David Armillei is an extraordinary multi-faceted professional and a poetic soul. Having practiced law in New York, produced documentaries, and shaped musical masterpieces, just to name a few things, he is a man of many talents. His journey into the realm authorship shares with readers a poetic treasure trove encapsulated in his memoir, Growing Up the Antichrist: An Experimental Memoir. David’s poetic memoir touches on the complexities of growing up between 17 and 25 with rhythmic poetry, showcasing a tale of self-discovery, an emotional rollercoaster, and navigating the early 21st century. It’s a memoir that transcends time, inviting readers of all ages to ponder the universal human experience. We’re pleased to have this opportunity to ask David some questions to learn more about him as well as his career!
Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.
I’m a Stanford Law-educated lawyer who has practiced in New York and is currently practicing in Los Angeles. Given that I’m also an avid music and movie buff, I’ve started a simultaneous second career as a producer of female-driven documentary films. I’ve been a producer of 10 documentaries so far, with an 11th currently in the works. The documentaries have been reasonably successful: one won Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, another one Best Editing at the Sundance Film Festival, and yet another was nominated for a Producer’s Guild Award for Best Documentary. The films have been picked up and shown on PBS, CNN, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, among other sites. In addition, I’ve been an executive producer of 3 albums (two of which are in the tango genre, one of which is jazz).
In keeping with my jack-of-all-trades ethos, I was also formerly a minority owner of the Cleveland Guardians (née Indians), unsuccessful entrant into the N.B.A. draft, successful “Lifeline” on ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and “Boy Friday” to a well-known billionaire. And, for one magical night only, I co-starred in a Broadway play with Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher. During my little spare time, I can be found either hiking or accompanying my wife to watch my daughter dance. And yes, even though I don’t have a beard, my hero is Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World.”
Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.
After a decade of helping others fulfill their creativity, I began to wonder about my own. During the time I was in college and law school, I wrote extensively, with a focus on poetry. I took a number of poetry-writing classes and would also write quickly late at night when I was experiencing a dark night of the soul. I put this side of me away when I turned 25 and graduated from law school.
Later on, as I considered what I could say, I remembered these poems and, upon revisiting them, saw that they unintentionally reflected a memoir of the experiences that I had growing up between the ages of 17 and 25. Although the distance the years provided to me allowed me to see these poems more objectively, I thought the work still held up as valid, powerful, and meaningful; other than some light editing, collecting the poems together essentially produced the book at hand—my first.
Tell me about your book.
Consistent with what I’ve said above, the book, Growing Up the Antichrist: An Experimental Memoir, is a startling and compelling collection of 40 pieces that reflect the passion, fears, and confusion of a young man trying to make sense of, find meaning in, and discover his place in the world between the ages of 17 and 25. Full of rhythmic, vivid language, the book uses poetry as a starting point to express profound, maddening, and sometimes hilarious emotional truths about the process of growing up in the early 21st century, grappling with nostalgia, and struggling as an outsider (even among the outsiders).
Driven by a complex, but enduring, hope and balancing a respect for and distaste of the past, this “intellectual memoir” goes beyond my own backstory coming of age in Franklin, Tennessee, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Palo Alto, California, and tries to speak to universal experiences that unite us across the generations. Also, I’ve written an Introduction to the book that contains a Q&A that, at least in part, tries to be funny but at the same time provide serious answers to many of the questions a reader would have about the book. The Introduction/Q&A is freely available to potential readers as part of the “Read Sample” option on Amazon.com.
What genre is your book?
The book falls within both the poetry and memoir genres. It is essentially a memoir of my life from when I was 17-25 years old, told through poems that have a more universal relevance.
What would you say is the appropriate age for readers?
Probably about 15 years-old and up. I would expect that the book would appeal mostly to those
in high school, college, and just out of school, especially since those years correspond with my
ages when writing the book and the universal experiences during those years match up with
those that I describe in the book.
Do you have some favorite quotes/oneliners from your book?
Since this is really a collection of poetry, the below-listed quotations are drawn from 7 different poems.
First:
wail wop beat and bop jazzmatazz groove blues
awopbopaloobop wham slam bam
but i am so alone,
peering through dim-lit cigarette light,
eyes on alto saxophone
Second:
Once we sipped the chalice,
Held hands in the fields of life anew;
Now all that we had has passed,
Now all that we have is past.
Third:
If I could swim to
The rock that was there,
When I was the lungs,
And you were my air.
Fourth:
May they be strong enough,
And dare to spit
When I could only swallow.
Fifth:
They say that circles will be unbroken,
That better homes await,
And a lord sits by and by,
But all I see is the relentless loss
That aging brings
And the waning echoes
Of a love
Stolen much too soon.
Sixth:
That summer on Grand Street,
Our lives an art installation,
Intoxicating and immortal,
Our time, our city, our sin;
Whatever you can touch,
Can touch you deep within.
Seventh:
The conductor hums
To the rhyme of the track and waits,
In a world distantly sleeping,
Knowing that beauty rejuvenates.
Is there a particular message or piece of wisdom you’d like to convey to potential readers of Growing Up the Antichrist?
As I emphasized previously, Do It Yourself. Be Punk Rock. Make a mark, however small, express yourself, and leave something behind.
Find the author
Growing Up the Antichrist: An Experimental Memoir
“What you are holding in your hands is a curious thing. This book is a memoir, although certainly not a traditional one. Call it an ‘experimental, intellectual memoir.'”
So begins this startling and compelling collection of 40 pieces that reflect the passion, fears, and confusion of a young man trying to make sense of, find meaning in, and discover his place in the world between the ages of 17 and 25. Full of rhythmic, vivid language, Growing Up the Antichrist uses poetry as a starting point to express profound, maddening, and sometimes hilarious emotional truths about the process of growing up in the early 21st century, grappling with nostalgia, and struggling as an outsider (even among the outsiders). Driven by a complex, but enduring, hope and balancing a respect for and distaste of the past, this “intellectual memoir” goes beyond the author’s own backstory to speak to universal experiences that unite us across the generations.
