Interview with Andrez Bergen

Well known novelist and comic book author, Andrez Bergen is also an established musician working primarily in the techno genre. His upbringing in Australia and current residence in Japan, no doubt adds to the rounded and flowing style of his intelligent, insightfully creative stories.  Project-Nerd recently had the chance to ask him some questions about his life, his work, and what it takes to stay alive as an artist in this world. His newest release, which is available July 25th, 2014,  Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth has already seen smashingly positive reviews.

DepthChargingIcePlanetGoth

Project-Nerd: When do you sleep? Working so many projects, it appears as though you might not have time to take a breather?

Andrez Bergen: Ha Ha Ha… good question, and one a lot of people lob my way. I actually do get sleep, I swear, but sometimes not enough of it depending on the project and how wrapped up in it I may be. These days I usually crash early, around 10pm, and get up around 4am before the family wakes. It’s dark and quiet and a brilliant time to potter.

PN: Techno-funk music; webcomics; graphic novels; novels; will you be getting into film as well? Orrrr have you already been there?

Andrez: Actually, that was the career I really wanted to pursue when I finished high school — I applied to the Swinburne film school in Melbourne, where people like Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) and Alkinos Tsilimidos (Everynight) studied. Made it into the last 30 candidates with a very surreal home-movie I’d shot using friends who couldn’t act, and then got the flick. That motivated me to shift my focus into journalism and making music — since we had problems getting a half-decent sound track for the crappy films we were shooting.

PN: What’s it like doing editing and writing for magazine publications versus in the fiction world?

Andrez: Very different, since the magazine articles aren’t supposed to be works-of-fiction — yet they sometimes drift into that terrain! Writing “straight” articles makes you work the brain to try to inject humour or rephrase things in different ways, and the turnaround deadlines can be a killer. But these things are fantastic practice for penning fiction, so I think the two go together well in spite of differences.

PN: Growing up in Australia, and now living in Japan for quite a few years, how has that influenced you? Your writing?

Andrez: Growing up in Melbourne has definitely shaped my writing — I’m fiercely parochial about that city, even after being absent for more than a decade, as it’s the place I grew up in and is so easy to write about. The laneways, the landmarks, the history — these filter through especially in Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat and part of One Hundred Years of Vicissitude. In the new novel, they’re there too, but distorted in an offbeat looking glass. I think Melbourne makes also for a great last-city-on-Earth locale. Nevil Shute also cast it this way in his book On the Beach. Remember the 1959 movie starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire? Tokyo is the other city I call home.

Having been here [in Japan] these past 13 years, it shapes much of what I do on an unconscious as much as conscious level. It’s the reason that One Hundred Years of Vicissitude was so focused on Japan, coming as it did just after the upheaval of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. I love this place and the people are special. Japanese elements drift into the other books — Laurel’s ancestry, the tattoos and the digital geisha in Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, for example, and Midori/Prima Ballerina’s nationality in Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?

PN: While you are doing so much writing, what inspires you to keep going and stay motivated?

Andrez: I think my daughter Cocoa is a principle motivator. She’s eight years old now, and I want to be able to give her these books and comics and records and stories when she gets older, and I hope she’s proud. Doesn’t have to be, but that would be nice if she likes some of it. She’s an amazing kid. Otherwise, friends, critics, fellow writers, and readers/listeners inspire me in their own way. A simple line or two expressing appreciation of or the digging of a certain book or record goes a long way to motivate me to do more. These people are gold. Finally, some cool cats I’ve worked with in publishing and comics have been essential mates to bounce off and occasional vent to — people like Phil Jourdan (Perfect Edge Books), Matt Kyme (IF? Commix) and Kristopher Young (Another Sky Press).

PN: You claim to have been influenced in part by many Marvel Universe characters, any particular reason for that or do you care to get into the whole debate of what major universe is best?

Andrez: Ahhh, this hoo-ha! Well, what can I say? I tend to drift through comic book universes, mostly without a paddle — at different stages I’ve been into DC, Marvel, Image, British comics, manga, Belgian stuff (Tintin and Lucky Luke), the Australian run of The Phantom, even Harvey Comics. While as a child I loved reprints of the 1950s Batman books, my head was completely turned by what Frank Miller did with The Dark Knight Returns, and then Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb’s Dark Victory. But I was already a Miller fan thanks to his run with Daredevil earlier on — at Marvel — and I spent my teen years worshipping John Byrne’s work with Chris Claremont and Terry Austin on X-Men. Even more than Batman reprints I’d adored the 1960s Fantastic Four i comics by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. And if we’re talking about reinventing a character, look at what Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting did with Captain America, and Matt Fraction and David Aja did with Hawkeye. Brilliant. So, yeah, I’ve always been more into Marvel than DC. And I think that’s particularly true right now — I’m not currently reading any DC titles except for back-catalogue oldies.

PN: When it comes to your long list of published works, there’s gotta be one that you favor or recommend to others, any suggestions?

Andrez: Oh. Um. Hmm… One Hundred Years of Vicissitude means a lot to me because it’s so heavily weighted on Japan as well as my Australian roots, it was my tribute to the Japanese after the shock of the earthquake/tsunami, I loved working with the character of Kohana, and it’s a tale of redemption, of sorts. But I think Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? is more accessible and fun, since it’s got the whole comic book noir angle on things. But personally…? I’d point to the new novel Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth. Mina means a lot to me, partially I, and she’s been a fantastic personality to develop. I hope that doesn’t sound self-indulgent, but there it is.

It was such a great pleasure to hear from you Andrez! Best of luck in all you do! And for those of you who are excited to learn more about Andrez, check him out on Amazon, Beatport as Little Nobody and Funk Gadget, and more about his comic work over at If? Commix.

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