5 Questions With... JJ Colagrande
I was going to post up these 5 Questions with my review of JJ Colagrande's novel, Headz, but the review was really long, and I didn't want to do a disservice to JJ's great answers by buring it in the review.
Enjoy!
A lot of the inspiration for Headz was your experiences following around the Grateful Dead and Phish. What are some of your best and odd experiences?
Everything moved and moves so fast, you feel me??
So it blends together as a composite of good times and odd memories. Seeing a concert you travel to becomes more about the journey it takes to get there, rather than the destination or music. It's getting out of your hometown, seeing cars with different license plates, meeting new people, eating at new diners and peeping new cultures and accents and parks.
It's the freedom. It's not about me.
That's the point of Headz. It's about us. "Us" as a lost generation, as rebels without clues. "Us" as pioneers and visionaries and anarchists of art and business too.
Fuck me, bro. Who cares?? Those specific bands had a culture of 30,000 hardcore conscious heads who followed them from city to city; every city and show was an adventure in its own right, a mission with 10,000 beautifully odd experiences per day, and then it was on to the next show.
If you read Headz, you get a taste of a beautifully odd world that really is not too far away at all. And it still goes on today. It'll be at Ultra in a couple of weeks.
What has Miami done for your writing? What do you think of Vice City?
I went to FIU as an undergrad, came back to Miami for grad school, then moved back to teach college at Miami-Dade, Wolfson. Miami has given me a safe, calm place to organize the chaos of composition.
Because Miami is filled with chaos and duality, and of course characters, it's easy to draw inspiration for many writers. I love this city. It feeds my vices. I've seen this city change so much in the last ten years. It's dope. Especially with what's going on Downtown. And also in the arts. There's talent here.
Writers are usually passionate about music. Bukowski listened to Classical Music while he wrote, Ginsberg and Kerouac influenced a whole generation of musicians, etc. Also, I know that you get a lot of writing assignments to travel the US following musical festivals and tours, especially because of the theme of Headz. Who are your favorite bands, and what do you think about the local Miami music scene?
The Miami music scene has always been a goldmine of eclectic, undiscovered wealth. It's hard to bring this community together; to overcome the veneer of Miami's international image, which is really false. But there are people bringing it together, like the Sweat [Records] crew, and Nastie and Benny, and Moksha Ray and NewTimes, and you at REV.
Musically, it's good to see Otto von Schirach and Rachel Goodrich coming up; it's great to see anyone you know come up. And the older you get, the more you see people you know come up. You actually see the highly mechanical steps it takes to come up. You see how to do it, the work ethic and talent and luck needed, the time and patience involved, the motherfucking discipline.
Many are called, few are chosen, which makes it hard, but next thing you know, you're coming up. If you're a dreamer. Life would be horribly boring without a dream. And those who abandon their dreams will continuously discourage you from achieving yours.
That's a motif I see in literature. Dream big. There are a lot of bands in Miami I really like: Raffa and Rainer are beautiful, Brendan O'Hara and Kamikazee are hot as fuck, Afrobeta is just kinky to me, Radio Boxer fucking blew me away at REV's White Room show; ArtOfficial and Suenelo and Spam [All-Stars] are all amazing too. It doesn't seem to get old seeing these bands.
What's the life of a writer really like?
Shit. It's a lot of revision, re-writing, editing. Writing is re-writing. That's what it is. Fuck anyone who talks about spontaneity and stream of consciousness, that's drivel, even if it's good.
The craft of writing commands editing. It does. The business side of writing is also shit; especially these days. There's little money in writing. It's highly competitive. It's filled with rejection and criticism.
Yet, on the other hand, the life of a writer is sublime. To create characters. To express truth. To rip off the masks, illusions, and armor we all carry to get to the secret truth inside individuals and societies. To draw on all of history and humanity. It's godlike and spiritual. It's transcending and illuminating. I just wouldn't recommend it . . .
You have a 3 of hearts, and a Jack of hearts, and on the flop there's another heart and another Jack. Do you roll with it or fold?
Great question!! I'd go all-in, bro.
That's the point. Follow your dreams. Take chances. Risk.
Sure, you fail, you lose, you hurt, you suffer and bruise and scar, but you try; you chase, you envision, you work, and work, and work; you take a risk, put it out there, you fail till you succeed; and you will succeed; you follow your mistakes and you learn and build and build and build, and it will build. But not if you don't take a risk.
You have to be in it to win it, bro!! That's it. Period.
Visit the Headz the Novel website to purchase the book, as well as read deleted chapters.
If You Enjoyed This Post, You May Also Like:
- JJ Colagrande's Oracledang Comes to Life on Friday
- Punk Rock Show on South Beach?? What??
- Headz The Novel by JJ Colagrande: A Review
- REVMiami's 1 Year Anniversary Celebration: Review
- Allison's Art Basel Reflections Parts 3, 4 and 5
NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Do not flame or leave obnoxious comments, THEY WILL NOT BE APPROVED. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed by any artist, but don't be a d-bag, show some class. Thanks. - REVMiami Staff
[...] that long ago, I did a review of local author JJ Colagrande's music festival oriented novel, Headz the Novel. One of the central aspects of the book was the [...]