Orsino, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Music not only feeds love, but fuels inspiration as well. Below are a few of my aural feasts that keep me motivated to write and help me out when I'm stuck.
hideaway, The Weepies
Super chill, peaceful, and hypnotic, The Weepies hideaway can be great wind down music after a crazy, mentally taxing day--an electric foot massager for the mind, but woven through the lazy thrum that pulls you through the album are complex ideas and deeply expressed emotion that stimulates rather than anesthetizes thought. One song in particular, the haunting Little Bird was the direct inspiration for my short story "The Bird Spoke" from A Sudden Dominance of Shadows. The music is calm enough not to get in the way of ideas, until you need it to. A close listen to a Weepies song can result in a short story.
Passion, Peter Gabriel
When I need to summon a passionate moment I draw from Peter Gabriel's Passion. The soundtrack from the controversial 80s movie by the same name, Passion is a haunting instrumental collection that helps me write through moments of great emotional gravity and disjointed strangeness, or... basically everything I write. There is an odd, disjointed moment in my novel Plague Seed (due out late 2011, early 2012) where the first person narrative calls for confusion and miscomprehension. The song "Troubled", with its driving beat, a choral line that sounds like something being played backwards, and many highs and lows was very helpful in achieving what is my favorite, heartbreaking moment in the book.
Light It Up, Rev Theory
Rev Theory's Light It Up is awesome fuel for a battle scene! Plague Seed is a fantasy adventure novel--there's a sword fight... or two... or twelve. Rev Theory has some terrific driving combat music! For those WB Supernatural fans out there (love that show!) the song "Kill the Headlights" summons up the image of the black Impala cresting a misty hill in the midst of middle America nowhere! Loud, dynamic, and awesome, after you listen to a Rev Theory song you feel like a teenager after walking out of an action movie--BANG! POW!
The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, Trevor Jones/Randy Edelman
Rev Theory's Light It Up is awesome fuel for a battle scene! Plague Seed is a fantasy adventure novel--there's a sword fight... or two... or twelve. Rev Theory has some terrific driving combat music! For those WB Supernatural fans out there (love that show!) the song "Kill the Headlights" summons up the image of the black Impala cresting a misty hill in the midst of middle America nowhere! Loud, dynamic, and awesome, after you listen to a Rev Theory song you feel like a teenager after walking out of an action movie--BANG! POW!
The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, Trevor Jones/Randy Edelman
You can blame most of Plague Seed on The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack. Sweeping, adventurous, and moving, this soundtrack is well-suited accompaniment for fantasy adventure writing! From combat to romance, from joy to sorrow, this soundtrack has it all. The song "Massacre" is brilliant for stiring up a cinematic scene!
Of course there are a bunch more artists and songs that get my fingers tapping on the keys, but these are the stand out albums. Give them a listen; write a novel. Why not?
