 Publications like Rolling Stone, NME, Slant, Spin and Sputnik are experts in music. When I find free time I love scanning through the endless "Greatest (Pop) Albums" lists that they produce to see if I agree or to see if I've missed something along the way.
As you might know, much of my time has been devoted to writing my debut novel. "Vinyl Tiger" is as much about the story of Alekzandr as it is a tribute to pop music, pop culture and to the collaborative spirit that often makes art so powerful. At a certain point, I started to organise the story into chapters that captured the events and spirit of Alekzandr's life as it changed in and around each of the albums he was making. Soon, the idea of writing the book became one of imagining it as the kind of pop album I love listening to. For me a good pop album is full of different things. It can be pulpy or lightweight and still have meaning. A great pop album has moments of fun, its ups and downs, and tracks or moments that pack an emotional punch long after you've finished listening to them. So that became my working goal as I wrote "Vinyl Tiger" and once it was sent off for editing. To make a "great pop album" that is more than just one thing. And because I can't sing to save myself I had to rely on my words to try and achieve those things instead.  Vinyl Tiger has been haunting me for years.
It came into being via scribbled, handwritten notes on Japanese subways, bumpy bus rides in Rome and while wittingly away downtime in Melbourne art galleries. To conserve paper (and go blind) I'd write with really tiny print, and I can't tell you how many times people would just sit and stare at me or ask me if I was preparing some artwork for show. Vinyl Tiger is the story of Alekzandr, an 80s pop act, and so I did copious amounts of research (having already lived through them myself) to be faithful to that decade (and to the 90s and 00s). Having grown up on a diet of Smash Hits and MTV I already had a really good base to start from, and as a pop lover, using pop culture as a background was very much a labour of love - not just an exercise in research. -Dave Di Vito |
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