Interview w/ Jinnwoo
Eleven Eleven: One of the first things you learn in journalism school is to always start an interview with a question that makes the interviewee feel comfortable. The more comfortable they are, the more likely they are to slip up and say too much, which is the real story. But, this isn’t National Public Radio, and since your book deals with a lot of uncomfortable feelings, I think it’s only appropriate to go against everything I’ve been academically trained to do, and start with THE question that is sure to raise every creative person’s blood pressure. And yet, it’s the question we always get asked by the people we love most. It goes something like: “Oh, you wrote a book? What’s it about?”
Since Little Hollywood isn’t your typical book, I’m sure you’ve been asked this 100 times or more in the last six months, and I’m curious to hear how you’ve been responding to this well-meaning question that is responsible for so much stress, panic, and emergency trips to the restroom and/or fake phone calls.
Jinnwoo: *Panics and goes to the restroom for an emergency phone call*
Hours pass, seasons change. Children grow old.
I'm not great at describing it. It's technically a collection of 1 and 2 act plays, but I suppose they're more like short stories, because they don't really follow correct conventions of script writing. Then there are cut out paper actors to act out the stories. It's supposed to be funny I suppose, but I found Sister Act 2 funny, so I don't know.
EE: You are a musician, and a very good one at that. You have records, go on tours, and have music videos. Notable media outlets review your work. Let me get to the point: people know you for your music. Little Hollywood is your first book, and to our knowledge, this is the first time any of your writing has ever been published. When did you start writing, and why did you decide to start approaching publishers now?
J: I've always written scripts/prose just for myself. I'm interested in all kinds of storytelling, whether its music, scripts, film, visual, whatever. I've written two novels before, both were fucking awful and I didn't do anything with them. Little Hollywood was only meant to be a fun thing to write to get me through a rough time. I sent it to my favourite author, Sam Pink, and he liked it and suggested a few places to send it to. It was his encouragement and effort that nudged me.
EE: How long have you been working on Little Hollywood? Did it all come at once or a little at a time?
J: It was maybe x2 years in the making, on and off. I usually live in Brighton (England), but had to move to somewhere quite remote for a year and a half for various reasons. I didn't have any friends there, and there was nothing to do apart from going to the 24-hour supermarket to browse tins. So I chipped away at Little Hollywood as a way of keeping afloat. Then when I moved back to Brighton, I had to do a lot of temp jobs for a while whilst I found my feet, and this informed the last few plays like "CHECK BEHIND YOU", 'Lazy Opened-mouthed Babies" and "Somewhere Beyond the Sea".
EE: Was your approach to writing a book similar or different to writing a song or album?
J: There was a lot less pressure writing Little Hollywood. I guess because I don't know a great deal about how the lit world works, and I didn't think anyone would ever read it anyway, so I got to just write it for myself, exactly how I wanted it. Then, obviously, meeting the 11:11 gang who encourage freedom, it was just perfect and completely stress free. There's a lot more layers and hoops to jump through with music, and whether you mean to or not, you start writing with that process in mind and it changes things.
EE: Each script is short and complete, like a song. Was this intentional?
J: Ha, I'd never thought of that before. Maybe! I struggle to focus, and I like short concise stories that get to the point - whether that's songwriters or authors.
EE: The artwork is very well done and incredibly funny. Do you want readers to cut out the dolls? How much hands-on involvement do you want the reader to have?
J: I tend to hoard and preserve things, so I would never cut them out myself, but I like the idea of other people cutting them out. I don't think you need to cut them out to 'get' the book, it's your call - they're your problem now.
EE: You do know that we’ve been trained, at least in the good ol’ U.S of A, to never cut or deface books. I mean, I’m sure it appears to the rest of the world that we don’t read many books, but at least we respect them, goddammit (slams hand down on table). Is Little Hollywood intentionally provoking this dilemma: we’ve all been trained to handle books with care, and to get the full effects of the books (in my humble opinion) you have to throw away the moral or social values that have been ingrained in us since learning how to read?
J: Again, I'd never thought of that, but I like it. Strangely, a famous script writer called Joe Orton who is from my hometown (Leicester, England) was imprisoned in the 60's for defacing library books.
EE: Must be something in the water?
J: Tea bags.
EE: Do you have any future projects in the works? Megan and I [Andrew] were talking, and the characters feel like they could be an animated TV show. Have you thought about developing the paper doll characters further into their own personalities?
J: Writing wise, I'm working on a novel at the moment, but it’s very early days. Also collecting notes and things for more scripts maybe. I'd love to develop the characters from Little Hollywood in the future - I'm not sure how that would look at the moment. I'd love to see them animated, that would make my life at least 80% better.
EE: Who are some authors, artists, and musicians who are doing amazing things that you wish more people would know about?
J: Sam Pink is my hero, I just love everything he writes and paints - he has a huge following already, but people should buy his new books (The Ice Cream Man and Early Stuff). Big Bruiser Dope Boy is a funny lad - people should know about him (and by that, I mean someone should inform the police). Sarah Kane is one of my all time favourites. Pam Thompson is an amazing poet from my hometown who I'm in love with - she has taught me a great deal about writing over the years, and all her books make me sob. There is a guy called Lewis Barnes (again from my hometown) who I lived with for a while - he is phenomenal, funny, devastating, odd - again a big teacher of mine - he doesn't have any published work yet, but when he does, it's going to blow up. Musicwise, people should listen to Marissa, Jack and Davy, Dom Goodchild the Void Starer, Burd Ellen, and countless other people.
Jinnwoo is a writer, musician, and visual artist from Leicester (UK), currently living in Brighton (UK). He released a solo record Strangers Bring Me No Light in 2016 on Cargo Records, as well as records with British Folk groups Bird in the Belly (GF*M Records), and Green Ribbons (Matiere Memoire Records). His vocals also featured on Kyla La Grange’s second album Cut Your Teeth (Sony Records) and Ben Walker’s debut solo record Echo (Folk Room Records).
As a visual artist, Jinnwoo has produced work for the likes of Island Records, Warner Records, Thirty Tigers Records, and has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Beijing Today, Wonderland Magazine, Oh Comely Magazine and fRoots.
Little Hollywood is Jinnwoo’s debut book.
Buy Your Copy of Little Hollywood HERE