Local writer/comedian (and frequent Flyer contributor) Andrew Earles unveiled his first book this month, a biography of the legendary Minneapolis post-punk/hardcore trio Husker Du (a band known as much for dynamic inner-workings as their innovative approach to punk rock) titled Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock.
Earles spoke to the Flyer this week about the book and the band’s place in rock history.
Flyer: How did you get approached to write a Husker Du biography?
Earles: At the end of 2006, Continuum Books announced an open call for pitches for their 33 1/3 series. Each pitch was to fall under 1,000 words. I’d always thought that Zen Arcade or Flip Your Wig would make a good title in that series, especially after the Minutemen one was published (about Double Nickles on the Dime). But it wasn’t one of those “no-brainer” assumptions because they tend to keep that series pretty accessible if not painfully predictable, with few surprises, and this resulted in the dedication of a great deal of time to this pitch. I figured I really had to sell these people on the idea of paying me $4000 to write a 20,000-word pocket book about Husker Du’s Flip Your Wig, which was true, but only due to the fact that three other writers pitched Husker Du albums as well. At the time, I was extremely hungry for any type of book deal I could grab, even one in which the deal is not exactly overburdened with pro-author line items (they own the content/book forever, no royalties, etc). Long story not quite as long as it could be, my pitch was rejected (a blessing in disguise). Having dumped what I considered a lot of work and worry into a 1,000-word pitch, I couldn’t just let it sit on my hard-drive, so I posted it on my blog, where my current editor found it some ten months later in November of 2007.
