Tim Kasher: Write Because You Love It

I’m a touring musician, a songwriter and a filmmaker hobbyist, hoping to one day make a suitable enough return on filmmaking to remove the “hobbyist” tag.

People often seem surprised that I’m generally in good spirits? Which I find odd; I write morosely as a cynic, but that doesn’t require a raincloud over my head at all times.

Just finished Look At Me by Jennifer Egan and am beginning Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, gifted to me by my best bud Stefanie Drootin-Senseney, who quite enjoyed it and wanted me to check out. I’ve loved Dostoyevsky in the past, though it’s been over a decade since I last read him.

At a very young age it would have been The Monster At The End Of This Book starring Grover by Jon Stone, and The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Notable that they are both “horror” for children, haha, a genre I still relish (at least in film). A bit older, I found a deep connection to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that I still have to this day. That’s a beautiful book with philosophy I seemed to understand as a child, though it seems more pertinent for adults.

I was fortunate enough to have many older brothers and sisters to lead me to good music. In particular, my brother Steve who sought out a lot of cool music, so I was listening to Violent Femmes and The Cure in 4th grade. That surely left a deep impression on my psyche and developed my musical palette.

I bought about ten books at Powell’s in Portland, OR a couple months ago – I like buying in bulk there, annually, as they tend to have most everything you’re looking for. The Amoeba Records of bookstores. Among those: Ninety-Two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane, The Map and the Territory by Michel Houllebecq, and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. All of these bought by recommendation, I have a handful of literary friends I like to swap recommends with, and I also get great recommendations at shows from people who have a handle on how I write and like to offer suggestions for literature.

Men Without Hats, “Rhythm of Youth.” Purchased on vinyl at Target, back when Target had aisles and aisles of records, haha. Oddly, they carry records again, all these years later — the select few major label releases. I remember this so well, as it was the first band that I chose personally, rather than something handed down from my older siblings.

Rabbit, Run by John Updike is a book I’ve read a few times and really love. I find myself wanting to touch on that story time and again in my own writing. I guess it’s the book I wish I’d written, had I ever written a novel. I like the whole ‘Rabbit’ series, in particular, the first chapter of “Rabbit Is Rich” that spends close to fifty pages just sitting with two couples having drinks at a country club. The micro details are fascinating, it’s masterful writing to keep such minutiae interesting for so many paragraphs.

Certainly not obscure, but it seems some people are unaware of Tim Kinsella’s (Joan Of Arc) foray into literature. I really appreciate his writing, Let Go And Go On And On being my favorite. Tim has become a good bud over the years, so there’s really no interesting discovery story in there.

I delved into some Somerset Maugham recently that I quite liked. I have a continued fascination with the era around the turn of the twentieth century, writers pushing boundaries that seem almost silly, arbitrary to us today, but must have been groundbreaking (and crucial) back then. Oscar Wilde (a favorite), Frank Norris, Edith Wharton. BUT, the best book I’ve read in the last half year is A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

Eep. Is merely staying alive into my forties a worthy achievement?

Write what comes naturally to you, don’t mimic what you love. The stuff that comes exclusively out of your own head is most likely to be unique, and better yet, is uniquely yours. Whether others care for it or not?? Well, you can’t allow yourself to be consumed by those thoughts; write because you love it, first and foremost, then hope others love it too. If they don’t, well, at least you tried, at least you stayed true to yourself and put something uniquely your own out into the world. That feels better than compromising your tastes, in my opinion. If you happen to find some success with your work, keep that success separate from your future writing, don’t let it seep into your work. I follow Hemingway’s advice that a writer should stay hungry.

Haha, I like this question. I would hate myself too much if I actually did something like this intentionally, so I suppose I’d sooner sabotage myself by placing my Jason Priestley biography out on display. That said, we have our giant Stanley Kubrick coffee table book out at all times, so I guess I’m guilty of displaying curated tastes.

We are currently on tour with Campdogzz and Meat Wave, so I’ve certainly been consuming a lot of their music lately. They are two of my favorite bands playing music today, so I feel quite fortunate to share a stage with them. We even released the latest Campdogzz album on our label, 15 Passenger. Other than them, I’ve been listening to a lot of The Buzzcocks lately, a band I’m playing catch up on, having missed out on them back in the early ’80s.

Whoa. These aren’t uplifting books, but I think I’d gift them The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Each book a masterpiece, they offer not only the horrors of humanity but also the indomitable strength of the human will.

I’m eager to read The Largesse Of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson, his final book, as he has sadly passed away.