Today, we have an opportunity
to talk to Mathias Lindgaard.
Mathias has written the book,
Drunk Drivers.
First, let me thank you for joining me.
I appreciate you giving me your links and I want to share those with our readers.
That is great. Can you tell us a little about yourself and what led you to start writing?
My name is Mathias, I’m now 24 years old and I’m born and raised in Denmark, Aarhus. I think my story with writing might be a bit different from most authors, without knowing it of course. But I started writing poetry and short stories very early on, about 11-12 years old. My motivation for writing in the beginning was really fleeing the outside world and creating a sanctuary for me to be myself and to remove all the outside noise. My family life was never particularly easy, it wasn’t hard compared to many others, but as a very emotional kid I struggled a lot with my father leaving when I was 12, and the alcoholism that ran in my family. I spent most of my time alone, always running from things I couldn’t control, and that’s when writing really played its part – my opportunity to create my own reality.
Since I heard music for the first time, I knew that was something I wanted to for the rest of my life, so as I got older, I started moving towards a musical career, which was very strange because I couldn’t play any instruments or had any musical knowledge from my family either. But when push comes to shove, I push hard, because I wanted it so bad. Eventually, I made enough connections to start making music professionally for a Danish publishing label, which was mind-blowing for me. But writing music lyrically well, is really about constantly taking out the essence of every feeling, situation and so forth, and that can be tiring when you do it averagely 8-12 hours a day. So, I remember being 19, sitting at home and just wanting to write whatever came to mind. Completely forgetting everything that I had learned about songwriting, and just writing without releasing pen from paper, and writing like nobody was watching. I remember writing 20 pages of just something that night, I just couldn’t stop.
So, at 4 or 5 in the morning on a school night, I got into bed. And the next day, the only thing I could think about was doing it again. After a month or so, the idea of Drunk Drivers slowly started to form. But I knew I had to experience the story – I was already in an environment of drugs, and was doing them daily, but I hadn’t figured what that really meant for me. So, the following year and half the story formed unconsciously, and one day I just knew I had it. And 3 months later, I had a manuscript of 200 pages. So, what really led me to writing was just escape, which eventually got me into self-exploration, and that self-exploration became both a way for me to heal myself as well as an opportunity to transfer it into a story I saw more fit, or something that was easier for me to deal with.
"My motivation for writing in the beginning was really fleeing the outside world and creating a sanctuary for me to be myself and to remove all the outside noise."
So does your inspiration come out of your life experience?
Usually, I have to have an explicit connection to it myself. I have to have experienced it in some way, or else I feel like I’m scrambling for thoughts without a compass, which talks into the self-exploration part I mentioned before. Other than that, I’m usually on the lookout for something unpredictable and emotionally extreme. To me, that just makes it more fun and exciting.
What are your hobbies and do they ever play into your writing?
Music definitely does, yes. And just everything that surrounds it. Also, I’m an entrepreneur, so self-improvement, as it’s called now, is definitely something that’s luring in the back of my mind too. I’m a high-performance obsessive, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have experienced making an impact on somebody before, so giving back what I have learned definitely plays a big part on how I write as well – even though it can throw me off once in a while.
What is the best advice you have ever been given as a writer?
Write like nobody’s watching. Definitely. The best things I ever wrote, and the things that has opened most doors for me, was the things I wrote solely for myself. And that’s books, music, poetry, doesn’t matter. And it leads you into this waiting game, you won’t ever make sense of. My poetry hit randomly for example, so I have to listen carefully all the time, and when it does, I stop everything I’m doing or the feeling might go away, and there’s a chance I won’t be able to grasp it again
What advice would you give someone who wants to be a writer?
Don’t do it for anyone or anything, do it solely for yourself. If you do it for the accolades, you’re probably going to be disappointed. As it is with every form of art; people don’t buy or support things because you want them to, they do it because they believe you believing it’s the truth. Meaning you create an opportunity of your story to become their own reflection – but everyone is well aware when you’re just trying to sell them a mirror.
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
I honestly don’t know. I’ve only spent money on a typewriter I’ve never used, and a small amount on the publishing deal for my first book. But so far, publishing my first book. Just taking a bet on myself – because it turned out pretty great.
Do you write full-time or around another job? How do you schedule your time to write?
