Jonathan Lethem aspires to the condition of music

In an interview in 2003 the writer Jonathan Lethem remarked, "Who was it that said, ‘All art aspires to the condition of music’? It’s like the pure art. I just try to make the prose as musical as I can." Apparently it was the essayist Walter Pater (cheers Google).

As Lethem suggested, music is something that has taken a major role in his writing: from the hipster LA band at the centre of novel You Don’t Love Me Yet (2007) – which he described as an attempt to write a book that felt like a three minute pop song – to the whole ambiance of his epic (and brilliant) The Fortress of Solitude (2003) which is suffused with early hip-hop, new wave, soul, funk, motown and much else in between. See also, his lengthy Rolling Stone interview with Bob Dylan in 2006.

Now Lethem has gone a step further and started a band called I’m Not Jim. In interviews, he is quick to stress that he will not be a singer or even play an instrument – in forthcoming gigs he will perform some spoken word tracks from the band’s debut album You Are All My People. Chiefly Lethem is in the band to write songs with the band’s co-founder Walter Salas-Humara (from the band The Silos). Last year they wrote eleven songs together with Salas-Humara recording rudimentary demos for them. They then passed their efforts on to the production duo The Elegant Too, who souped them up into a full record. Together they’re a four-man band.

One track, "Stalking Horse" can be heard on Lethem’s website, jonathanlethem.com, with several more streaming on their MySpace, while their LP can be purchased here -www.silos.portmerch.com.

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