Music and Writing

A good piece of music can fit in with a piece of writing and I find one of the things that helps me write is a great piece of music. Now, a playlist needs to be as carefully considered, you see, anything that's too catchy might have you singing along, something with a good beat might have you nodding your head and of course you music can serve as another distraction if you're not careful. I know some who can't listen to music when writing and that's fine, but for me, it's pretty much a requirement. It comes handy when the music suits the the mood for piece of writing you're creating. I mean, you can't write a depressing scene where, say, a mother holds her dying child in her hands and you're listening to something as happy as Bowling for Soup - particularly 'I'm Gay', which is a song all about being happy, maybe somebody ought there can, but I'd be torn between two emotion, "la la la! I'm so happy!" and "Oh my God, what have I done? I just killed a child with my pen, I'm so horrible!" Likewise, you don't want to be listening to the most depressing song in your library and you're writing a bit of fun, maybe two kids having the time of their life and you're on the verge of slitting your own wrists because you can't stand listening to My Chemical Romance (nor can I, to be fair), it doesn't mix.

I've found my writing playlist sometimes consists of Tarot, Therion, Evergrey and even Judas Priest. Therion has this mythological edge, particularly with albums like 'The Secret of the Runes', which is an album dedicated to the locations in Norse mythology, but also have this song called, "After the Inquisition: The Children of The Stone", it's the closing track of one of the most...interesting albums I've listened to -some of the vocals are sung by a choir of children - I can imagine myself writing about one of the darker parts of my novel, because of the title, I think it's kind of chilling, just because of the Spanish Inquisition. Tarot, I think it's more or less songs like, "The End of Everything" and "Gone", which suit some of Asaros' moods in The Delusion Wing. But I think Evergrey probably has the perfect album, particularly in writing The Delusion Wing, which is 'The Inner Circle', which is a very powerful and emotional album with fantastic vocals, and of course they're fantastic, they're Swedish and they're not Abba. The album takes on the perspective of being a part of (what I assume is) a Christian cult and takes on the themes of cult worship and uses audio clips that create the image of there being some evangelical preacher. And it ends with the track, 'When the Walls Go Down', which is very emotionally driven and we see a man at the mercy of God in some kind of emotional breakdown.As my characters basically have their mental health dragged through the dirt and in many ways are at the mercy of God and suffer in a society lead by a cultist leader, it is fantastic to write to and keeps you in the right frame of mind. Here's the video (opening track) from the album:

And get this, I've got tickets to see the band Kamelot at the end of April, who are being supported by Evergrey, so it will no doubt be an awesome experience.

So, that's Tarot, Therion and Evergrey explained, but why Judas Priest? Frankly, I don't know. I guess it's just because they're awesome to listen to, your playlist doesn't necessarily have to fit your writing, I suppose you could say my characters are...'Breaking the Law', but if Breaking the Law were the anthem for Chapter 1, I think it would just ruin the whole thing, because I'd have this image of Rob Halford kicking the door down shouting at the guards, "Breaking the law, breaking the law". It could be worse, it could be Dee Snider exploding in front of The Evangelist screaming, "I Wanna Rock!" If Twisted Sister had a cameo, horrible things would just happen, so I need to get that thought out of my head.