An Interview with Dassos Petrou
My name officially (in the UK) is
Dassos Petrou. But in Greek Dassos is a shortening of a proper name, just as ‘Dave’
is of ‘David’. So Anastasis is the actual name – which is a mouthful, I know.
But when I was at school even Dassos proved a bit awkward for my pals, so they
shortened it to Das. I grew up in Islington, at a time when it was far from
fashionable, and was just another grimy London Borough. Growing up as we did,
we hung out in exactly the same places as the guys from Madness did, Camden,
Highgate, Holloway, Hampstead, Kentish Town, Muswell Hill… I went to school in
Highbury and suffered from the fact that I was probably the only Tottenham
supporter in my year. After A-levels I did a Foundation at Brighton Polytechnic
in Art & Design, followed by a degree in what was officially described as
Visual Communication, but we all saw as Graphic Design and Illustration. Half
the marks for that course were in Art History, which I didn’t enjoy for the
first two years, but I got more into writing a lot more in the third year, and
thanks to my dissertation, an analysis of J K Huysmans’ ‘Against nature’, I got
a distinction in Art History. On graduating I went back to London and worked in
animation for a while, which took me to Canada and New York. After that I
became an advertising art director, working at
places like Saatchi & Saatchi and BBH on campaigns for Audi, Coca Cola,
Black & Decker and more. After a few years I decided to switch from art
direction to copywriting, since I found I was writing most of my own scripts.
During that period, I was commuting from Brighton to London daily, so I found I
had the time to write a graphic novel for Dark Horse, and also a James Bond
mini-series (mostly on the train).
My new book is titled Soho in
the Dark. I got the idea of writing a collection of strange short stories
after devouring the work of H P Lovecraft, and then reading books authors that
inspired him, including Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood and Sheridan le Fanu.
More recent authors working in the same vein, like Robert Aickman
and Iain Sinclair, were also an inspiration. I was at a loss for what to write
about when I found that the area of London that I had been working in for so
many years was changing fast. Soho and Fitzrovia were no longer buzzing like
they used to with colour, inspiration and zany creative people. The ad agencies
and film studios were moving out, leaving a media ghost town behind. And then a
good friend who I had known from art school, and worked alongside for many
years, died. He was the only genius I ever knew – and I worked with some big
names in the film, advertising and media industries. His loss, and the evaporating
of the world of advertising all around me, became central themes in my stories.
These days there’s no need for
me to commute to London. When I do have an advertising contract I usually only
have to go up for the odd meeting – perhaps once or twice a month. I rent a
studio with a friend, a short walk from where I live. It’s in a semi-basement
of a large Regency building in the heart of Worthing and it’s perfect for my
needs. Most of my books are in there, and so are my guitars. I take my laptop
with me, and when I’m writing a story, I find I can only do about half a page a
day at most. I suppose it comes from crafting advertising copy, where you
continually re-work each sentence, again and again. Of course, I have to develop
the plot in every case, and this is usually done on a page of A4 in a series of
disconnected and spaced-out sentences that only I can make sense of. The
creative writing I do either in the morning or afternoon, but rarely for the
whole day, as I find that the quality of my writing for story-telling falls
away after three or four hours. If I have a big contract that requires my total
attention, I may have to put any story I am writing on hold until I clear the
decks. But I do find I can work very late at night on my stories to make up for
this, especially if an idea occurs to me, or I find an interesting bit of
research.
“In the final analysis,” he
continued, “when a people can no longer distinguish truth and beauty from
falsehood and ugliness, they are ripe for all manner of deception, oppression
and enslavement.’
There’s no use pushing it if
it’s not flowing. A long walk can help loosen up creative blockages in some
cases. But if there’s a serious plot issue, or I think there’s something
missing that could make the story work better that I haven’t found yet, I will
seek to recharge my creative batteries for a few days. That can come from
reading, watching a film or series on TV, or going to the cinema. A visit to
London to the V&A or National Portrait Gallery always inspires me too. A
rummage through the bookshops of Charring Cross Road and Bloomsbury is also a
nice way to restore my creative juices.
A good friend of mine told me
that he knew one of the authors at Fiction4All, and she forwarded me an email
address where I could enquire about sending my manuscript, which I did. To my
surprise, it was accepted within a few days.
That it’s possible to open up to
a real world that modern life has buried in an abundance of oppressive
information overload, leading to anxiety, confusion and distraction.
Unearthing
My good friend Paul realised
that my stories were all inspired by the same group of people. Although it was
important to change their real names (or in some cases to amalgamate people) I
should retain them as individual characters throughout, so they are like actors
that continually reappear, instead of having totally new characters cropping up
in each story – which was not necessary.
My next project is not a short
story, but a full-length novel which is inspired by Sergei Bulgakov’s
wonderful novel, The Master and Margherita, as well as the esoteric and philosophical
ideas of Philip K Dick. The story takes place in London and is a kind of meditation
on the way that the city is changing. I don’t want to say too much more, as
it’s far too early to go into detail. I’m still researching elements of it.