Fans of Jonathan Lethem's novels are well aware of his infatuation with music. His magnum opus, The Fortress of Solitude, is peppered with musical references and quotes, and its hero, Dylan Ebdus, grows up to become a music journalist. His most recent effort, You Don't Love Me Yet, follows the romantic and professional foibles of a struggling indie-rock band in L.A. So it should come as no surprise that Lethem is now making music of his own. After meeting one of his heroes, Walter Salas-Humara of seminal rock band The Silos, at a small Silos gig in New Orleans, the two began writing songs together. They dubbed the superduo I'm Not Jim, and You Are All My People, a collaboration with the production team The Elegant Too, is the result of their immediate creative rapport.
I got a two-for-one deal on this interview: luck would have it that Salas-Humara was hanging out with Lethem when he called the D+T office, and I got to speak with both of them about I'm Not Jim.

So how did you and Walter hook up and how did I'm Not Jim come together?
Jonathan Lethem: It's really from the embarrassing world of fandom. I was just a listener, and I have been for three decades, and I never thought there would be anything more than that. But my wife Amy and I were in New Orleans–it was kind of a honeymoon–and we were classic tourists, just wandering through the city in this almost enchanted state. So we turn a corner and the Silos were playing at this little club. I was just in total disbelief. I'd seen Walter and the different versions of the Silos at clubs in New York and San Francisco a bunch of times, and I would never have otherwise presumed to break the "fourth wall," but finding the band playing this tiny club and we were already in this weird little dream state…no offense Walter, but it was a sparsely attended affair, and we were drinking at the bar cheering on the band. So afterwards, it was impossible not to say "Hey, I'm your fan, I've been following your band forever." And I kind of insisted myself upon him and sent him a bunch of books later on.


That all sounds pretty serendipitous. So how did things progress from there?
Walter Salas-Humara: I read the books and I was totally blown away. Then we ran into each other again at a club in New York called the Living Room: I was going to see one of my friends play and he was going to see one of his friends. We were talking at the bar, and I said, "Hey, if you want to write some songs together, let's do it."
JL: Right. I didn't know how seriously to take it. I've thrown lyrics at a few musician friends before, and had some results, which has been fun, but I mostly think that the kind of musicians I like–and Walter is certainly a preeminent example–don't really need the help or interference of a literary writer. Walter's a pretty genius songwriter on his own, and his lyrics always hit home for me. It's not like I thought he was crying for help. But nonetheless the idea sounded really fun for me. By the nature of my past experiences, I thought it would just be a couple of experiments or collaborations, but Walter suggested that we make an album's worth of stuff.
WSH: Once we started talking about it, we started conceiving it as a project that we could put in a theater or on an album. Something a little broader in scope than just getting together and writing a few songs; something that wouldn't be, "Oh, let's write a few songs and have the Silos record them." We wanted to make a voice that had its own identity.

Jonathan, you're a successful writer, and have been doing that for a long time. What inspired you to make an album now?
JL: There was no master plan. It was just so flattered and charmed to have Walter propose it, and I've always had long simmering fantasies, that are purely vicarious, about being a filmmaker, or a painter, but especially a musician. It was really just for fun. We were hitting it off…for me, it reminded me of being a teenager, when a lot of my friendships were based on something like, "Let's draw a comic book together." It seemed like the way for Walter and I to be friends was to make stuff.

Do you think fans of your novels will be drawn to I'm Not Jim?
WSH: [laughter] That's the great hope!
JL: [laughter] I've been very reluctant to disenchant the extremely generous and optimistic hopes at the record company, but good sales for a book wouldn't be a blip in the world of records. It's really funny, the idea that one could have a hit record by selling it to a writer's fans, because books sell a microscopic amount. I also have different readers for different books. I think readers who liked You Don't Love Me Yet, the most recent one, would be the likeliest of my scattered readers. It's not like playing in front of a live audience where you know exactly who you're gratifying, where you know what about you they like; my readers are still mysterious to me.
WSH: I think the bottom line is that the project is really good, and if there's an interesting story behind it, people will find it interesting enough to seek it out and listen to it, and hopefully enjoy it. -Jed Cohen