Confessions of a rock novelist

Rock star, rock critic and rock novelist Neal Pollack was in town on Oct. 14 with his band,… Rock star, rock critic and rock novelist Neal Pollack was in town on Oct. 14 with his band, The Neal Pollack Invasion. He managed to find time to halt the rocking and start the talking before he got here.

In your story, there’s a character with your name. How much of the story was fiction and how much of it was humor?

It’s 100 percent fiction, I just use humor as a literary device. It’s not humor writing, it’s satire; it’s a comedy novel.

You said the story is told from the point of view of two fellow rock critics, namely Paul St. Pierre and Neal Pollack. Considering you share your name with one of them …

He just has my name. I’m not really good with coming up with names.

p>Between the character who shares your name and this character Paul St. Pierre, there seems to be this …

Split personality? Well, yeah, it’s true. But the characters don’t really have that much to do with me, they’re based on other rock critic characters from history. There are little bits and pieces of my personality in them. In that sense, they’re a split personality. In another sense, they’re just fictional characters. They don’t really have that much to do with who I am at all.

So that’s why you kind of exaggerated Neal Pollack’s character?

Yeah. I mean, that’s not really what I’m like. There are a few things that he does and says, that may be something I do or say, but it’s not me. Paul St. Pierre is not me. Although again, every writer has a little intellectual pretension, so, I’m a little Paul St. Pierre. But for the most part, they’re just fictional characters based on people I’ve spoken to myself.

Why, exactly, is Neal Pollack’s character so obnoxious? He does take advantage of people – takes them for granted, at least.

I conceived him as the ultimate pathetic, drug-addict rock groupie. He’s just like every rock stereotype rolled into one. He’s just like a hipster who spans a generation. So why is he so annoying? If you’re going to write a comic novel, you can’t have your character not be annoying.

What made you decide to write this rock ‘n’ roll novel?

I read a couple of rock books, I was looking for a topic for my next novel, and I thought there was some room to make fun of this sort of “genre” of rock writing. I can’t remember one moment where I was like ‘Oh, this is what I must do.’

What were some of the rock ‘n’ roll books you read?

“Please Kill Me” is an oral history of punk rock in the ’60s and ’70s. Elvis Presley’s biography. “Positively 4th Street,” which is a story about the Greenwich Village folk scene. And then I started reading more Pete Berg, more rock criticism and rock history, and I just started getting more obscure from there.

You seem to have a vast knowledge of underground bands from the ’60s to the early ’90s. Did you do a lot of research with old editors of rock magazines, like Rolling Stone?

I did have a couple of rock critic advisers who I called on to make sure I had all the facts straight, because I know something about music, but I’m not really a rock dork. So I called on an army of rock dorks to make sure I had all the details right and I had the bands right. I don’t really have a vast knowledge of underground music, I just know people who do. I was able to use my friends and rock critics to get the details right, because if you’re going to do something like this, you have to get the details right.

You added a discography. Were any of these albums an inspiration for writing the book?

Every rock book has a discography at the end, which is kind of ridiculous, because it’s just a book, but it was also a chance for me to take hot shots at bands that I hadn’t been able to make fun of in the book. I managed to get some additional jokes in there.

Tell me about the album

I know some musicians, and I brought them together to make an album of some of the songs from the novel because I wanted to provide a concrete example of the rock I was both praising and making fun of, and I just wanted to create a loud, fun garage record and a loud, fun garage band. That was the intention, and it worked out very well. It was a lot better than people thought it would be, and the band was a lot better than people thought it would be. We actually put on a lot of fun shows on tour; it was great.

How is the tour?

It’s tiring, but I’ve worked on tour by myself before, on a book tour. I’m no more or less tired, I’m just traveling with a bunch of guys. There’s a lot of logistics and stuff; there’s occasional tension, but for the most part, I think there’s nothing like it. You pull into a town, and you’re the star of the night, and nobody comes to see your show, but it’s an adventure. That’s something not a lot of writers can say about their book tours, but when you’re on a rock tour, you’re always on an adventure. Book tours are boring, and I don’t want to bore anyone. Rock ‘n’ roll! Woo!

The Neal Pollack character claims that rock ‘n’ roll has to be awful. Does your band follow this aesthetic?

Well, you know, ‘good’ awful. Unstudied, unpretentious, fun, dumb, loud. That’s the idea. Then, of course, I’m making fun of Pollack’s stance, too. Of course, rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t have to be awful. That’s just a kind of critical stance a rock critic takes. But my band is pretty close to his philosophy.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’ve had some really great shows with Pittsburgh, and I’d like that relationship to continue. Don’t break up with me now, Pittsburgh.

Oh, we won’t.