Category: Behind the Scenes

The setup for this chapter came to me with the clarity of a message from my future self: Benji & L, on a date at a hardware store, chaperoned by Frank, coveting an unidentified handcrafted object for mysterious reasons. “You’ve got it made, because you’re made so well.” Early on the hardware store was called…

Onto side C, where we kick off the second record with a mondegreen. One of my favorite lyrics in “Vibe So Hot” is when Benji Hughes sings “I’m standing in a cape on your lawn.” Only that’s not the line. It’s “I’m singing in a camp on your lawn.” It took Priscilla Ahn’s cover version…

This part of the story is best told in emails. But I’ll do it out of order the way L Extreme the novel plays with sequence. April 22, 2020 From: Benji Hughes To: JL Civi Subject: Re: Never Like I Read In Books & Magazines… I’m still checking this out. It’s really good. 173 days earlier……

Let’s pick up where we left off with the doors. SAL + MON = Salmon. The CD version of the album Songs in the Key of Animals assigns these names to each disc. The LP version subtitles the sides. L Extreme the novel pays tribute with little signs on two opposing doors Heartman finds in…

One epic chapter allowed me to squeeze in a few more musical references via section breaks—either a song title from a different Benji Hughes album or a lyrical snippet, with the precedent set in previous longer chapters to give the reader a reasonable breakpoint every 10ish pages if needed. Specific to “Girl In The Tower,”…

Once I decided the Heartman & Songstress fairytale would carry Side B, I knew it needed an epic conclusion. This 40 page chapter is by far the longest in the L Extreme book—essentially a standalone novella when combined with the four 4-page shorties that precede it. My original idea was to continue the silent-film nature…

Confession: I cheated a little. On A Love Extreme the album, “Mmmmmmm” comes before “Even If” sequence wise, not after. It’s the last song on the first CD, or a little instrumental bridge between two songs on the vinyl / streaming versions. In the first draft I honored the spirit of the 37 second interlude…

“There ain’t no way you’re ever gonna find another lover like me…” Imagining Benji Hughes as Heartman crooning the loungy opening line here only yielded one possible rival: Cupid. Two mythical beings armed with bows and tasked with making mere mortals fall in love. I wanted a reason to dive a little more into Heartman’s…

Upon deciding to run with this fairytale interlude for the rest of side B, my storytelling goal became connecting the dots from Benji & Jessica to Benji & L while moving things towards a confrontation in “The Tower”—whatever that might turn out to be. So easy to do, right? 🙂 My favorite part of this…