Vague Enough to Satisfy: An Interview with Philip Frobos

To experiment with long-form storytelling, Atlanta musician, Philip Frobos took on an unexpected challenge during the pandemic: writing his debut novel. Frobos would wake up early every morning, brew a cup of coffee, and begin typing what would become Vague Enough to Satisfy. This semi-autobiographical novel published in 2021, chronicles the mundane escapades of Robert, a musician caught between love and friendship, drifting between Germany and the United States. In a blend of disciplines, Frobos didn’t abandon his musical pursuits while embarking into this literary venture. Instead, he composed a solo album with the same title to accompany the novel’s narrative. This dual undertaking provided a creative outlet during a period in which band rehearsals and tours with his group, Omni, were disrupted by global lockdowns.

The novel isn’t entirely divorced from Frobos’ life with Omni, either. The narrative draws inspiration from real-life events experienced by the band, and the book’s visual elements, including the cover and illustrations, were designed by Frankie Broyles, Frobos’ bandmate and artistic collaborator. Omni, signed to Sub Pop Records, carries the legacy of a label renowned for launching iconic bands like Nirvana into the musical mainstream.

I sat down with the author at The Daily, a coffee shop in Atlanta, to discuss the book’s inspirations, the writing process, and his newfound voice as a Southern writer.

Barattin: Vague Enough to Satisfy is a multidisciplinary work. In addition to some visuals in the novel, there is also a soundtrack you released in 2021. Did you approach the writing process in the same way for both music and narrative?

Frobos: I think they are both very off the cuff, so in a way they are similar. During the pandemic, I had nothing else to do. I would schedule myself alternating music day and writing day. I would just try to get something done, either picking up where I left off or starting something new and, eventually, I had an album worth of songs and a novel.

Barattin: One of the main differences between the two in terms of subject matter is the focus on the pandemic. Mostly because the album and the relative music videos are centered around isolation and boredom (see the song “No Packages Today” for example) while the novel is set in a pre-pandemic world with only a brief reference to Covid-19. What determined this choice?

Frobos: I actually added the pandemic to the book later because originally, I didn’t have any in there and then it felt like I needed to, so I just included a couple of acknowledgments. My friend, who is a coffee roaster [and the inspiration for one of the characters in the novel] noticed this as well and made a funny observation about the book and the soundtrack. He said that the book struck him as somewhat pop, whereas the soundtrack was obtuse.

Barattin: Despite of the differences, the album and the book seem like a magnifying glass into the mundane and in this sense, through the daily adventures of the protagonist, the novel slowly unfolds as a sort of coming-of-age novel. Do you agree with this interpretation?

Frobos: Yes, maybe a later coming of age. Although it doesn’t pertain to boyhood specifically, I definitely felt that I was working out some maturity issues especially regarding jealousy and feeling comfortable with myself.

Barattin: Your definition of “a later coming of age” is interesting. I wonder if our idea of coming-of-age is shifting in the era of late  capitalism.

Frobos: And also, who’s to say that it’s not a multi-level process. I feel I am going to hit a new step soon outside of the traditional path, while the book focuses on a protagonist who is in his late 20s and on to his 30s.

Barattin: I was thinking about the fact that musicians lead a very peculiar life and are far removed from the 9 to 5 world. In a way, they are stuck in a state of constant boyhood, especially considering how musicians gravitate around nightlife.

Frobos: In some ways, but in other ways you gain more adult experiences than other people, especially nine to fivers (no offense to anyone’s life choices), but are they organizing the logistics of basically running a small business? Working full time with people from other countries? Do they have the ability to throw themselves into the mix and fight for themselves or do they live comfortably within the constructs of their corporate life, where their main challenge is just getting another raise? But you are not wrong that there is a youthfulness in the journey, I just think that it is oddly hardening in an adult way. It’s almost as if you have a longer youth but in a very hard way.

Barattin: There seems to be a need for the protagonist to find, create, and share a third place (in Ray Oldenburg’s sense of the term). It’s not always easy to find these places, especially in the United States. But you really put Atlanta in the center and focus on all it has to offer. Can you elaborate on this idea?

Frobos: Originally I did not have an idea. I was just trying to write in the long form as long as I could, thinking maybe I’ll give up, maybe I won’t, and I kept going. But I was really inspired by a lot of the early to mid-century classics like Hemingway and Joan Didion. I was thinking, “I had this experience in Germany with our friends who were our age. How does that translate to Atlanta, GA?” Nobody that I know in recent memory has given the city its creative, romantic due. Ours is a lovely city with all these kinds of places, serving a lot of people our age, so why not immortalize it in a little bit of fiction?

Barattin: Talking about fiction: Some establishments you mention are recognizable, but you decided to leave names out, one of the only exceptions is the Dekalb Farmers Market. What determined the choice of anonymity?

