Singer/Songwriter Beth Rudetsky Interviews Author/Musician Robert Gregory Browne

Last month we were delighted to welcome singer/songwriter Beth Rudetsky, who contributed a guest post on her experience writing an original song for Zoë Sharp's new thriller Fifth Victim.

In a follow-up conversation with her, she mentioned she had recently interviewed crime novelist and fellow musician Robert Gregory Browne and would we be interested in publishing it. We enthusiastically agreed!

Robert's latest book, Trial Junkies (Penname Press, May 2012 ebook edition), is the first of a new series introducing amateur sleuth Ethan "Hutch" Hutchinson.

Here is Beth chatting with Robert about music and mystery.

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Beth Rudetsky: Did you learn how to play an instrument when you were a child? If so, did this then naturally lead to a desire to write a song?

Photo provided courtesy of
Robert Gregory Browne

Robert Gregory Browne: I was introduced to the baritone ukulele by my uncle when I was nine years old. He came to a family function one year—probably Thanksgiving—with his ukulele in tow and showed me how to play a few chords. I caught on immediately, and he was so impressed he left the ukulele with me and told me to practice. I didn't give it back to him until I graduated to guitar three years later.

My first desire to write a song came, of course, from a crush I had on a girl at school. It was love from afar—I never got up the nerve to speak to her—but I was hopelessly smitten. I can still remember the tune I wrote and the words that went with it, as ridiculously bad as they were. But hey I was only twelve:

Stephanie … You're the only girl for me …

BR: When did you discover you had a talent as a musician and songwriter?

RGB: I'd say that I discovered I had a talent for music the moment my uncle put that ukulele in my hands. It just felt so natural to me, as if I had miraculously regained a limb. I don't really remember writing songs that young, but I did dive into learning chord progressions and fingerpicking. And I vaguely recall playing old standards like Ebb Tide and Moon River. The stuff my parents listened to.

BR: Do the lyrics come to you first or the melody and the chords? Was there anything going on in your life specifically that moved you to write a song about it?

RGB: With songwriting the music usually comes first, but not necessarily the whole tune. I'll hear a snippet in my head and put words to it, then everything seems to grow organically from there. As for anything going on in my life, as I said with the first song, it was love. And that pretty much defined my songwriting in those days. Most of the music came from pain—trouble I was having in a relationship. Or sometimes the LACK of a relationship. My mother always worried that my songs were sad, but that's usually the emotion they came from.

BR: Did the songs you wrote reflect the emotions you were feeling at that time?

RGB: Every song I wrote in the early days came from my emotional turmoil. And if I ever felt anxious or depressed or heartbroken, I could turn to my guitar and my songwriting to help myself heal.

BR: What music and artists are you drawn to listening to? What emotions stir up for you in music?

RGB: I grew up in the late sixties, early seventies, so I leaned toward singer-songwriters like James Taylor, Carole King, Dan Fogelberg and, especially, Joni Mitchell. A friend of mine introduced me to her music through the album Blue and I just couldn't believe how much that album spoke to me. Not necessarily the content, because I was still too young to be having the experiences Joni was having, but the raw emotion. Even today, I listen to a song like River and I get tears in my eyes.

And, truthfully, that's the emotion I'm seeking when I listen to most music. I really enjoy music that can make me cry. Either through the beauty of its melody, the artist's voice, or through the words that are conveying a sad story. I find that just a simple combination of minor keys on a piano can make my chest seize up. I'm such a wimp.

BR: Do you feel that there is something in common with writing about a character/s in a song and writing about a character/s in your writing for a screenplay or a novel? When writing a song that is not about you and written for a character/s, how does it come to you?

RGB: When I was younger, I always tried to tell a story based on my own pain, but in my later years, because I was happily married and no longer an emotional mess, I found myself writing songs about other people and making up stories about them. The songs still sounded like confessionals, but they were largely fiction. I had to draw from my imagination because my own life had leveled off.