I’m studying, still working as a songwriter and now I also have promotion of Drunk Drivers in Denmark, on top of already writing my next book. How I schedule it really variates. If I’m still not 100% sure of how the book is going to end, I write a minimum of 10 pages every day – or I write nothing, but spent a minimum of 2-3 hours a day thinking about it, going in different directions and gathering information from basically everything that connects to the feeling I have. When I know the story (which to me means knowing the exact ending, and have few ideas of characters, situations and so) I write as much as I possibly can, every single day. I have to write every single day, to keep my mind in the story, but how many hours a day variates, because life have this funny tendency of just happening. So, I might write 8-10 hours one day, and then 1 hour the next, but I just have to write every day when I have the story. Because then I’m constantly thinking about the story, I keep getting reminded – and it becomes more truthful.
What is your favorite part about writing?
The process. Even though, I can push myself way to far haha. But just the process of being curious, becoming better, exploring and hopefully creating something that has use for somebody else.
"Drunk Drivers is my journey with drug addiction, the mental health issues I’ve had, creating an identity and just becoming more calm and peaceful being who I am. I never realized it would surround itself so much about love, but that was really the cure all for me."
Please tell us about your current release.
Drunk Drivers is my journey with drug addiction, the mental health issues I’ve had, creating an identity and just becoming more calm and peaceful being who I am. I never realized it would surround itself so much about love, but that was really the cure all for me. The story is also written as fictive story, both to still have opportunity to follow my curiosity, but also to be able to push it a bit away from me. It just became easier for me to deal with a lot of the emotions and thoughts I had when it wasn’t “me”. Drunk Drivers is also solely written when I was high, to make it as authentic as possible, which was a really hard process at times – but absolutely necessary.
Can you read / provide us with a small exert?
This is definitely one of my favourite parts:
I was walking through the gate. On the other side, the proud consumers of schedule 1 narcotics met me. Drinking, snorting, suffocating – enforcing they’re vanity. 1. Class vanity. This could very well be a night of mine. I felt on home-turf. A world so fragile. A world so familiar. A world where you believed in the curse of living forever and the deep desire for nevermore. The fascinating satisfaction there was in thoughts of endless desire and a life of eternity. Where you can drink till you puke. Fuck till you are dickless. Snort till you remember; when the night’s over you are going to wake up and be drawn to your deliberate path while your mind is suffocating, and neck strangled. The misbelief of a road. Because roads lead somewhere. You are in a circle. As if you were a strapped down psychopath being transported back and forth. Prison to prison. You believe that your destiny is determined. Unhappy with desires of the uniquely extravagant. So lonely but comfortably manifested to the belief that a king, a legend can only be deprived his last breath but not his life nor his legacy. I walked into a mirage of the Garden of Eden. Where there were no Gods. Only fiends. Where there was no despair in enjoying the goods from the Tree of Life. Where desire was encouraged, and the disrupting ends of meeting satisfaction wasn’t seen frown upon. Where the snake was the king and his legacy enormous.
What exciting story are you working on next?
My next story is going to be totally different. I wanted to let my curiosity run the show, and I got totally obsessed with extreme contradicting feelings, which questions our morality. So, I’m really really excited for the next story I’m writing. It’s going to be some sort of a psychological thriller about a kid who constantly tries to retain his control over himself, but his circumstances just won’t allow him to, which leads him down some horrible paths and misunderstandings about self-preservation. I won’t say too much because most of it has to come as a surprise. Otherwise, it won’t work the way I want it to.
I followed a similar journey where my first work came from known experiences but since I have enjoyed exploring my curiosity. I find I draw often from great writers I have read. Who are your favorite authors?
I honestly haven’t read many books in my life. But Charles Bukowski and Scott Fitzgerald are definitely two I enjoy, even though I haven’t read much of their work yet. But I’m also a stoic, so The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is something I read a phrase in every morning.
What is your writer’s kryptonite?
My ego. No doubt. It just leads me into overthinking and overanalyzing, which is the opposite of feeling it out. And that just prevents the good stuff from flourishing, and usually leads to me procrastinating when I dwell on the result. But I also write in three stages; idea, scripting and perfecting.
Are you involved in any writer groups?
Unfortunately, no. Writing is pretty much a solo project for me, but I would really love to get involved with more writers.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
If you are a writer, or you just have an idea. Please just do it. Please just write it. And please just share it. Art only lives if someone breathes it, and what you think suck, might be another man’s treasure – so don’t judge it in advance, that was never your job. Please just do it. And to the readers, a sincere and utter; thank you. Nothing would live without you. It’s a symbiotic relationship, and we’re totally dependent on each other.
That’s great! I wish you the absolute best on marketing your debut novel.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drunkdriversofficial/
Publisher buy page: https://olympiapublishers.com/books/drunk-drivers
And almost on every book site you know. Everything from bookdepository.com to Amazon.us/uk and saxo.dk
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