press

6/25/04

Band dad authors Amp'd while tagging along with son
As published in The Citizens Voice

Most rock stars aren't looking to go on tour with their parents. But that's just what Aaron Fincke—guitarist with the Hollywood Records band Breaking Benjamin—did.

Aaron and his fellow band members allowed his father Gary Fincke—a critically acclaimed author—access to the band on and off the stage, providing him material for his forthcoming book, Amp'd (Michigan State University Press), which is scheduled for release in August.

Talk about the ultimate Father's Day gift.

The book is a nonfiction account of Aaron's rock and roll life with two signed bands—the latest being Breaking Benjamin, which calls Wilkes-Barre home.

"It's actually applicable to all rock and roll bands, but it's more a father-son book set in a rock and roll world. They (the band) gave me enough access to what they were doing," says Fincke.
The elder Fincke is a professor of English and director of the Writers Institute at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, located 75 miles from Wilkes-Barre. Earlier this year, Fincke won the Flannery O'Connor Ward for fiction writing—one of the highest honors bestowed on a writer in the United States.

The award was Fincke's second book manuscript prize in the past ten months, with his poetry collection Writing Letters for the Blind winning the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Poetry Prize. His third collection of short stories, The Stone Child, was published in September by the University of Missouri Press.

Once Amp'd is published, there are plans for dad to be back on tour with his son's band—this time bringing 500 copies of the book along with him. Breaking Benjamin is presently on tour, promoting release of its second album, "We Are Not Alone," which will be stores on June 29. There are also tentative plans to have the book distributed in music stores.

While it might seem that Amp'd fits the growing genre of "lad lit"—books aimed at 20- and 30-something men as a counter to “chick lit” and written with changing views of American masculinity, expectations, and men’s roles—its author disagrees.

"I hope Amp'd transcends this genre," says Fincke, who made it his first book-length nonfiction project. "So maybe, I'm the spokesperson for talking about how a subject that seems like it's made for young males could also appeal to women—especially since watching 60 or more aggressive rock shows demonstrated how, though fewer in number as participants, the young women threw themselves into mosh pits and fell in love with the pseudo-violence of these shows. It's the same for my fiction. The central characters are nearly all boys or men, and I hope their desires and disappointments, etc., strike a nerve with men who might not otherwise read literary short stories. But at the same time, I don't want to be labeled as writing toward a male audience."

While the book may not be targeting men, fathers and sons will no doubt enjoy the topic—particularly those with sons aspiring to be rock stars someday.