1. As a musician and writer, which art form do you prefer?
Which is more rewarding as an artist?
Dr. Frank: Like anything else, they have good points and bad points. Writing
is something you can do anywhere as long as you have something to write with
and, significantly, never involves getting the cooperation of a drummer, while
rock and roll, even with a cooperative drummer, is a complicated affair
involving many moving pieces that often go awry. On the other hand, while
playing rock and roll is just about the most fun you can have, writing is
almost always really really unpleasant, to the point of torture sometimes. Writing
a novel is one of those things that is nice to have done. I don’t know which is
more rewarding, but it is nice to be able to do both.
2. Why do you choose to write in the young adult genre?
Dr. Frank: It was proposed to me by an agent, so it wasn’t really a
matter of choice. The assignment was, write a young adult novel for me to sell.
But I have a great respect and affinity for the tradition of teen fiction, and
many of my songs tended to be from a sort of generalized adolescent frame of
mind, so writing from the point of view of teenager wasn’t much of a stretch.
3. What about YA novels intrigue you?
Dr. Frank: Adolescence is the point in life where a lot of things
important things happen to you for the first time, and these are experiences
that leave a mark and cast shadows over the rest of your life. This makes it an
excellent, and perhaps the ideal, “frame” for an exploration of the self, or,
in the case of my stuff, a satire of such.
4. Being an adult, how are you able to relate to young adult
readers? How do you stay fresh and relevant to a teenage audience?
Dr. Frank: It’s not something I
spend a lot of time worrying about. I just write the best, most interesting
stuff I can manage and try to avoid being trite or dishonest. Above all I try
to avoid being condescending. Young readers aren’t quantitatively different from
any other kind of readers. And part of respecting them as readers means that
you stay away from pandering and patronizing.
5. On stage, do you find it more intimate to play music or
read to an audience? Why?
Dr. Frank: It’s more difficult to be entertaining when you’re just
reading (which is why having the guitar is a good crutch.) I don’t find reading
my own stuff all that easy or compelling, and though I do do it, I think a
little goes a long way. It’s better to integrate it into your general “act.” As
for intimacy, the louder you are the less intimate it is, but the greater your
chance of charging through uninterrupted, so it’s a trade-off.
Michael Schussler
