Every Time I Die’s Keith Buckley Talks New Book, Scale

Words: Dan Slessor

As vocalist of Every Time I Die Keith Buckley is a bit handy when it comes to penning acerbic lyrics, but now he’s taking his words in a whole different direction with Scale, his debut novel. While it’s a work of fiction, Keith has drawn on his own experiences in telling the story of struggling musician Ray Goldman, and it makes for a both very emotional and entertaining read…

What is Scale about?

“It’s the story of a musician kind of coming to terms with his relationship to his art and his friends and his family. In the odd numbered chapters he’s trying to put his life back together and figure out what’s important to him, and in the even ones he’s coming apart at the seams, and throughout the book the two stories go back and forth, kind of balancing each other out. It’s definitely semi-autobiographical, there are stories from the road in there, and there’s a lot of composited characters. I spend a lot of time observing things, and I’ve grown to recognise these similar types of characters, like oh, okay, you’re the home version of this person, and then this guy I met on the road is the tour version of you, and it was kind of easy to roll them together. And yeah, I’m sure some people I know will read it and recognise some of the characters (laughs)!”

When did you actually write it?

“The majority of it was written on the road, but I didn’t start assembling it until I was home. For a long time it was just writing, writing, writing, but the whole structure and format didn’t really happen until I started piecing it together, a lot like a puzzle. As I was doing that I started to see this cohesive picture appear.”

What inspired you to start writing initially?

“Right before recording the last record [From Parts Unknown] I was feeling really exhausted with the way things were going, so I started getting into meditation and some spiritual type things, which are completely not typical of my character. If anyone had told me that would appeal to me five years ago I never would have believed them. I took this weird little detour outside of the way my life was going and had these new experiences, which really made me start looking at things differently.”

What was the hardest part of writing it?

“I think looking at it and realising how much of me was in it, a lot of which was coming out subconsciously. I wanted Ray Goldman to have these really bad character traits, and I was thinking well, how would it feel if I did this to someone? Wait a minute – I did do that! And that’s really awful! There were times where I was like I really need to call this person and apologise, because what I did was really fucked up!”

Have you plans for any more novels?

“I have some ideas, and I plan to go back into that stuff, but I also want to see what the reception is like for this one. I know that I love it, but I really don’t know whether anyone else will!”

Which authors do you love and think Kerrang! readers should check out?

“Italo Calvino for sure, and Herman Hesse is probably my favourite writer. His book Demian changed me, it has this spiritual context to a very real story that transcends the reality of just how terrible life can be. Reading that made me realise you can tell any story you want to.”

And, of course we have to mention that Every Time I Die just added a fourth consecutive London date – feeling good about that, presumably?

“It’s so awesome. London has always been fascinating to me, as a kid it was like this distant paradise, and every time we’re there it’s an amazing experience, the crowds are so cool. We’ve got a lot of practicing to do to make sure we can play a different set each night!”

Catch Every Time I Die at the following:

November

9 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
11 Manchester Sound Control
12 Glasgow Kings Tuts
13 Aberdeen Tunnels
14 Newcastle Riverside
15 Sheffield Corporation
17 Birmingham Asylum
18 London The Dome (Sold out)
19 London Borderline (Sold out)
20 London Camden Underworld (Sold out)
21 London Old Blue Last