Frobos: I felt that if I was name dropping one place and not another it would have been unfair. We have so many amazing, hard-working friends that run some of the best businesses in the city, but if I started giving names, I felt like I had to give one to all of them, but if they remained nameless, they could just be the setting for the story instead of about a friend name drop. It removes the currency, but if you know you know. And, of course, there are many other places that I would have loved to include or fictionalize but in this version of the story it made more sense to use the ones mentioned.

Barattin: In the book, the line “Nothing’s perfect” should be Atlanta’s city planning motto (102) reflects a keen interest in urban theories and architecture, highlighted by Robert’s knowledge of architecture and the fact that Lou, the protagonist’s fiancée and later wife, is an architect. What inspired these themes in the narrative?

Frobos: A big part of it was the dichotomy between spending so much time in East Germany that summer and coming back here, not only seeing what was different but what was similar. I also happen to have a friend who lived down the street at the time and she gave me a few pointers on how to describe certain day-to-day things for someone with that job. Tip of the hat to Olivia Pontiff.

Barattin: Food is another prominent theme in the narrative, with Europe being characterized by German street food and cafes, while Atlanta is depicted through references to fine dining. Having toured Europe multiple times, how did your culinary experiences influence the portrayal of these contrasting foodscapes in your novel, especially given the changes in Atlanta’s food scene over the years?

Frobos: I guess it was more inherent, food being its own character or part of the scene in each setting. There are the chicken fingers at the shack, which is surprise!  97 Estoria, but there is more fine dining in Atlanta. Atlanta definitely holds its own in the culinary world. Kimball House has a copy of the novel on their shelves. Jesse Smith, an owner and also musician, said he made it a “required, not required reading for the employees.” As far as food in Germany, you are right, there’s a lot of Turkish food.

Barattin: Why did you choose Germany specifically?

Frobos: Our very good friends Kirmes and George live in Leipzig, Germany. Kirmes is Omni’s Euro agent, and George was our driver for a few tours. The idea of the book originated from this crazy European tour. We played four weeks from May to the end of June and then we had ten days off in Leipzig. Kirmes gave us his apartment and we lived there for a week and a half and soaked up the life of the town. My wife, Emily, came over, much like in the book, and we spent some time in Berlin. We ended up playing a festival in Scandinavia and then we got back to the U.S. to renew our visas for two weeks and then went back for another month. It was one of the craziest tours we have ever done.

Barattin: It’s funny you mention that, because in the book music is there but it is not really at the center, you focus more on the daily experiences and the love story. I thought that was interesting and surprising in a way.

Frobos: I didn’t want to make it all about music because that’s what all the rest of my life is about, so I wanted to remove that from the equation. If I opened up that door at all,… it’s weird how music and fiction rely on subjective taste and you can get really cheesy, really fast, and get pigeonholed very fast, too. I felt that if all of that was gone, it could just be a story on its own. It’s not just a story about a rock band, it’s more about a person.

Barattin: I am not sure of how you feel about analyzing your own work, but I wanted to ask you about the meaning of the act of digging and the hole in Robert’s yard. Is that a reference to the DDR?

Frobos: I like that interpretation a lot. A lot of people don’t expect it but it’s actually literal. Our George, who lives in Leipzig, took us to his garden. He was digging this hole and we asked him: “How deep have you gone?” and I think he had only gone three feet or something. So, one afternoon we said, “We’ll help you” and we dug eight or nine feet. He showed us his neighbor’s garden and that was really terrifying: it was literally a circle pit and there was a ladder going down and that was probably 12 feet. I think they were just bored. But I thought it was also a cool metaphor, how it is romantic to do stuff like that, also just needing something, needing to connect, it’s broad, but it is also very relatable. It is also something to do on a sweaty summer day.

Barattin: How do you place your work in the literary panorama? What are your influences? And what are the names you’d like to be associated with?

Frobos: Besides the classics I have mentioned earlier, maybe John Darnielle and even if it’s a little more trending, Jia Tolentino’s essay book Trick Mirror. I love Harry Crews, he is amazing. I enjoy how weird and southern his books are.

Barattin: Do you consider yourself a southern voice?

Frobos: Oh yeah. I don’t know how southern Vague Enough to Satisfy was but this book that I am about to finish is super southern.

Barattin: What are you working on right now?

Frobos:  It’s a new novel to be. It’s about North Georgia, a cast of characters, chicken farming, opioid crisis, adults, and teenagers…

[1] I am indebted to my friend, Josh Privett for his suggestion regarding the late capitalist coming-of-age novel. It should be noted, however, that characters’ age and socio-cultural milestones of both the Bildungsroman and the Künstlerroman vary according to author and time period.

Anna Barattin is a musician and Lecturer at Georgia State University in the Department of English. Her work focuses on Italian American Studies, Space and Place, and Geocentrism.