Venice Beach-based musician and author Jessamyn Violet spotlights art, music and queer identity through the eyes of Kyla Bell, a quirky teenage keyboardist immersed in the 90’s Los Angeles rock scene in her debut book, “Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar.”
The rock novel, which will be released on Tuesday, April 18, is about a young woman trying to figure out who she is while simultaneously chasing her dreams. Opportunities come knocking when Bell is discovered by a famous band at a local show and is asked to perform with them. Instead of taking a full-ride scholarship to a college in her hometown, she leaves that all behind in the pursuit of stardom.
Similarly, Violet grew up a musician with a queer identity. She said that she and Bell hold a lot of identical traits, but Bell is stronger in how she stands her ground, something Violet mentioned was “a quality I wish I had back in the day.”
Violet plays drums in the instrumental psychedelic rock band Movie Club, which is hitting the road on its Reading Rocking Rainbow Tour later this month. The outing combines Violet’s passions for reading and music as the jaunt blends book discussions with conversations about culture, music in the ’90s and doing live performances with other local artists and writers along the way.
The tour starts in West Hollywood on April 18 with back-to-back events. Violet will be at Book Soup at 7 p.m. to talk about the novel with comedian and writer Jacob Givens. Immediately after, she’ll join guitarist Vince Cuneo down the block at The Viper Room to perform with Movie Club. The show begins and 9 p.m. and also features Ohh La La and KCRW DJ Tyler Boudreaux.
“This book band tour has been a lifelong dream,” she said during a recent phone interview. “I think it’s so exciting to shake up the format of a traditional book reading and infuse it with a more interactive vibe. I’m definitely planning to pull people out from the crowd to play games based on the book. For example, there’s one game where I’ll ask someone to tell a story from their own life that proves they are a rockstar, just like Kyla, which corresponds with the rules found in the book. The rules are printed out on cards, so fans can look at them.
“I really want everyone to get into it; I’m making reading cool again.”
Violet was born and raised just outside of Boston, Mass. and was heavily involved in the music scenes that flourished in the ’90s.
“It was a different time back then, the music scenes we have now are different in many ways, bad and good,” she said.
Violet, much like Bell, grew up playing the keys thanks to her parents. They were constantly playing classical compositions by Bach and Beethoven in the house, which helped Violet with music theory and picking up on playing instruments rather quickly.
Violet can’t help but connect herself to Bell, even if she’s a work of fiction.
“I definitely have infused some of myself in this character,” Violet said. “I do think it is possible for writers to write some characters that have nothing to do with who they are, while adding some of their own personality. That’s the fun of writing. This is my first book that I wrote, and I’ve written some since then, but this was the first time I put down all my crazy ideas while breathing a lot of my own feelings and attributes into a character like Kyla.”
Violet began writing “Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar” in 2009 while attending graduate school at California College of the Arts, with a thesis that quickly turned into the inner workings of her debut book. It wasn’t something she imagined could come from a heavy-loaded master project, but said she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way due to how much she learned in the literature programs.
Though she was writing in a new decade, Violet’s love and lust for the ’90s was well-represented within the book, including not only the fashion, music and art of that era, but the rampant misogyny she witnessed then as well.
“Back in the ’90s, we didn’t have pronouns or the vocabulary that there is now and the incredible book scene that’s happening,” she said. “I’m honestly just so amazed at the open arms that have been coming my way with this book.
“But Kyla, to me, was always struggling. A lot of people, including myself, struggled with their sexuality because it is really hard to define as a teenager. It’s even more frustrating that people always ask you to define it. And there were just very limited margins back then and Kyla, like many queer women, is just exceptionally cool, and I wanted to make sure there’s more stories like that.”
Movie Club’s Reading Rocking Rainbow Tour
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18
Where: Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
Admission: “Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar” can be purchased for $14 in-store on April 18 or pre-ordered at booksoup.com.
Also: Movie Club will perform following the book signing at 9 p.m. at The Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 21-and-older only. Tickets are $10-$15 at eventbrite.com.
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