Gina Nutt: Can you share a bit about the earliest seeds of inspiration for Recommended If You Like? How did your concerns shift as your worked on the novel?
Adam Voith: I published my last novel, Stand Up, Ernie Baxter: You’re Dead, in 2003. When I finished touring in support of that book, I hit pause on writing and publishing. It was time to focus on a “real” job, but I had the kernel of this novel in my head. When Trey Many hired me to book bands at his agency, he had me promise I'd eventually write that book. I gave him the pinkie swear, told him I’d do it in my 50s, and now R.I.Y.L. is dedicated to him.

When I thought about the book over the course of many years, I knew that it would include the band Roadside Monument, a real band who I befriended and toured with in the '90s. I knew the novel would wrestle with the weird-ass enclosure of Christian Rock, but had no clue what the form would be, the voice, who would narrate, etc. Early on, I thought I'd write an angry book. I wanted to take it all to task, that least cool American youth movement of all time, and there is some of that in what the book became, but it’s a softer and more nuanced view with a few decades of distance. Recently, a reviewer called it a love letter, which I suppose could be taken as a slight, but I think that’s accurate. It’s not so much a love letter to that shitty music, but to the friends I made in that busted scene and the exit ramp it eventually gave me.

GN: The book’s narrator, Anderson Humphrey a.k.a. The Christian Humper, steers us through the stories with a series of cassette tape transcripts about the Christian Rock music scene. What did you enjoy most about this framing? What surprises—pleasant or otherwise—did you discover through this structure?
AV: When the form arrived in my mind—the tape conceit—it allowed The Humper to simply rant into a tape recorder for the whole of the book. That formal trick unlocked the novel for me. I already had the scenes and characters, the basic beginning and end of the story, but the tapes gave me the voice, the pace, the tone. The tapes gave me freedom; the permission to shift time without explanation, to break continuity and get backstory in there, and maybe most importantly, to leave things out, to leave things off the page.

GN: This excerpt delivers readers to a Waffle House where the narrator, a band called Roadside Monument, and a publicist receive a less-than-lukewarm welcome. Yet the narrator and pals also share banter and camaraderie. How do you approach blending tension and humor?
AV: I certainly wanted to write a funny book, but the truth is the subject matter and the circumstances these characters are in are also quite pitiful and sad. But that balance was part of the real world / real times the novel pulls its inspiration from. It was a constant mix of dejection and elation, a hope and a crash. But you mention the camaraderie—what a gift! What a thing to be stuck with others, and not alone. That’s how you’re able to laugh inside the humiliating situation.

GN: You’re currently on the road touring to share Recommended If You Like with readers. Something I think is very cool is that the book is free. Tell Terrazzo what this is like, driving around, reading, meeting friends along the way, and placing the book directly in readers’ hands. And what’s been your favorite stop so far? 
AV: I am not capable of thinking about spreading the word about art without a tour, and because the book is $0.00 and not distributed to bookstores, there are only two ways readers can get it: the Little Engines Shop online or in person at a show. Since I’m a one-man operation here doing the writing, the publishing, and the promoting, there isn’t much going on in the way of PR. I’m trying, and some kind folks have reviewed it, had me on their podcast, or done features for their outlets, but this book is going to live only by word of mouth. I think doing a tour, hitting as many cities I can, is the best way to try and spark that. The shows are tiny. While I’ve given out a lot of books already, it’s not like I’ve got a readership of any measure. I’m out here trying to find readers. When I told people about my plan to give the book away, many times I was told that free often works as a roadblock, that it signals of a lack of quality or desperation. And I’m sure that’s true—I’ve heard about the sociological studies and whatnot. We all know the vibe of the guy trying to hand out his CD-R mixtape on the corner. The trick for me is to show potential readers something of quality, something serious, something made and presented with the utmost care both in terms of the book itself and the shows promoting it.

I’m having a blast performing. I've become quite comfortable with the material having lived with it so long, having recorded and edited the audiobook myself, and now having done so many shows. I’m traveling alone, so it’s definitely lonely at times, but I like driving. I’m ripping audiobooks and catching up on music listening, eating like an asshole at fast food chains while sneaking in a smoothie with spinach when I can. 

There’s a funny role reversal going on with this tour. For a quarter-century, it was me sending musicians out there to do this from the comfort of home. Booking the shows for my own tour felt really familiar of my earliest days as an agent representing nearly unknown bands without an audience, feeling around for a champion in some town to take a chance, but I wasn’t the guy showing up to play those shows, driving those hours, dumping dollars of gas into the van. But now it’s me asking, Why the fuck is this routed this way?  Now it’s me there at the venue an hour before doors, setting up the merch table, wondering if anyone’s gonna come. 

My favorite stop so far was Milwaukee. The lovely Sophie Nunberg hit me up saying she'd host a show in her living room and invite her friends. Sophie has a lot of friends! It was packed out with a most attentive crowd, many involved in one way or another with the writing program at the school and they were up for some literature live! I did another house last night in South Bend, this one opening for a songwriter, and it was also a blast. The house reading game is strong.

GN: What’s in your creative mosaic? Books, music, restaurants, films, visual art, fashion, ephemera, architecture, anything that energizes your writing.
AV: Novels + Records ÷ Junk Food = R.I.Y.L.