I have a tradition when I visit my sister-in-law in Minnesota: I find an interesting book and read it compulsively. Last time it was Welcome to My Planet by Shannon Olson (who has a new book coming out BTW), this time it was Jesus Sound Explosion by Mark Anderson.

Anderson, whose writing has appeared in Spout, Nightbeat, Buzz, and the Minnesota Daily, lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and teaches writing at the University of Minnesota's General College. He has also worked as a clerk at the Electric Fetus record store, taught at the secondary level, and drummed for the House of Mercy Band, Oren Goby, Bad Trip, the Idlewilds, and other Twin Cities bands.

Jesus Sound Explosion, winner of the Associated Writers Program Award for Creative Non-Fiction, tells the story of Mark's childhood as a pastor's kid in the Seventies caught between Evangelical fundamentalism and his love of Rock-n-Roll. I found the book to be fascinating, frustrating, and often insightful. I hope to post a full review here soon.

Mark was generous enough to agree to an interview to discuss some of the issues he touches on in the book. What follows was conducted via email (questions in bold).

Being a pastor's Kid (PK) is obviously a unique experience. What were some important ways that impacted your childhood.

I felt watched most of the time. I think I was more self-conscious than most of my peers. When I was around church people, I wanted to be viewed as a good pastor's kid and a good Christian, but when I was around school friends I wanted to be seen as one of them. The double life became most pronounced when I was an adolescent. I didn't want my school friends to think of me as a goody-goody type just because I was a pastor's kid, so I swore and drank and got high with them. Then I had to lie and cover my tracks so that my parents and the church people didn't find out about my "backsliding". It was a recipe for hypocrisy. I'm glad I abandoned the evangelical Christian world in my early-twenties because I think I would have been a creepy evangelical middle-aged adult. A scandal waiting to happen.

Music was obviously became a large influence as well. When did you begin to realize that music was an important part of your life, especially in ways that might have been different than those around you?

I think I realized it when I was about 14 or 15 and I found myself wanting to go to the Wax Museum Record Store in St. Paul more often than anyone else I knew. That was around the time I discovered used records and how much less expensive they were than new records so I could afford to buy a lot more of them. Every time I went to the Wax Museum, I found a used record or two that I wanted. Pretty soon my record collection went from 10-20 records to over 100, and I didn't know anyone else who had that many records.
When I was in California, I had a friend (Jon in the book) who I went shopping for used records with, and he bought as many as me. We were both heavily into the evangelical Christian thing at the time and our addiction started to feel strange and idolatrous. For one month in our senior year of high school we vowed not to go walk into a record store for a month. I think we gave in after about two weeks.