Alcemi Interviews Jeb Loy Nichols
Alcemi: The Untogether shows a particular interest in slogans, quotes, pithy saying – whether they be from T-shirt logos or philosophical texts. From where does this interest of your arise?
Jeb: I've always liked novels of ideas. A 'story' holds little interest for me. Exposition, how the characters got from a to b isn't what excites me – I'm interested in collision, speed and gravity, the intersection of unexpected words and people - and quotes, slogans, and distilled dialogue are a good way of doing that.
A: Do you think the blurb description of your novel as “a love story” is accurate?
J: Not really. There was a song by PIL that began with one of the great lines: This is not a love song. I think that about this book. It's a book about being and not being together - I'm not sure what a love story is anymore. Love is too tarnished a word.
A: The Untogether has a particular “low tech” feel which seems to be reflected in your current lifestyle, based around working your smallholding, making art and planting trees. Do you find it hard to balance high-profile musical relationships with a sustainable lifestyle?
J: Not really. I don't fly if I can avoid it – I turn down festivals and gigs that seem inappropriate. I don't sell any music to ads. I don't do things I'm not completely sure of. I like things small. Small is always, and in all ways, better than big.
You plant trees on your ten acres of land. What species are your favourites? There's a hawthorn that grows outside our backdoor that I love. There's a weeping birch we planted three years ago that's beautiful, and any willow.
Musical MentorsMerle Haggard, Bobby Womack, Joe Higgs, Larry Jon Wilson, Adrian Sherwood, Tony Joe White, The Slits.
Influential American authorsMary Robison, Joy Williams, Richard Brautigan, Alfred Hayes, Julie Hecht, Darcey Steinke, James Salter
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