OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. NOVEMBER 8, 2006 ARTS & CULTURE 13 The World Has Enough Mugs The Vinyl Cafe’s Stuart McLean on Life, Music, and Stories ANDREW KURJATA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I wasn't sure what to expect when set- ting out to interview Stuart McLean,.I have listened to his CBC radio show, The Vinyl Cafe, numerous times, and read his many books in which he con- sistently draws fascinating, funny, and emotionally resonant stories out of what others would simply dismiss as the bot- ing lives of everyday people. Clearly, he takes an interest in talking to others. But I still didn’t expect him to be so ac- cessible- especially not when he is in the middle of a national tour for what is sure to be yet another best-selling, award- winning book of short stories while at the same time recording new episodes of The Vinyl Cafe. This tour included a two day stop in Prince George, where he entertained sold-out crowds with a var- iety show of sorts, full of comedy, music (courtesy award-winning singer-song- writer Murray McLauchlan), stories, and audience interaction. But fortunat- ely the “nice guy” personality he has on the radio and in performance isn’t just an act, and he was more than willing to take some time out to talk to Over the Edge about writing, awards, music, and life on the road. LIFE When you were first getting your Bach- elor of Arts, did you have any idea you would end up doing what you're doing now? The curiosity led me to journalism. The impulse to be an observor and be curious about things is what led me to become a writer and a journalist, they impulse to write stories is what led me there. Even as a young boy I was very intrigued by the world of writing and radio. I'm very lucky that two of my boyhood dreams have come together like that. You've been back and forth across Can- ada a few times now. How do you decide where to tour? Do you have favourite places, or do you always try for somewhere new? Both. We go back to our favourite places, and try to explore. BC is one of our favourite tours. It’s so beautiful, people are nice, and it's always good to be back hete, see some old friends. What sort of hidden gems have you found in the last few year? ; There are things I like about every place. I really like Nanaimo today. Waking up in the hotel and looking over the harbour is one of the prettiest sights in Canada. I have a great affection for the north, and I look forward to coming there... our drive from Terrace to Prince Rupert might be one of the prettiest drives in ‘Canada. Neighbourhoods seem to be a recurring theme in your writing, both fiction and non-fiction. How do you see the traditional neighbourhood transforming in the world today? What role do you see technology taking? I think it depends on where you live and what age you are... Maybe there are more untraditional kinds of neighbour- hoods, but they are neighbourhoods nonetheless, [Technology] can provide connections; and I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s especially great when those kinds of connections coincide with phys- icality, that experience of walking out your front door, seeing someone who you live beside greet you warmly and fondly. It’s a reassuring feeling, It height- ‘ens your sense of safety... I think it’s a wonderfully reassuring feeling that you know when you step out your front door that there are others you know who care about you and are there in a casual way, but could be there on a deeper level if you required that, or you could be there for them. [I also think] it gives a sense of place... We all have many neighbourhoods: the classroom, the workplace, everyone who watches hockey on Saturday nights, but I think the strongest one is that of phys- icality. People come together almost always in the feeling of fellowship. Very rarely do they come together to do any harm. I grew up in Montreal in a small, self-contained, neighbourhood where we were bordered by railway tracks on three sides, so it was much like a small town, where the geographic world made sense to me. What about when you're on the road? Do you miss your neighbourhood then? I do miss it, and I hope that I will establish those kind of relationships in my new neighbourhood [eds. note: Me- Lean has recently moved.] But I have the neighbourhood of my workplace... these are largely the same people I travel with all the time, I feel very connected to this little tribe of people that travel to gether. And when we travel, we return to the neighbourhoods that we have found across Canada. How do you explore? We go for a walk everyday, for two hours. That's one big way. We rely on others to tell us things, or our own eyes. Yesterday, we were walking in Duncan, and it had a sign on the front fence that said “Go Dad,’ and I saw two little kids on a trampoline, and I got curious. So we stopped and went in and introduced ourselves and asked about it, and it turned out hie was running a marathon. MUSIC Music is obviously a big thing for you- - it plays a prominent role in your writing and on your radio show.. Where does this come from? ‘ve always been very fond of popular music... I was very young when I started buying récords. Most people I think stop listening to music at a certain age, or stop listening to new music, They ‘kind of freeze-at ‘one particular era in their twenties... I was like that, too, for a while, but when I started doing the radio show, I wanted-to shine the light on young Canadian musicians. I started _ listening harder... it's been a treat to me, to be reconnected to the music scene, and I've very much enjoyed that. That renewal has kept me connected. What music are you listening to now? There's a couple of places in Canada where music is very interesting. Vancou- ver, Winnipeg, Guelph, Montreal, and Halifax are all very interesting right now, Thete just seems to be a lot going on in the Canadian music scene right now: _ Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Stars, — Bijoux, the Bicycles, a whole bunch. Bi- joux and the Bicycles ate the two latest groups that have caught my