I began writing screenplays around the same time I got serious about songwriting, but I thought of them as two completely different disciplines. Yes, they had similarities, but I was using different muscles to write a screenplay. Songs always came fairly easy to me. Songs could be incomplete to some degree. But with screenplays I needed a full story with fleshed out characters and dialogue, so it was an entirely different process.

I got into writing novels at a later age and found that songwriting and screenwriting came together. Song lyrics are all about meter and being able to tell a story within that meter and I found that my prose work came from an internal rhythm I had created that became what writers call their "voice." If the rhythm is off just by a word or the misplacement of a few words, I have to move them around until they feel comfortable to me. Until they fit the rhythm in my head.

Screenplays, on the other hand, are all about story structure, character development and dialogue, and all those screenplays I wrote helped me tremendously when it was time to write that first novel.

All those years of "training" in music and screenwriting came together in a pretty glorious way when I sat down to write that first novel. So I wasn't surprised that it was fairly successful and sold within a few months of completion. I'd had years of practice—even if it WAS in different disciplines—something a lot of young writers don't want to spend time doing. It's too often "publish now or die" with them. I understand that impatience, but it's a mistake. Unless you're a wunderkind, you need to learn and grow and experience life a little before you'll be writing publishable material.

BR: Is there a difference in what compels you to write a song as opposed to writing a novel? Do you think that some thoughts need to be expressed just musically or can only be expressed through a novel?

RGB: To be honest, I've never really analyzed what compels me to write either one. Novels, because I make my living at writing them, are often the product of a looming mortgage payment. That may sound a little mercenary, but great inspiration comes from having to pay the bills. But even before I made my living doing this I was always coming up with stories in my head, based on things I'd see on the news or experienced myself. It's like a faucet that can't be turned off. I have more stories floating in my head than I'll ever be able to write. Which is why I kind of laugh whenever someone says to me, "Hey, I've got a great idea for a novel you can write."

As for songwriting, I do a lot less of it than I used to and think of it as more of a recreational pursuit these days. Writing songs is a way to unwind. A different type of challenge that alleviates stress. Writing a song is much like doing a crossword puzzle. Trying to make the words fit in the little squares. A fun pursuit that gives me a different kind of satisfaction.

BR: A lot of writer's have a pet by their side as they write. Do you have a pet by your side?

RGB: I have two cats and a dog and our dog is usually laying around in the room somewhere when I write. The cats come and go, sometimes jumping onto my desk for a little love before heading back out the door.

BR: You have also written about your passion for great coffee. Do you like to drink coffee as you write?

My passion for coffee is fairly new, so of course I'm pretty obnoxious about it. I actually drink a cup of coffee in the morning when I'm cruising the web, but not while I'm writing. Then I often have another cup later in the day when I'm either done writing or taking a break.

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Robert Gregory Browne is an AMPAS Nicholl Award-winning screenwriter who ran screaming from the movie industry and jumped into writing novels.

His first novel, Kiss Her Goodbye, was recently produced in Chicago as a pilot for a CBS Television series tentatively titled The Line, by Sony Pictures and Timberman/Beverly Productions, with a script written and directed by Michael Dinner.

Before the jump, he developed screenplays for Showtime, Viacom, Saban/Fox Kids, Krost-Chapin, and Marvel. He was also staff writer for Fox Kids’ Diabolik, and a contributing screenwriter for Spider-Man Unlimited.

You can learn more about this multi-talented author on his website, RobertGregoryBrowne.com.

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About Trial Junkies:

Ethan "Hutch" Hutchinson hasn't seen his old college pals in nearly ten years. Now fate has brought them together again as one of the gang is put on trial for a brutal, senseless murder.

The Chicago police and prosecutor think they have their perp, but Hutch isn't about to sit silently in a courtroom as someone he cares about is wrongfully convicted.

When Hutch and his friends join forces to search for the real killer, what they find shatters every notion they have about friendship, loss and redemption … and may very well cost Hutch — and the woman he loves — their lives.