Teardown
By William Campbell Powell
Growing up in a dead-end, Thames Valley town like Marden Combe, Kai knows there’s no escape without a lot of talent, hard work—and luck.
Two weeks before the Clayton Paul Blues Band plans to set out on tour to Germany, their singer quits, and drummer Kai takes matters in hand. With bandmates Jake and Jamie, they recruit a talented new singer—the enigmatic Dominique—as the new face of the band and set out on the road to Berlin in a rickety white van.
Dogged by mishaps and under-rehearsed, the band stumbles through their first shows, zig-zagging between chaos and brilliance. But as the first gig in Berlin draws near, the band begins to gel. They’re clicking with their audience, and even the stone-hearted Kai starts to crumble under the spell, first of Dom and then…of Lars.
As the end of the tour approaches, Kai must make hard choices. Dom? But she’s keeping a dark secret. Lars? Not after the acrimony of their last parting. The band? Or will that dream crumble too?
Genre: Rockstar Romance, LGBT+ Romance
Pages: 436
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MY THOUGHTS
The Clayton Paul Blues Band have been planning to set out on tour for a while, the idea of leaving and travelling around Germany performing providing a welcomed relief from the monotonous life each band member leads. However, things fall apart when the lead singer and namesake of the band quits, leaving the band without a singer, social media presence, or name.
For their drummer, Kai, this tour isn’t just about having a bit of fun, travelling around and seeing some sights while playing some music. It’s a ticket out, a way forwards that doesn’t fall into the same routine of his life so far. He is determined to press on, and complete the tour. Even if it means recruiting more people to make the dream a reality.
Kai is an absolutely amazing main character. He is certainly relatable as he attempts to pull his band together, and ends up taking on the role of ‘leader’, just to make sure everyone is up together and moving forwards. In a way, surrounded by people who don’t necessarily know what they’re doing, Kai almost takes on a parental role towards his band mates, making sure they all get to where they’re meant to, and do so in one piece. I did really like following Kai through this road trip. He’s the kind of character you instantly fall in love with, and want to scoop him up into a hug and protect him from anything that may come his way.
The dynamics of the band are certainly interesting, although sometimes fairly amusing. For transport, it is clear they need a musician with a van, and in comes Neale, an Irish fiddle player with a beaten up old van, that has back doors that don’t lock. It’s quickly decided that it’s as close as they are going to get, and he’s in. Neale is a source of great character development, for as the tour progresses, he really starts to get involved, and seems to become much closer friends with the rest of the group, and vice versa. A sense of camaraderie eventually begins to develop, and despite any early hiccups in the relationships in the van, Neale does eventually become a firm fixture in the band.
The second addition is Dominique, and although she brings with her an amazing voice, and enough stage presence to carry the rest of the band through any mistakes or blunders, she is a mystery unto herself. No one can find out where she has come from, or figure out exactly what her interest would be in joining a small band, on a tour through Germany. Although, despite any hidden truths she may be hiding, she does end up slotting right in, and joining Neale in adapting to and becoming one with the original members of the band. She is certainly an interesting character, as you never really know what her motives are, but she is incredibly kind hearted and seems to have the band’s best interests at heart.
This story follows the band as they travel through Germany, stopping at each of their pre-booked gigs, and performing. There are many problems along the road, with things going wrong with the van, with accommodation, with their equipment, and with the people they meet along the way. This story almost plays out like a series, with each gig it’s own episode and coming with it’s own challenges before the gig can go ahead. At times, in the middle of this book, it did lag a little bit. The life of a travelling musician is fairly monotonous, and although a lot of things happen, the setting up and packing down of each gig, plus the travelling in between, could sometimes feel a little repetitive. With each thing that went wrong, though, and everything they worked through to get to their goals, it certainly picked up and the story read a lot quicker.
The LGBTQIA+ aspects of this story are not central to the plot, although they are made clear while reading. I did like this, as it means the story moves on, without needing to lean on any stereotypes to progress. Anything related to the LGBTQIA+ themes is added in as a part of the story, making it a normal thing, rather than making a big deal out of it. This inclusion was lovely to read about, and the easy way it is added into the story definitely gives out a good message that nothing in that acronym is ‘different’ and in need of being the focus of a story, but is rather just another aspect of a character.
I definitely enjoyed reading this book, even if it dragged at times in the middle. The whole premise, of a band on the road, is certainly appealing, and I can certainly see many people enjoying watching every part of the John Doe Blues Band touring.
EXCERPT
So I pulled the mic stand around to the side of the kit, set it up so it didn’t get in the way of the hi-hat, and we gave it a go. I picked ‘I Come from the Blues’, which was one of Clay’s compositions. It had fallen out of the set sometime in the last six months, but I loved Clay’s soft, jazzy butterscotch vocals on it. If it had been up to me, it would still be in the set, but Clay had said he wanted to move on.
Where did I come from? I come from the blues.
Where am I going? I’m going to lose.
Where is my future? I’m sure I have none.
Where is my hope? My hope is all gone.
I’ve always sung along—off-mic and under my breath—so I didn’t have any trouble fitting the words in the right places. And I’ve got decent pitch and rhythm. So I think I did all right.
Now, Jamie wouldn’t meet my eye.
“What?” I demanded. “What was wrong with that?”
He mumbled something.
“I can’t hear you, bro. What did he say, Jake?”
Jake looked away. He didn’t want to get involved in any squall between me and my brother. Besides, he’d used up all his words for the day.
“I’m not sure how to put this, Kai. You’ve got a good voice. It’s, well…not very, well, rock’n’roll. No…grit. Too pure. Sorry.”
“I see.”
“Look, we’ll ask around our friends. Social media. There’s got to be something online.”
I didn’t say anything. I was thinking lots though. About how I’d discovered that this was something I really wanted to do.
William lives in a small Buckinghamshire village in England. By night he writes speculative, historical, crime and other fiction. His debut novel, EXPIRATION DAY, was published by Tor Teen in 2014 and won the 2015 Hal Clement Award for better than half-decent science in a YA novel—the citation actually says "Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature".
William’s latest novel - TEARDOWN - was published 10th December 2024, by NineStar Press in the US; it is an LGBT+ romance/road-trip.
His short fiction has appeared in DreamForge, Metastellar, Abyss & Apex and other outlets.
By day he writes software for a living and in the twilight he sings tenor, plays guitar and writes songs.
My comps for the book:
The novel combines elements of LGBTQIA+ romance with Road Trip fiction, and - with its focus on music - might sit alongside Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ (2016) or Dawnie Walton’s ‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ (2022), or - with its focus on (Kai's) gender-ambiguity and relationships - near Camille Perry’s ‘When Katie Met Cassidy’ (2018) or Beth O’Leary’s ‘The Road Trip’ (2022).
One USP: The book is about a band and contains original songs, for which I have created demos – see/listen: https://williamcampbellpowell.com/music/music.html
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