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John Anealio: What was the first album that you bought with your own money? Do you still listen to it now?

Peter V. Brett: 1984 by Van Halen. I'm not positive I actually BOUGHT it in 1984, but it was still popular at the time. Might have been 1985. I was 11 or 12 at the time, and had just gotten a Walkman, the cassette tape player that was the absolute height of portable entertainment at the time. It was about the size of a paperback book, but not some wimpy 80,000 word media tie-in novel. I'm talking a The-Name-of-the-Wind-sized paperback. And heavier. It would play one ENTIRE cassette tape... if you flipped the tape halfway through. That was like ten songs! Truly I grew up in a golden age.

I had wanted a Walkman the moment I saw the commercials and saw people jogging around with them. Music wherever you go, drowning out the world with sweet melodies or rockin' tunes? It was a bookish introvert's dream. But they were expensive back then, and it took me a few years of cajoling before my parents relented. At the time, I had a bare handful of cassettes, mostly inherited (stolen) from my parents, or copied onto blank tapes for me by my older brother. Basically it was like four Beatles tapes and a Kenny Rogers album.

So I took my allowance and whatever money I had scraped together shoveling snow and raking leaves to a music store (Musicland?) on Main Street in White Plains, New York. It was across the street from Sam Ash, where my brother had gotten his drum set (I called it "Sam Ass", and thought myself quite the comedian).

Anyway, I picked up 1984, and for a while, music began and ended there for me. I forget exactly why I chose it--probably on recommendation or in imitation of my big brother, upon whom the sun rose and set. Regardless of the reason, I think it's a selection that stands the test of time. 1984 is a great fucking album, even today. I don't listen to the album as a whole in proper in order as often as I should, but many of its songs are still in rotation in some of my usual playlists. Weren't we all a little Hot for Teacher at some point in our lives?


JA: Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what?

PVB: Always. I listen to music constantly. In the car, on the train, in the shower, while exercising, working, reading, writing, you name it