Not With the Band: Analysis of a failed AU

[mark_asphodel]

So, when I saw that “rock band au” prompt for fe_fest last year, I grabbed it.  I had an idea.  A crack idea, but an idea all the same.  A band composed of some of my favorite FE8 characters.

Why are they in a band?  How do they even know one another?

When I go AU, I work off a template.  My template for this was the classic UK bands of the sixties and early seventies, but not the working-class hero sort.  My protagonists would have to be well-bred and well-educated young men who fell into music through a different path than, say, The Beatles.  Guys who had plenty of opportunities to be doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers... but went the rock-star route because they wanted to.  It wasn’t a choice between “rock star” and “sheet metal worker” or “rock star” and “bus driver.”

Take Ephraim.  Obviously he wouldn’t be the Prince of Wales in this alternate-universe Britain.  But he could be the rebellious son of a completely respectable family-- the son of a minor peer, perhaps, or the son of a minor war hero.  He lives a comfortable life in a nice university town.  So does Innes, whose father is a fairly distinguished professor at said university.

So, Ephraim and Innes knew one another from back when.  Maybe went to the same posh school together.  Ephraim doesn’t do so well in his lessons and ends up at art school rather than Cambridge or Oxford, where he meets first Lyon and then Joshua, boys from similar backgrounds who are not really cut out for being respectable young citizens.  Lyon is not able to follow his father into the Navy, and Joshua essentially ran away from his mother’s house and is living off a stipend.  Ephraim wants to be a musician, Lyon wants to do whatever Ephraim does, and Joshua sees this as an opportunity to score money and chicks.  Innes, meanwhile, has been off doing a pre-university tour of Europe, and then gets back to England to find his old mate Ephraim has a band in London.  Innes wants a piece of that action.

What sort of band is this?

Ephraim, of course, would be lead guitarist, lead singer, charismatic frontman.  Easy.  Lyon also easily fell into the slot of being a keyboard/organ player-- a place where he can hide behind his wall of equipment, making beautiful and eerie sounds, and not be jumping around on stage.  Joshua... well, I’m sure most people would make super-cool Joshua a guitarist or something sexxxy, but I made him the percussionist. I’ve met a lot of cool wild-man percussionists.  And Innes got to be the bass player, because that was left over.

(Ephraim plays the complicated bass parts on the records, though.  Ephraim can play everything, don’tcha know?)  

Also, Innes writes the songs.  For Ephraim to sing.  Bingo, essential point of conflict between tactician and army leader transposed in some fashion.  

What sort of music is this?

Spacey, artsy, vaguely proggy stuff.  Early Pink Floyd (note guitar-bass-keys-percussion set-up as opposed to classic two guitars-bass-drums) was the idea here.  Lyon and Ephraim do sonic-landscape things while Innes writes the words and the shorter songs that might actually work as hit singles.  

What’s the band called?

They go through several names but end up being called Mogall.  Lyon’s idea.

What happens?

Well, they have moderate success but don’t get along.  Joshua is mates with Innes but not close to anyone else.  Innes has a very prickly relationship with Ephraim and is not fond of Lyon.  Lyon is very close to Ephraim.  Ephraim is kind of dense about it all.  Touring is physically and mentally difficult for Lyon... who is also smoking weed.  And using acid.  The weed thing is OK with Ephraim, and Joshua doesn’t care, but Josh and Innes are really more the “beer drinking” sort and they don’t get on with pothead culture.  And acid is scary, especially when Lyon has freakouts.

What else happens?

Holidays in Ibiza, bad behavior on tours, the odd bit of “experimentation” between Innes and Joshua and a more lengthy, involved, and fucked-up dynamic between Ephraim and Lyon, and eventually meddlesome wives and girlfriends.  And a number one record in the US.

Then what?

I think Innes fired everyone, including himself.  Lyon went crackers.  Joshua just sort of stopped contributing after a while.  And Ephraim was Ephraim.

So why didn’t you write this?

That’s a fuckton of work for something that is basically a giant exercise in self-indulgence with no greater reason to exist underlying it.  Other exercises in AU weirdness, like “Starchild” and “Until the Sun Cries Morning” actually have some sort of thing that I’m working toward.  There wasn’t any motivation here other than “Neat idea!”

I mean, I think Innes would look hot playing a Fender Precision.  That’s it, man.

Comments

[sailorvfan10.livejournal.com]

Joshua... well, I’m sure most people would make super-cool Joshua a guitarist or something sexxxy, but I made him the percussionist.
Don't people know drummers can be just as sexy as guitarists? Bah. (Coming from someone who's dated a drummer, a guitarist, and someone who does both.)

I mean, I think Innes would look hot playing a Fender Precision. That’s it, man.
Also this. I agree with this.

[raphiael]

I don't think there's anything Innes wouldn't look good while playing. The man could probably make a sousaphone sexy.

Overall, it seems like a really cool idea, but definitely a crapton of work. Facing the same dilemma with a few AU scenarios I've wanted to write, myself.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Overall, it seems like a really cool idea, but definitely a crapton of work.

See, I couldn't just write a little one-shot and have done with it, I had to imagine all the backstory and context and such... sigh.

[hooves.livejournal.com]

Man, the idea sounds extremely interesting and I'll bet anything it'd be a good read.

Sadly, I can see what you mean about it being a crapton of work, and as such, it might not be worth writing. It really depends on the author, though. Sometimes a lot of work = too much work, but other times it just makes the hard work worthwhile.

The occasional self-indulgent piece is always great, of course, and I doubt I could tell with your writing which is which (I kind of suck at it, but all your work reads well), but I understand when you hit a point where it's just, idk, not worth the extreme effort you might have to put into it. (Vs. say, a one-shot version of the same deal.)

I do think the idea could be fun, but it might work better as a shorter piece (< 15k words) and not some long half-novel.

But it'd be a lot of work either way. Just. At least with a oneshot it's over when it's completed faster. ;P

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Sometimes a lot of work = too much work, but other times it just makes the hard work worthwhile.

Not so much "too much work" on its own, but too much work in the context of everything else, ranging from fe_contest (which I was still entering then) to "Starchild" to old gift 'fics I still haven't finished. Too much... everything.

I do think the idea could be fun, but it might work better as a shorter piece (< 15k words) and not some long half-novel.

Thank you for the encouragement. I might try that. I hate leaving a good idea completely unused.

[amielleon]

This does sound extremely entertaining. The kind of entertaining that is so entertaining that makes me stop giving a damn about whether or not it's really saying something. And I'm not even really a Magvel person.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks.

Not kidding about the whole thing being an insane amount of work, though, and on top of the other WIPs plus the steampunk project... I just couldn't justify the time. I still like the idea, and maybe instead of writing the whole sweep of it I'll do some one-shots or something...

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

I absolutely crated on that challenge. ^_^; So I feel the pain, though ... amnesty isn't over yet.

I normally don't do AUs. Of course, since I've never done one, I don't really have a reason why, I suppose.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Very specific AUs appeal to me, and this one did because, well, Innes had always reminded me in a vague way of the bass player of a particular band. So it all came together pretty nicely in my head. Just not on the page.