Book Title: Bukowski's Broken Family Band

Book Genre: Horror-comedy

Author: awglen

Character Name: Aaron Bukowski

Nominated by: JessEubanks

About the story:

Paranormal horror-comedy with heart.

Manic rock musician Jaymie Brzezinski claims to have been born at the moment of Charles Bukowski's death. Now the mad poet-incarnate fronts a band made up of his panic-prone twin, wise-beyond-their-years younger sibling, and a formidable but mostly stoned guitar goddess. When a murder at a house concert sets in motion a series of strange and inexplicable events, the Bukowski Brothers find that they have more to worry about than just getting through the set list.

Like the X-Files meets Scott Pilgrim in the Scooby Squad's van.

Hello. What should I call you? Do you prefer a nickname?

Ha! A nickname--no. My twin brother, Jaymie, likes to call me 'Aar-bear' sometimes--long story, but mostly because it rhymes. Nice to meet you!

Oh, Aaron! My name is Aaron. Ha.

Welcome Aaron and thanks for agreeing to talk to us today.

My pleasure! When we saw I'd been nominated for an interview, we were like, 'WHAT. WHY.' --You know, just because I'm, like, the drummer. Jaymie's the frontman for our band, so he does all the interviews, and we thought it was pretty weird I got picked this time.

Also, off the record, I have pretty bad anxiety over these sorts of things.

I mean, I have way worse anxiety over, like, getting kidnapped. Or eaten by a dog. Or my little sibling gets eaten by a dog. Or I'm hanging out with my brother and he turns out to be an evil clone of himself and he murders me and then I get eaten by a dog. But, you know, interviews are still up there.

Okay.  Can I get you something to drink to help calm those nerves? Water? Soda? Coffee? Wine? Whiskey?

Thank you! I'll have wine, since this feels like a classy occasion--you seem like a classy person, if you don't mind me saying. (Although, I've had some less-than-classy evenings while drinking wine--but I digress.) And I mean, I don't drink much, ever since Aaron and I--sorry, I mean Jaymie and I--got scurvy when we were nineteen, from living off beer and ramen noodles for too long. Ha!, You don't make that mistake twice. But this is a special occasion!

And wine is different. Classy. Like I said.

Classy. I'll take it. Tell me a little ... more... about yourself?

I'm a drummer, mid-twenties. I play in a band with my twin bro, Jaymie, and our little sibling Rex, whom we're very fond of. And Jo, our guitarist. She's cool, in, like, this mysterious, 'Is she ok?' kind of way. You know?

The thing people find most fascinating about us is that we were born at the same moment Charles Bukowski died! My brother Jaymie was born first, which is why Bukowski chose him to be his earthly vessel, and why Jaymie writes such great song lyrics, if I do say so myself. I was born a couple minutes later, so I kind of dodged that bullet. Good timing, amirite?

Earthy vessel?  That sounds interesting.  Where do you live?

I live in a neighbourhood called Transcona, in a city where the sky itself is constantly out to kill us. Laugh all you want, but I'm serious. The weather up here is a huge dick.

That must suck. Do you have any jobs or hobbies?

Drumming, like I said, and I'm actually pretty good at it. Ok, just between you and me, sometimes the old anxiety disorder will kick in and my sense of tempo gets a bit...compromised. Like, you try holding down a beat when you're in the grip of a massive panic attack and you're flinging your sticks everywhere--which Jaymie thinks is hilarious and adorable, by the way.

Also, he started teaching--I mean, I started teaching--drum lessons recently, which is a promising development, although I only have one student, and Rex seems, like, increasingly determined to lose their virginity to her. Man, that kid is getting out of hand lately. Do you have kids? You know what I mean, though.

I think I'm managing to follow. What are some of your likes and dislikes?

Music! We love music. 'Glamorous indie rock and roll,' to quote a great band we like. It's in our soul!

What is your greatest fear?

Dogs.

Oh that's a shame. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

I would probably just eliminate all the dogs from it, you know?

But in all seriousness, I would change our band's Instagram follower count from 204 to 1 million, and speed up this fame-train a little. It's been taking longer than I expected to start amassing huge amounts of power and influence.

Must be trying... Do you have a pet?

Yes! See, I got chased down and kidnapped by the government last month--long story--and they gave me a therapy cat to calm me down while I was in captivity. And then I stole her!

It's been really nice having her around, especially because our other three cats have been in the family for over forty years, and they're a little... what's the word... crotchety?

40 years!  They might have a right to be crotchety. Tell me a little more about your siblings.

I have two siblings, Jaymie and Rex, whom I love dearly! (Even if we do end up in a spat now and then.) They're my bandmates, too! And there's Jo, who's basically our sister at this point.

Who's your favourite person in the world?

My favourite person in the world is obviously my twin brother, Jaymie. Jaymie is an amazing singer, and a great song-writer, and a charming storyteller, and sometimes when I have an interview or an exam or something equally anxiety-inducing on my plate, he impersonates me and does it for me, so I don't have to!

Well.... isn't that kind of him (wink, wink). Do you have an archnemesis?

No. Jaymie and I are very forgiving, and, in our opinion, very hard to dislike. We don't hold anything against anyone, and if Jaymie's evil clone is reading this, he should keep that in mind and not come murder us.

Do you like to travel?

We thought we liked to travel, but we finally got to go on a big trip together, to Regina, Saskatchewan, in November, and we sort of ended up stuck in a demonic cult for two weeks. So now Aar is all--I mean, now I'm all, 'Let's never travel again,' even though Jaymie thinks that that experience was just bad luck, and we should probably give it another go at some point.

Oh, you shouldn't judge travelling by a visit to Saskatchewan.  That province is... unique. If you could have done one thing differently, what would it be?

I wouldn't have bailed on the big tour we were offered last spring. If I hadn't done that, then Jaymie wouldn't have gotten mad and cloned himself in the first place, so it's basically entirely my fault.

So, are you happy we know your story?

Of course! The more the merrier! And please follow us on instagram!

Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

We love you! Our first full length album is on its way! Buy our EPs on bandcamp, don't just stream them! Please stop making fake accounts to follow us on social media and ask us weird, highly personal questions--Maggie, I'm talking to you, you little stalker pirate, you.

Can we look forward to reading more of your story?

As long as we don't get killed by a cult or a gang of werewolves, the story goes ever on!

Good to hear.  Thanks Aaron for chatting with us.  You tell your brother Jaymie you rocked this interview. 

Thanks for the interview! You know how much I love to share an anecdote or two. In fact, I was just telling Aaron the other day--I mean, telling Jaymie the other day--that more people should hear our story--after all, we've certainly had our share of adventures! Last week, the clone I made of myself snuck in our bedroom window and tried to steal my credit card--see, he'd just learned how they work... But I can see you're clearing up the wine glasses--wow, did we finish the whole bottle?--and you've turned off the recording device. I know how to read the signals, don't worry!

Best wishes, and thanks for the chat!

Good luck to the all the Bukowski Family. 

To read Aaron's story, click on the link in the comment here --->

Now it's your turn to ask Aaron.

Add your questions as an inline comment here. Don't forget to tag awglen  so they can get the question to him. ---->