THE Q&A: JUSTIN PEARSON, MUSICIAN, AUTHOR

Justin Pearson, founder of The Locust, a seminal hardcore band, grew up in "Shit-Creek" Phoenix, Arizona. He takes candid measure of the place in his new autobiography, "From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry": "All Phoenix had to offer were cacti, an abundance of institutional racism, and news programs saying you could cook eggs on the blistering sidewalk. First my crayons melted, then my records melted."

Pearson's family life was tough: his parents drank too much, fought roo much, and ignored him. When Pearson was a teenager, his mother discovered his father's dead body in the driveway of their home. She sprinkled his ashes in the Pacific Ocean soon after, and acquired a new boyfriend the next day. They all end up moving to San Diego, where Pearson discovered music and became a figurehead of the noise/hardcore scene of the 1990s.

"From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry" is a bracingly honest autobiography with an appealing dose of sloppiness, as though it had been written in the margins of a lyrics notebook. Pearson is a natural raconteur, and he's also good with language. More Intelligent Life spoke with Pearson about writing, reading, music and other adventures.

More Intelligent Life: The book has an incredible wealth of detail. You talk about the broken-down cars on the neighbours' lawn, the "Star Wars" toys your parents bought for you out of guilt and the yellow IZOD shirt you wore on the "Wallace and Ladmo Show". Did you keep a journal as a kid?

Justin Pearson: No, I didn’t keep any sort of journal. At times I wish I did. But I think my memory is along the lines of an elephant. I'm often shocked at what I can recall. I remember all sorts of crazy details about stuff. Speaking of "Star
Wars", I remember seeing “A New Hope” when I was three years old, standing
in line waiting, submerged in heat late one afternoon with my dad. Then, when we got into the theatre, it was so packed we had to sit in the front row, and I was so scared but so excited.

MIL: What about now? Do you keep notebooks or scribble things down?

JP: No. At times I'll make notes of things that I'd like to remember on my phone
for lyrics, but I'm not a writer or an author. I let all the stuff in my book stew on the long drives when on tour and would use that down-time to write what had eventually become my book. But mainly I keep notes for lyrics. I've been studying slang from different eras and cultural backgrounds so I'm always taking notes on that stuff.

MIL: Did you read a lot as a kid? It seems like your refuge was mainly in friends and music, but you have a way with words that suggests some intense reading here and there.

JP: I did read a lot, but it was very selective. I did and still do read a lot about things that I can relate to. A lot of music or art stuff as well as a lot of political stuff. Interestingly enough, I tend to listen to talk radio, like NPR or Coast to Coast, more than listen to music.

MIL: How long did it take you to write this book? What was your process like?

JP: John Waters made a suggestion that I should write a book after I shared a
tour journal that I'd written for a website a few years back. I wrote one story, then another, and another. Before I knew it, there was a “book” in the works. After I had a good chunk of the material, I added parts here and there to make it a bit more linear. At one point I was robbed on tour—my laptop and external hard drive happened to be in the same place as my computer, which was stolen. So it took an extra year to wrap up what had become my book.

MIL: One of the most important threads of the book is the evolution of your relationship with your mother. Has she read the book? What does she think?

JP: She has read it. Parts of it bum her out. She seems to have a lot of guilt now pertaining to my childhood. And even though a lot of the stuff that I (and she ) went through was very negative, I think at the end of the day it made her and I who we are. And, well, I think my mom is one of the most amazing people ever. With that being said, I have no negative feelings towards my mother at all. What we had encountered was circumstantial, and due to the environment we were in. We both did our best.

"From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry" (Soft Skull) by Justin Pearson is out now

~ MOLLY YOUNG