“You wanted to write a more muscular book,” Akbar says, placing a hand on Orange’s shoulder, “until you remembered that the heart, too, is a muscle.”
It’s day three of the tour, and they’re sitting in the car outside Sacramento’s Underground Books, launched in the early 2000s by a nonprofit founded by ex-NBA player Kevin Johnson, who sought to open the store following the closure of the neighborhood’s only library.
“We talked about trading pages weekly as like, this is the band,” Akbar explains from the passenger seat between bites of a Bavarian pretzel. “The idea was that writers don’t get to play music together like musicians do, and this is a version of that. So what does the band do? They go on tour.”
“It’s like we have solo albums,” Orange elaborates from the back, “but we do something totally different when we’re together.”
“We’re like the Traveling Wilburys right now,” Akbar agrees. I reference the Blues Brothers, and he nods. “I’m the [John] Belushi—the silly Billy—and Tommy’s the straight man, [Dan] Aykroyd.”
That seems about right. I wouldn’t describe either as reserved, exactly, but Akbar’s speech tends to tumble out peppered with humor, whereas Orange has a more serious tone even when he’s joking.
“We played basketball yesterday in Point Reyes,” Akbar says when I ask if they’ve had time to enjoy themselves between all the bouncing from place to place. “That didn’t feel like bouncing.”
“The ball was bouncing,” Orange says.
“This fucking guy!” Akbar exclaims. “Most of what we’re doing is hanging out. The parts where we’re talking into microphones in front of groups of people are rewarding and gratifying in a very different way, but I just love being around Tommy and getting to ride around with him and listen to music and talk about what’s on the playlist.”
The playlist—titled “Band on the Run”—is eclectic, spanning Souls of Mischief, Dirty Art Club, Gilla Band, Vince Staples, INXS, Liars, Hieroglyphics, T. Rex, Alice Coltrane, Hank Williams, and beyond. Music is a frequent topic over the course of our several days of conversation, as is basketball. If the two authors are a “band,” then they are also a team. At the end of the tour, they will see their respective favorite teams face off: the Milwaukee Bucks (Akbar) versus the Golden State Warriors (Orange).
Courtesy of Kaveh Akbar and Tommy Orange.