What’s better than a jet pack? Five jet packs!
These are but a few of the 45 strange and wonderful conveyances, large and small, wheeled and legged, earthbound and airborne, floating and submersible, featured in the fourth book of former Richmond musician Michael Hearst (One Ring Zero), who brings the event “Sounds & Words” into Carytown’s Bbgb Book Shop at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 24. He’ll be assisted on keyboards and sometimes bass by John Gotschalk (Timothy Bailey and the Humans, The Technical Jed, Nrg Krysys).
A series that began almost a decade ago with surveys of “Unusual Creatures,” “Extraordinary People” and “Curious Constructions” now moves into “Unconventional Vehicles.” The fully illustrated volume is complemented by music and videos assembled by Hearst and a roster of colleagues. Whether pedal-powered submersible, a gas-turbine motorcycle or an ostrich-powered carriage, each subject comes with an image, lively and informative descriptions, and a theme song (all this and Neil Gaiman, too).
The event, while free, requires registration to reserve your space, and masks are required. Hearst came by in 2020 and performed music in the shop’s front window, and now, like then, the concert will livestream. All that said, it’s not only for kids. Because if you’re not careful, you may learn something. Or at least have a good time. We caught up to Hearst to talk about his words and the sounds he made with assorted friends.
Richmond magazine: This is your fourth in a series of unusual people, places and things. Was it like kudzu, the more you pull, the more stuff comes up?
Michael Hearst: It’s very kudzu-y. I started off as a musician first and foremost. It all stemmed from me, eight or nine years ago, wanting to do an album about strange animals that led to Chronicle Books saying, "Hey, let’s do a book," and we’ll do a CD to go along with it — this when the CD was on its deathbed. The book did much better than I imagined, and so Chronicle comes back and says, "What’s your next book gonna be?" Follow-up was “Extraordinary People,” and really when I was working on that book, figuring out what would come after that. I’d wanted to do vehicles early on.
RM: What’s your research technique?
Hearst: I love the excuse to call people and talk to them and also to go to museums, which is where some of these vehicles live now. The bathyscaphe Trieste had two pilots. These were the guys who went 35,000 feet deep back in 1960 because they could, and I discovered one of the pilots was still around and in his 80s, Don Walsh. He has this kind of Buzz Aldrin, tough-guy character and lots of information.
One of the best resources in these vehicles [is] the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, where they have the Walking Truck. It’s kind of a prototype for "Star Wars" Imperial Walkers, the AT-AT. General Electric devised this thing to walk across crazy terrain but also gentle enough to hop on a piece of glass. A major problem was that it gulped down 50 gallons of oil every minute.
RM: How’d you get the illustrator?
Hearst: For each book I’ve had a different illustrator. This one needed someone with a technical background. My ultimate goal was to have it resemble those cross-section books like for “Star Wars” vehicles and stuff. So I thought, "Well then, I’ll get that guy who does cross-sections of 'Star Wars' vehicles and stuff." And he’s Hans Jenssen.
At first he balked at there being so many. Then after a month or so he had a big break between projects, and he says to me, "Would you be OK if they’re simple drawings?" [Laughs] His "simple drawings" are phenomenal! All done by hand, beautiful, precise. Plus, he’s an awesome person. We still go back and forth on social media. …The project was really perfect for Hans. He flies gliders. It’s a real passion of his, and whenever he gets the chance he goes with his glider club to southern England and gets on his plane and dashes around.
RM: How was the recording accomplished?
Hearst: I started working on this album about three years ago. I wanted a showcase for all kinds of styles and instrumentation, a little bit of They Might Be Giants' “Fingertips“ and Queen’s “A Night at the Opera.”
There’s a mini-song for every entry, and an intro and outro, 47 really short songs. But I didn’t want to skimp on them. Writing a 30-second song is not less difficult than a full-length piece. Once you get the idea down, the 30-second length is the hardest part. You can still have 40 instruments on them.
The album was supposed to get done the year before the book came out, but then: pandemic. The book was pushed back. For six months I was hiding away with my family in Connecticut and got the chance to play around with the songs. I thought, "I’m singing on too many of these." I turned to friends and collaborated long distance. I stripped my vocals off and asked if they’d do it. Syd Straw, Tanya Donnelly. Allyssa Lamb has a marvelous voice, and she's a longtime collaborator. I’ve worked with Neil Gaiman the past 20 years, but I figured, he’s too busy — unless you have a global pandemic and he’s sitting at home. … For Neil it was not something he usually does.
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