BW&BK; recently caught up with ex-SAIGON KICK frontman Matt Kramer to discuss his first book of poetry, An American Profit, which was released on October 31st. The following is an excerpt from the story:

“I’ve been trying to write songs since I was a kid, long before I joined a band," Kramer says of his decision to try his hand at poetry. "I was always trying to write ‘the’ lyric. I just started getting these reference books, not really understanding what they were at the time, and it just grew into something that I never really had to work at. I didn’t have to dig deep for it. It was the same with singing. I try to keep life that simple. I guess I’m really self indulgent (laughs). Whether it’s a song, a poem, a piece of art or a journalistic piece, we as people can either relate to something in life, we can enhance life, or we can put our twist on it. When I wrote ‘Body Bags’ (for The Lizard album) and I was writing the line ‘Say your prayers motherfucker…,’ that was cool. I had this big ass grin when I did it because I could actually write a line like that. It was the same thing when I wrote the poem ‘Carcasses For Kids’ for this book. It’s a true story about me being in Nebraska, having this deer carcass and trying to keep these kids away from it, and they come up and start petting the fucking thing."

An excerpt:

"Pretty, pretty deer

Bloody Mary spill from the ears

Fur feels like a kitty cat

Smoke rolling out of the hole of a thirty odd six cheer"

No conversation with Kramer would be complete without a look back at Saigon Kick. He's proud of the part he played in that drama, regardless of the sour note it ended on.

“When we played our first show in L.A. we didn’t know there were rules, so I pulled my cock out on stage, was gyrating on the ground, and there’s Gerri Miller from Metal Edge saying ‘You came on me and you’ll never be in my magazine!’ (laughs). It’s like, I don’t want to be next to Trixter showing everybody what’s in their fucking Transformer-filled closet. For the record I didn’t come on her. I wish I was cold enough to be able to shoot a load in front of 3,000 people, but it was a great story (laughs). But the heavier magazines started picking us up because of that. Unfortunately, as we all know, Saigon Kick got lost in that ‘Love Is On The Way’ thing, but there was a time when we were a really cool band. Nowadays you could ask 10 different people who Saigon Kick is and get some drastic answers, but at one time it was a really amazing thing. I would never, ever be where I am right now without Saigon Kick."

Check out the complete story here.

An American Profit is available through www.mattkramer.net in the merchandise store.