attention. I'm also listening to the new Bob Dylan, which I find tremendous. He's put out a lot of stuff that people haven't liked, but this one is really good. Sufjan Stevens is a newer one... Ilonoise is a great record. I like Postal Service, there's all sorts of stuff... What do you think of new technology-- iPods, downloads, etc-- and what it’s doing to the music scene? It’s just a delivery service, though theres a great romance to albums. It ~ was really nice to own an album. It was a very soft and friendly medium. With CDs, the plastic is cold and hard and off-putting. I tend to remember more the circumstances under which you buy albums, there's more emotional context. With vinyl, it’s almost a collaboration between you and the artist-- you put the scratches in. But I love the convenience of the new technology. I use my computet, mostly, while I write, and I listen almost exclu- sively to music that I have on my com- puter. Or to mixes that my music pro- ducer makes. How do you decide on the musical act that comes with you on the road? It's a collaborative decision. Three people-- Joh Sheard, the music direc- tor, Jess Milton, and myself kick stuff around, We all have veto power, every- one has a voice. And we decide on some- one we would all like. STORIES Youre probably best known for your stories... I was wondering what you feel is the most “authentic” form they take on- - written word, radio broadcast, or live performance? Writer... what I view myself as and what people view me as, isn’t really the same thing. The publicity says “Canada’s Favourite Storyteller,’ so I guess people see me that way. More than many authors, people come to my work through hearing me tell my stories... so they think of me as someone who tells them the story, But I spend a lot of time writing these stor- ies, crafting them, writing them over and over to the best of my ability, and when I finish them, I work with the audience and rewrite them based on the audience reaction: are they too long? Are they dragging? How do I make them better?” You seem to be able to root out interest- ing stories where most people would never look. How do you go about doing this? I dont know... sometimes the per- son who does something is the least able to comment on it and understand it, Everything I do is kind of intuitive. I write humour for a living, and write funny stories, and apparently they sort of work, People come to the shows and I get awards, so I assume it's working. You have received a number of awards. Do any stand out for you? ‘The only time that awards are really important is when you're nominated for one and you go to the ceremony and they choose the winner and you desper- ately want to be the winner. And if you arent you feel as if you are the loser. I think awards are a good thing, they help encourage people and publicize work and they are additive and it is to the greater good that they exist, but I think they are a false premise. Like, books... there is no best book of the year. ‘There are better books, and maybe the ten best, but how do you say this is the best? Earlier you said you are a humour writ- er. And yet many of your stories go deeper than just laugh-out-loud humour. EB White talks of humour being poetry with an added dimension... It takes you to a place with laughing and crying at the same time, There are big feelings. Laughter is often something we turn to when we are feeling big feelings, whether it is un- comfortable or whatever else. I try, in the. books, to write about what is preoccupy- ing me, and it's not always laughter that preoccupies me. There's stories about racism and mining disasters, and loneli- ness, great loneliness in these books. One of the things I admire so much about Dave and Morley [the main char- acters of the Vinyl Cafe stories] is how they handle with such grace the difficult situations I put them in. An interesting feature of your stories is how the characters age over time, in a simi- lar way to the characters in the comic strip For Better or Worse. It was Gary Trudeau [creator of the comic Doonesbury] who helped me de- cide what to do. I compared that strip to the ones where people never grow up... and they become kind of stale. I think the fact that it pains me to see Sam [Dave and Morley’s son] grow up adds resonance to the stories. Do you see the stories ending once Sam grows up? I want to know the ending myself. It’s going to be so hard to see Sam move out, it will be as hard for me as it will be for Dave and Morley, because I love that little boy. I don't want him to grow up. ‘Twelve years old is such a magical year fora boy because you're long-legged and have such great ambition, but you're still brushed by the magic of boyhood. It’s interesting that you speak of the char- acters as if they were real people. To what extent are they based on real people or on yourself? They are their own people. Sam is Sam and I pay attention to him. There are bits of me in him, but they demand to be themselves... After writing about them for twelve years, they don't let me get away tacking stuff on to them any- more. Have you ever looked back on old stor- ies and seen that you had the characters do something that maybe you wouldn't have them do now? If you were a scholar of the works, you would see where they contradict- ed themselves... I wrote about what I thought was going on. It’s like when you meet anyone for the first. time. At first you misundertand them, and the deeper you know them you understand them. I made assumptions that turned out to be wrong. How many of your fictional stories are based on real situations? Eighty percent of the time it’s just completely made up... I originally felt compelled to do all kinds of research, but more and more I just let it happen... I still draw from imagination and ex- perience, and am always informed by my world view. Sometimes just taking the “stenographer” approach is appropriate. And other times stories are taken from my life or bits of it. These days it’s most- ly about my characters and how they're feeling and what they're about. 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