Into the City

When I first met Jackson Bauer, I thought he was a ghost from the Wild West. His

cowboy boots, 10-gallon hat, and bolo tie were wonderfully out of place in the modern

cafe we met in. However, at his home he fits right in. Among the cowboy paraphernalia,

there is a strong sense of his love for Minnesota, as evidenced in his new novel “The

Sounds of Change.” The novel follows a young boy’s turbulent life and music career

from a dysfunctional childhood on the streets of St. Paul, to a journey across the globe,

and finally a satisfying, long-awaited homecoming back to the cities that raised him. This

novel redefines what it means to be Minnesotan and instills a special sense of pride in

living in these two cities. This is now his third novel to make it on the New York Times

Bestsellers list, but his first to deal with such a Minnesota theme. After reading this book,

it is hard not to smile when looking at these two amazing cities.

We recently met in his downtown Minneapolis home for lunch and an interview, and I

couldn’t pass up a chance to have his famous chili. After lunch, we settled down in his

living room—him with a pipe, me with a pen—and he told me his life story. These are

some of the highlights of our conversation.

What was it about being in Minnesota that first put stories in your mind?

I was born and raised in the Twin Cities. Both of them. My family’s house was in

Minneapolis, but I went to Central High School in St. Paul so I had an even better idea of

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the Twin Cities—that’s one of the great things about this place, we are conjoined twins,

connected at the hip, dependant on each other and separated by just a river. I was lucky to

get to grow up in both cities. Most of my friends were either from St. Paul or from

suburbs so they never really got to experience both cities like I did. Getting the feel for

both was amazing because they truly two unique cities— there is less order in St. Paul,

even the street signs look different there—but that’s part of what makes it special to me.

How did that experience shape your writing?

Looking back—of course I didn’t think this at the time—but looking back I think

it was my experience of being able to develop as a man and writer in both of these cities

that made me really love this place, and cities in general. I find it so amazing that each

big city has such a different feel and culture to it. That’s actually something I have tried

to explore in my novels. In all of my novels, setting always plays a huge part in the story.

The setting and cities that my stories take place in are almost characters themselves, and I

think that has a direct correlation to me growing up here.

Like “A Port in the Storm.”

Exactly. The story would have been so different if it had taken place anywhere

other than Chicago. I mean, Colorado is great; obviously I love Colorado, but “A Port in

the Storm” is so dependant on the character of Chicago that it would have gone

completely differently had I set it in Denver, for example. And I find that interesting—to

try to incorporate the city as a main player as much as possible.

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Not a lot of authors seem to do that.

In this business, you have to do something to try to stand out. I had been looking

back over some of the first stories that I wrote and felt that something was missing. I

don’t want to make it seem like ideas just happen, because there was a lot of work, a lot

of nights spent thinking ‘Am I doing the right thing? Why in the world did I ever try to

write?’ Then I remembered one of the exercises I did in a college writing course that

focused on setting. Once I gave my characters a strong, vibrant place to interact in, I

knew I had something good.

What did make you want to be a writer in the first place?

Now, that is a much stranger story. Honestly, I never thought I would end up

becoming a writer. When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. So, I started reading

stories about Buzz Aldrin and other famous astronauts, then that moved me into sci-fi

novels, and then I forgot about trying to do something and opted for writing about other

people.

There isn’t really one thing that I can point to that made me say, “This is why I

want to be a writer.” I have just always loved the stories that people tell and I wanted to

be able to tell mine.

So how did you get started then?

All my life I had been interested in stories. Short stories in high school because

they were short and classical mythology in college—everyone has to try something

strange in college, don’t they?

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The power of stories, to me, is their ability to record what is going on socially at

the time, whether the story is trying to or not. For example, I could write a love story

about a guy from the city and a gal from the country, and even though I’ve never known

gals from the country, she will still deal with some of the same problems that I had

internalized over the course of my life. Stories are ultimately all we have. My job as a

writer is to arrange the 26 measly letters of the English language in a way that it conveys

our story in the best way possible. And that’s what I was trying to do with my book.

Tell me about “Sounds of Change.” Where did the idea come from?

The idea came when I was living in Colorado, believe it or not. My wife and I had

lived there for a couple of years—she is also from Minnesota, not the cities, though.

Anyway, we had been living in Colorado for a while and we both just got this feeling that

we wanted to come home, back to Minnesota.

I don’t think this happens anywhere else, and frankly, I don’t know why it

happens here, but it does. So with my book, I wanted to combine some of the things I had

been thinking about at the time—the society that I was a part of and a homecoming story,

but I also wanted to give the cities a chance to shine. I had noticed that, conventionally

and even in my stories, Minnesota is an entire state of snow and farmers. Nothing ever

happens in the cities of Minnesota. I wanted to change that.

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So how much of the story did you take from your life?

Well, I wouldn’t call it autobiographical by any means, but out of all my novels,

my life influenced this one the most. It’s difficult not to let aspects of your life in if you

know a place as well as I know the Twin Cities.

Anything in particular?

I’ll tell you a secret. One of the scenes in the book came 100% directly from my

life. I wont tell you which, but it involves a park, baseballs, a can of gasoline, and a

firetruck. I had never written that scene before and it was great fun to relive that moment

of my life. It was even more fun to see it published.

Last question: Who is your favorite author right now?

I would have to say Salman Rushdie. His sentences are amazing. I greatly admire

the way he uses words and I hope to one day have such a mastery of the language as he

does.