:
from litter-picking to meals-on-wheels; from Oxfam to hospital radio; from
attempting to become a police community support officer to bingo calling for
pensioners. This is my first book not about music, but the facile humour is
just the same as ever.
Jordan: Your most famous, successful book to date is Hell Bent For Leather, how
does it feel to know Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and no doubt quite a few other celebrities enjoyed the read?
Seb: Well, that's also the only book to date. My second book, "Rock Me Amadeus:
When Ignorance Meets High Art, Things Can Get Messy", comes out in paperback
this summer - in June, to be precise. But to answer the question: I'm
delighted whenever any fucker reads and enjoys one of my books. Bruce
Dickinson only read it cos he was interviewing me for his radio show, but he
did say nice things about it and I was chuffed. Sadly I'm not aware of any
other rock stars or indeed celebrities who have read it. Actually no, Julian
Barrett out of the Mighty Boosh read it and sent me a sweet email, and then
from out of that, he appeared in the short film version. And he's brilliant
in it too.
Jordan: Hell Bent For Leather is soon to be turned into a short film to be shown
on television, what can you tell us about this, did you contact them or did
they ask you?
Seb: Film Four commissioned the short film kind of like an "audition" for
director (and scriptwriter) James Wood for the feature film proper. If the
guys at Film Four like what they see in the short, then they'll release
squillions of pounds and James ought to get to make the feature film later
this year. I'll be heavily involved in this too (I hope). There was a
screening of the short film at Channel Four a few weeks ago, and so fingers
crossed they'll give the project the thumbs-up. It's been fantastic getting
the thing this far, to be honest. And apparently the short film (which is
only 20 minutes long) is going to be shown on Channel Four too at some
point. They might as well put it on, seeing as how they paid for it and all.
The short film is very much in the spirit of the book - the jump-cutting and
the humour and all - they've done a great job and it's very funny.
Jordan: Okay so when the film is finally released who will be playing you?
Yourself or an actor? Whose decision was this?
Seb: Sadly I can't pass for a 17 year-old these days; nor do I possess any acting
skills. In the short film there are three actors playing me. The 10 year-old
me is a sweet kid called Lawrence; the 17 year-old me is played by a lovely
guy named Richard Dean, and the voiceover, (contemporary me) is the Mighty
Boosh's Julian Barrett. This is all way too much me, obviously. If I were to
actually appear as well as all these other mes, viewers would vomit, and
nobody wants that. Although saying that I do make a brief cameo; indeed all
of the real-life Trash can Junkies do - we play my dad's old jazz band, the
Burning Jaspers.
Jordan: Because of Hell Bent we all know you as Mr. Sex, Drugs and Rock N' Roll,
however you've written a book called Rock Me Amadeus which is about, what?
Classical music? But before deciding to write the book is it not true that
you knew nothing about Classical music? How does that book work then?
Seb: The basic concept behind writing Rock Me Amadeus was: can somebody who knows
absolutely fuck all about classical music feel as passionate about it as the
rock music he's loved his whole life? Thus the book follows my journey
across Europe (and, erm, history) as I attempt to get to grips with it all.
It's like a weird, fucked-up musical travelogue involving lots of bad
language and drunkenness. Not so different from the first book, really.
Jordan: Is it true that from time to time you break out the Faster Pussycat
albums or perhaps even... Pretty Boy Floyd?
Seb: Erm, not really. But I still listen to a lot of AC/DC, Van Halen and Black
Sabbath. My favourite contemporary band is probably the almighty Sunn0))). I
do still rate the first Pussycat album though - a classic of its time, for
sure. Although saying that, their second was a better record.
Jordan: Okay so when did you decide to write Hell Bent For Leather, why did you
think this was something people would be interested in reading, surely
having dreams of making it big in a Rock band were pretty common stuff?
Seb: Well, I guess I thought - in the face of all these endless, hubristic,
self-righteous rock star autobiogs that pile up around us - that it would be
fun to write the same kind of thing, but from the perspective of a total
rock failure. In other words, to write about what happens to most people who
attempt to do this! I decided to be brutally honest and self-mocking, and
the tone just seemed to work. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it - it was like
a giant exorcism of my youth.
Jordan: Your new band Crater is a far cry from the Glam and Sleaze stuff of The
Trash Can Junkies and Cat Ballou, is this just a band for fun or do you feel you could make some waves this time round?
Seb: We're an experimental improv band, so we're not doing this for the bucks.
That said, I know for sure we're making waves already: standing waves, sine
waves, sometimes we go out and record actual waves in the sea. Why not come
down and see us (for free!) at The Social, Little Portland Street, London,
on Tuesday May 29th?
Jordan: When I contacted you about this interview you were off to Los Angeles,
was that a business trip or just a holiday? Did you head down to Sunset
Strip to take a look what could have been?
Seb: My friend is writing a book about his youthful obsession with Dr Who, and we
went to Los Angeles to visit a Dr Who convention. How fucking sad is that? I
don't even fucking like Dr Who; but my friend took me along because he
thought my presence would be "amusing". But he paid for the whole trip, so I
wasn't complaining. And, after a few days' Dr Who horror, I managed to
escape into the desert, so it wasn't all bad. And yes, we hit Sunset Strip -
we met Lemmy in the Rainbow Bar & Grill. He was friendly. I didn't ask him
if he'd read Hell Bent; I was too drunk; as was Lemmy. Probably. I can't
really remember.
Jordan: Well thanks for your time Seb, I usually do ten questions and I can't
break that tradition now, but I can't think of anything so erm... I stole
this from the Hobbies section of your MySpace page "Helping old ladies
across the road for merely one pound seventy five" Is there any truth to
this or is it just random quick-fire improvised writing?
Seb: Yes it's true, but I've recently raised my price to two pounds. This is due
to the recent rise in interest rates by the Bank of England. It's a very
competitive field of work, and the tips are terrible.