I had to put off the temptation to sit down with a pint of “real ale” with Martin Tracey, otherwise this post may never get published. (The sacrifices I make for y’all, I tell you what.) On top of that, I had to also work at not getting sidetracked into the world of football…or music…or…oh go on, just read the great interview!
Martin Tracey writes ‘Dark Fiction that strikes a chord’. Swapping songwriting for novels, music is a crucial part of his chilling page turners. Martin likes to push the boundaries of reality in his fictional works including Crime (with a twist) and flirting heavily with the Paranormal.
The terror that grips you is very real!
He has a passion for The Beatles & Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and both music and football/soccer often find their way into his stories. His other passion is ‘horror’: “Watching those Hammer films as a kid really hooked my interest,” says Martin. “All the classics like Count Dracula, werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster fed my imagination, as does anything really connected with the occult or otherworldly. And then an adaption of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot starring David Soul came along followed by the awesome offerings of The Lost Boys and From Dusk Till Dawn. Every one of those movies proved an inspiration for my dark fiction.”
Being a multi-functional author, including some non-fiction works, he has tackled topics as diverse as conspiracy theories, mind control, religious cults, serial killers, memoirs and supernatural thrillers. His wild imagination would never allow him to put pen to paper in any other way!
As well as playing about with words, music initially became the dominant career path and his love for writing materialised through his passion for writing songs. Martin went on to form various bands on the Birmingham music scene and he is the songwriter and co-performer of ‘Raging Bull’ which can be found on the album Old Gold Anthems – the songs of Wolves (available on Amazon, Spotify & more), thus demonstrating his love for the club that he should commit to song a tribute to their most successful goal-scorer. It was his love for Wolves that first gave him the idea for werewolves to infiltrate a football team, however, that concept swiftly changed to vampires and his debut novel Beneath The Floodlights was born. Later, Martin went on to co-found Entity Fair with singer/songwriter Scott Stackhouse and Martin’s song ‘Saturn Rising’ won a competition on BBC Radio, resulting in them supporting Roland Gift and the Fine Young Cannibals at Birmingham’s Alexander Theatre.
Music is never something Martin could dismiss completely, but his passion for writing has evolved to penning novels of chilling suspense that bring to life many a topic, exercising that active brain of his that is ‘wired’ a little differently to most!
Martin is currently writing the authorised biography of the late, great Robin George and has provided the introductions to the fabulous Duran Duran En Scene Photo Book series 1979-1982 which contains images of early Duran Duran and the iconic Birmingham music and fashion scene of the time, all expertly taken by the keen eye of the late, talented photographer Paul Edmond.
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