Geography plays an integral role in Joe Pernice's debut novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop. While the majority of the protagonist's real-time action takes place on Cape Cod, most of his flashbacks—a large part of the intertwined narrative—occur in Western Massachusetts, where Pernice resided and forged his own musical/literary career as an MFA student in creative writing at UMass-Amherst.
Pernice cut his musical teeth in Northampton with the Scud Mountain Boys, who released two records before signing to legendary Seattle label Sub Pop Records. He then went on to form the critically revered and prolific Pernice Brothers, who recorded for Sub Pop until the establishment of his own Ashmont Records, formed alongside his longtime manager, Joyce Linehan. Pernice's tunes have appeared on television shows Six Feet Under and The Gilmore Girls (where he made a brief on-camera appearance), and in the films Fever Pitch, On Broadway and Slaughterhouse Rules. He has also published a collection of poetry and contributed a novella to Continuum Books' 33 1/3 series of album-related books.
Music is of vital importance to the characters and plot of It Feels So Good When I Stop, with songs from the likes of Del Shannon, Todd Rundgren,and Sebadoh all providing context and texture to the story of a young man who has run off to the Cape to collect his thoughts after abandoning his young wife without a word, just days after their nuptials. There is also a track by the fictional The Young Accuser, a band created for the book but whose single, recorded by Pernice and friends, will be given a proper released by Sub Pop in the coming months.
Pernice, who now resides with his wife and young son in Toronto, took time out in advance of his book tour—for which he plans both to read and play songs from the book's companion album, set to be released concurrently—to chat about his latest project.
Valley Advocate: How did the book deal come about?
Joe Pernice: I basically tricked the editor into letting me write fiction. After writing the Meat Is Murder book for Continuum, an editor at Penguin/Riverhead called and said if you ever want to write a novel, we'd love to be your editor. About a year went by—I had been working on songs and didn't have the head space for a book—then I wrote up a sketch and sample chapter, sent it in to them and they signed me up.
How did writing a full-length novel compare to the songwriting process? Was it more difficult for you?
It was easy once I got into it—well, it was enjoyable. It wasn't a breeze. I pored over every line. I had four hours a day to write, every day, so I needed discipline. I was taking care of my son during the day and, as with anything, it's about finding time to create with all the other usual life stuff beating down on you.
Finding the voice of the narrator was the main thing; sometimes he's unreliable, he's a prick, a real screw-up who is on the way to finding out what a screw-up he really is. I think he finds out at the end that he can either go one way or he can take the long, hard road to being responsible—to being an adult.
I hate endings that sew it all up. The world is not a cut and dried place, ever; things linger when you don't want them to, and don't linger when you do.
The novel occurs in places you're intimately familiar with, with a great deal of the protagonist's past taking place in Western Massachusetts, your old stomping grounds.
Geographically I set it where I did because I'm lazy. I set it when I did because during that grunge time we didn't know what the fuck to do. There's a condition of my generation of utter indecisiveness; people couldn't commit to anything. It's what I knew, and it fit that character.
I remember my parents saying, "Your generation is lucky, you have so many choices." Well, we had too many choices, and a great many people were stuck, and maybe overwhelmed, and didn't make any decisions and sort of languished. It's a blessing and a curse. This indecisiveness and its fallout were from the outset to be a primary part of my character's story.
How did you select the songs that were to be featured both in the novel and on the accompanying soundtrack? Did you select songs you knew you wanted to cover and then insert them into the action?
I didn't actually think of doing the soundtrack until halfway through. Because I'm a musician, songs attached to a particular moment are a big mood setter for me, and they're spread out through my life like they are in the book. Paying homage to these songs and artists, because I love them, was important and a good way to do a covers record—a project that I probably wouldn't have tackled otherwise.
Were you thinking about your musical fan base when you wrote the book?
I wasn't thinking too much about any audience, to be honest. I always create in a way that the end product is something that I would personally want to read or listen to myself.
It was refreshing, because I didn't have to think about it. Writing books is not my career, so it gave me a real freedom to create without worrying too much about the consequences.
There's a particularly entertaining encounter with Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr. veteran and Western Massachusetts native Lou Barlow in the book. How much of that scene is from actual experience?
None—we've actually never met. It's weird, because I'm a huge fan of what Sebadoh has done, and we have the same birthday, I'm pretty sure. At the time I was on Sub Pop, he and I and Jeremy Enigk from Sunny Day Real Estate were all on the same label and shared the same birthday.
I actually wrote to Lou telling him that I wanted to write him in as a character who is this decent guy, and he was great about it and was like, "Go right ahead. You can make me into a dick if it's more appropriate."
It feels like there's a lot of you in the book, but it's near-autobiographical, like if things had gone differently for you. The main character receives a nasty rejection letter from Sub Pop, whereas you actually got signed by them.
Well, I think a lot of what my character goes through is universal. If you think about someone who's 24 or 25, there's only a few things that you're thinking about: music, getting fucked up and getting laid. Hats off to the ones who are thinking about their retirement account at that age.
A lot of this book is my worst fears in life being realized. There are very real moments for me, an exploration into my worst fears. We're all just a few bad decisions away from sleeping in a bus shelter.
It Feels So Good When I Stop is due out Aug. 6 on Riverhead Books. For more information on the tour and Pernice's music, visit http://pernicebrothers.com.
