Julius laughed at the end of it and downed another beer. But we agreed that the performances had gotten lame. He didn’t drink, smoke, eat any meat other than fish, or have sex, all out of boredom with the banality of such indulgences, unadulterated dedication to his craft, and as a spiritual-seeker experiment he was performing as part of a personal journey. He’d once covered Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire” and began crying, unable to finish the concert, and not a single fan demanded their money back, for they had all been privileged with such a raw moment. He’d done uncredited guest recordings and surprise performances with artists like Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, My Morning Jacket, M. When asked by a radio host, he once said he planned to put out an album named after each of the prismatic hues, and never affirmed that it was a publicity stunt. He painted his own equipment orange because he has an obsession with the color, proven by its heavy presence in each album, mostly appearing in a checker pattern, as well as the name of his debut EP, Orange.

He had to buy a new cushioned wing chair every time he wrote a song. Anecdotes about Wick were exchanged like currency:īefore he started out Sedgwick had dropped out of music school with a single credit remaining because he had broken two fingers in a bar fight the night before his jury recital.

We shared one another’s favorite groups, dropping their names and matching them up like hands in a game of Gin Rummy we were playing in the back corner. Mine them for what you wish, but only the novel can give you the full experience of the story as told by narrator Neil Oberlin. These select passages are provided courtesy of the author, for your convenience. The following are selected passages from An Authentic Derivative, my debut novel.

An Authentic Derivative by Caleb Coy