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Insulinfunk recently interviewed Kieron Gillen, writer of Phonogram: Rue Brittania (available in trade) and the current Phonogram: Singles Club. He also writes for the PC gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 

Describe Phonogram for our non-Phonomancer readers.

You know when you lie in bed, with sleep running from you, tossing, turning, with the knowledge that there’s an emptiness in the deep of your soul? Well, Phonogram’s the thing which fits in that hole and makes your entire life better. You should give us money.

Okay – Phonogram. It’s an urban fantasy comic set in a world which is very much like our own, except that music is magic. Any musical effect in the world is a magical one. Some people are aware of this – who we call Phonomancers – and actively use the power to get into all manner of trouble (or, at least, other phonomancer’s underpants). It’s all based on real music, and is really all metaphorical for how music really changes people’s lives.

Other than love for comics and music, what was your inspiration for Phonogram?

Alcohol, lust, my life since puberty, conversation, general adolescent-of-90s-alt-knowledge and general belief in the transformative potential of the culture we consume. Honestly, in terms of specific inspiration – as in, the moment when it solidified into Phonogram in my head – I’m lost. You can see traces of the thinking across everything I’ve written since I started throwing random bits of bloody brain juice on paper. I suppose it’s inspired by being Kieron Gillen in the late twentieth century. But, really, alcohol.

Phonogram is sometimes described as Hellblazer meets High Fidelity. How do you feel about those comparisons?

Handy shorthand. The “Hellblazer meets High Fidelity” is one which I use myself, and I wish I’d thought up instead of stealing from some of the early coverage. It misses a lot, but it does its job – especially for the first arc, whose riff of Hellblazer is pretty clear (High Fidelity is more off – the central point of Phonogram is miles away from High Fidelity’s – but even that works in a “This is about music obsession” way).

I mean, Phonogram’s a tricky book to explain to anyone. Any tool which people can use to further that goal is fine by me.

Phonogram seems like an unconventional product that would be hard to market. How did you pitch it to publishers?

With Alcohol. And… nah, that joke’s done now. [Phonograma artist] Jamie [McKelvie] had done work for Image before, in the form of Long Hot Summer, so he was a known quantity, which helped. Eric Stephenson was a huge music fan, so got it. And we used phrases like “Hellblazer meets Blue Monday” because we hadn’t stolen “Hellblazer meets High Fidelity” yet. 

In your description of Phonogram: Singles Club, you use “Fell-size” to describe the main story arc. Do you feel like Fell (or any other recent book) has had an influence on the industry? What about Fell appeals to you as a creator?

Oh, a lot of books have had influence on the industry. You can trace influence directly, though that’s easy to confuse with the general idea-space (e.g. There’s quite a few stories in recent years which have been reliant on a folded-narrative technique with the same events through multiple angles. They’re close enough so you can presume they’re all just coming from a similar place). In the case of Fell, its influence has been small, but meaningful. It was really about thinking of ways to make the single-issue an interesting format again, if only in a fight-against-the-dying-of-the-light way. We’ve done so much with our singles mostly because we despise the idea of actually asking for money for anything which isn’t perfect for its format, but partially out of sheer perverseness. I think you can see a little of that attitude in Fell too. Definitely in Casanova. Single as pop object. Go!

Tell us a bit about your work on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

My three comrades and I have been writing about videogames for about eight-thousand years between us. We were increasingly aware there was a mass of PC-games which were being overlooked by mainstream sites – even something like Kotaku has to cover so much stuff across so many formats, the fine detail – and some of that detail is pretty damn fine in a sexy-ass way – is lost. With things like digital downloads and micro-niche indie development on the rise, we wanted to do a site which covered the entire gamut of what was available. I mean, PC gaming is phenomenally wide. Let’s cover that and try and do it in an intelligent celebratory way, so sidestepping the blandess of mainstream sites and the pointless dead-souled cynicism of a lot of the underground ones.

So we did the site and people seem to like it. PHEW.

How do you think your work with video games and other media informs or affects your work in comics?

It all feeds into each other. It’s a big cultural stew and the history of all media is based around people looking at what other people are doing in other places and taking that inspiration back, having the transition altering its aesthetic effect, and then that being stolen in turn. My head’s such a big bowl of mush that I couldn’t even begin to separate it all.

You participated in Sean Elliott’s e-panel on video game reviews. What was that process like? Did you learn anything from it?

The process was a series of group emails. It was . . . well, it showed we couldn’t bloody shut up. Seems that it’s fizzled out now – the length of people’s responses kind of lead to people burning out, I think – and it’s a shame. I don’t think we actually reached some of the actually important stuff. What was done was great, but I think is more explanatory to outsiders than anything else. You can read it and get a snapshot of how games journalism was being done in various places, and then decide what that means for you. As such, I found quite a lot of it interesting, but I’m not sure if I actually learned that much. I already had an idea what I was doing and where I was going, and there was nothing said which made me what to change direction.

What are you reading, playing, listening to, and watching lately that you want to recommend to our readers?

I’m currently watching my girlfriend play Okami. Dogs are being very lazy and and getting her wolf to do their work. When I take a break from work later, I want to see if I can go and play some Braid. I’ve played it on the 360 – where it’s essential – but want to have a crack at it on the PC.

In terms of TV, I’m currently watching Generation Kill. Only watched the first episode, and seems fine enough, even though all the shaved headed men basically look identical. We’ll have to rewatch it and see if it works better sober, y’know?

In terms of music, I went to see Peaches on Friday, who remains a phenonemon. Rediscovered the Early Brutus album on Spotify (I’m inches from actually paying for Spotify. Blimey). At night, I’m adoring Her-from-the-knife’s solo album, Fever Ray. Bits of the Bronx. Metric. Trying to decide what I actually make of Danananananakroyd. The new PJ Harvey/Parish album. Back into the Magnetic Fields thanks to the comics at howfuckingromantic.wordpress.com.

In terms of comics – Young Liars has finally clicked. Looking forward to the next Scalped trade. Everyone’s reading Scott Pilgrim, yeah? I knew you were. Ellis’ new Ignition City. Oh, lots of stuff. I hate questions like this. My brain always freezes up.

 

For more info on Phonogram, read this.