Ralph Pullins

I believe music is fundamental to the human experience.  I put on headphones when I write; it helps block out the world, helps me to better hear the voices in my head and to see their faces. The piece that follows is a reflection of that influence.  I set parts of my life to a soundtrack by my favorite band of all time, The Bouncing Souls.  Words in italics are lyrics from their songs, and belong to them; I just borrowed them to push the piece forward.  It is not my intention to take any credit for their collective brilliance and passion.  I'm just a fan that wrote a love letter to a group of guys that moved me with their songs. ---------------------------------   An Open Letter to The Bouncing Souls You were there, but it’s not your story, it’s mine; it’s my life, my mistakes, my regrets, my laughter, my pain.   It was never about you; you just played the background music.   It was there as my heart swelled with young love and there when my heart got broken and there as I scraped

I believe music is fundamental to the human experience.  I put on headphones when I write; it helps block out the world, helps me to better hear the voices in my head and to see their faces. The piece that follows is a reflection of that influence.  I set parts of my life to a soundtrack by my favorite band of all time, The Bouncing Souls.  Words in italics are lyrics from their songs, and belong to them; I just borrowed them to push the piece forward.  It is not my intention to take any credit for their collective brilliance and passion.  I'm just a fan that wrote a love letter to a group of guys that moved me with their songs. ---------------------------------   An Open Letter to The Bouncing Souls You were there, but it’s not your story, it’s mine; it’s my life, my mistakes, my regrets, my laughter, my pain.   It was never about you; you just played the background music.   It was there as my heart swelled with young love and there when my heart got broken and th

"Any story, no matter how wild and seemingly removed from any writer's life, is autobiographical, since it comes from the writer's observations and attitudes about the world.  A book is an MRI of the writer's brain, revealing all its strengths and weaknesses." -Richard Kadrey I have said before that Antiartists is not about me.  This is true, in that the events depicted in the book never happened to me.  I am not an artist, I have never been to rehab, I have never been expelled from school, I have never worked at a gas station, I have never engaged in cutting, or vandalism, I have never liked prescription drugs as a form of recreation.  So it is clearly not about me, right? Except friends that have read the book have said that they hear my voice in it, can tell that I wrote it, can see my ideals reflected there.  Honestly, I don't know if this book is about me or not.  I did realize, somewhat too late, that all of the male characters represent me or a part of