My recently
discovered
American
connection Daniel Miess
asked me to
write a bio
so there’d
be some reference to
the posts of
my work he may be including
in his
poetry project.
(Don’t feel obliged, by the way, Daniel.
I know that most of my work
would not qualify as poetry when scrutinised)
I’ve
written some biographies
in the past.
Mostly for
one of the bands
I was
playing in.
And next to
doing performance video shoots
it’s probably
one of my most hated parts
of being in
a band.
But it has
to happen,
because the
audience wants to relate
to the
musician
or to the
author
or to the
artist.
But you
have to understand that
it really
sucks to be at the centre of things
when you
are actually too introverted
to occupy
such a space.
It was
never the reason I started writing
or making
music.
Quite the
opposite really.
Because I
don’t like it at all,
I will do
it in the only form
that will
give me some fulfilment.
Here goes:
I’m a
Belgian.
We have been in the news recently
since this
tiny speck of a country
with its
square footage of 11,787 square miles,
appears to
be the hub of all terrorist sleeper cells
on the
European continent.
We’ve
always been a transit country for commerce,
why not for
radicalist idiots.
(To give you
an idea,
this country
is just a tad smaller
than the
state of Massachusetts.)
I was born
in the creepy town of Mechelen
and lived
there until the age of 21.
I moved a few miles up north to Antwerp later.
A small move, but it made a big difference,
providing more anonymity.
I moved a few miles up north to Antwerp later.
A small move, but it made a big difference,
providing more anonymity.
My interest
in writing started quite early on.
I had
always been interested in story-telling
and I still
have some cassettes
from when I
was 4 or 5,
with recorded
invented stories
about
animals in anthropomorphic interactions.
Family life
and silly adventures.
Growing a
bit older I started writing short stories
for myself
which I all threw away.
It was the
action of writing that pleased me,
not the
reading
and I would
certainly never show them to anyone.
I got
horribly embarrassed when my mother
would dig
them out of the trash.
I didn’t
want her praise.
I didn't want anyone's praise.
I didn't want anyone's praise.
But I
wrote.
Not great
stuff,
but the
desire to dream-up things was strong.
The real
kick came when I was about 11 or 12,
reading my
first English book.
I wish it
had been
something deep
and
impressive
and way
beyond my years
but it was ‘The
Day of the Triffids’ by John Wyndham.
The cover
spoke to me
and I still
remember being sucked into the story.
That’s the
first time I remember thinking:
I want to
do this.
Up until
today,
I haven’t.
Not really.
I studied
journalism
but started
working in
marketing
and communications.
A job that
doesn’t suit me at all
but which,
nonetheless, I’m quite good at.
Parts of
it, at least.
Either way
from the
age of 16
all through
college
and right
up to this point
(I’ll be 40
in May)
I’ve been singing
in bands.
Not for the
audience
but for the
writing.
Writing lyrics
allowed me to write
without spending
weeks or months on a story.
It also
forced me to ‘finish’ the work
and be concise
because other
people were waiting for me,
depending
on me.
It had the
added bonus of allowing me to be
highly
emotional, abstract
and even extreme
with my use of words.
A great way
to explore the limits
of what
writing can do
and a great
way to find your fist.
Some things
just come naturally,
and those
are the ones I’m looking for.
An
extension of the subconscious,
using a conscious
technique.
To each his
own
and this is
absolutely my thing.
My writing
has adopted this lyric style
to an
extreme extent.
Even though it looks a lot different,
the intent is the same.
I just let
it go.
Sometimes it
will read like a journal
on other
days there will only be abstract thoughts
or
seemingly random words on a page
(which they
are not).
And
anything in between.
To me,
writing is
an
expression of my freedom, first.
Something to
be read, second.
I don’t (and
never will) care about form
or spelling
or grammar or punctuation.
But I can
imagine some of the more technical writers
would shun
me for that.
I
understand your point,
but I truly
don’t care at all.
I have
debated this point with others
claiming
that this makes me ‘not a writer’.
All I can
say to that is:
I write, don’t
I.
I never
claimed that
I would
make a living out of it
or be
published
or even be
read.
But still
That doesn’t
make me less of a writer.
It makes me
an unsuccessful writer.
But maybe
more of a writer
than some
of the really successful ones
since
success is often the poorest indicator of quality.
But to
answer the questions
that tend
to be raised by the term ‘biography’:
Belgian.
Born in
1976.
Musician,
singer, songwriter since 1992.
Writing other things since
2010.
Unpublished, because
that’s
what self-published really is.
There’s a
blog: http://irsinkastwrites.blogspot.be/ *
and there’s
about 5 copies left of
my ‘essay
on poetry: Juniver’
I’m a huge
Bukowski fan
for all the
right reasons
but many
other books
have shaped
my freedom writing style.
I love being influenced
and building on that.
That about
sums it up.
More about
me can be learned by reading my work
or listening
to the albums on http://thequiettapes.bandcamp.com/
* Irsin Kast is a pen name
and my fully established alter-ego.
Irsin is derived
from the German word ‘Irrsinn’,
which can be translated as insanity or madness.
Kast is the Dutch word for ‘Closet’,
just a word I happen to like.