Saturday 8 December 2012

Writing Music: Varjak Paw

One of my readers recently asked if music ever inspired me while writing (thanks for the question, Jade!)  The answer is that music is absolutely crucial to me while writing, though different books have had  different soundtracks.  So I thought it might be fun to share some of my favourite writing music with you here.  (Of course, everyone sees and hears things differently, so I wouldn't expect anyone else to share my tastes in music!  This is just a bit of background, if you're interested...)

When I was writing Varjak Paw, I was almost always listening to The Cure.  Somehow their music seemed to be the perfect soundtrack for Varjak's adventures in the city.  Strangely enough, I didn't listen to Lovecats while writing, but it does seem  perfect for Varjak Paw, so I put it on a compilation tape for Dave McKean when he was doing the illustrations!



The album I listened to the most while writing Varjak was definitely The Head On The Door.  The track I would pick as the single most inspiring is A Night Like This.  Whenever it came on, I would always feel an extra surge of energy.  For me, it has exactly the feeling that I wanted to the book to have.



I still love that song; I listened to it a lot while writing Outlaw too, and even Phoenix.  But lots of other music came into the writing of those books, and I'll do some more posts in the future about them, if anyone would like to know more!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's great that you decided to share your favorite music! I think that everyone has the music that inspires him. For example, for me, as a godsmack. I am the voice of the soloist is mesmerizing. I hope that you will continue to lay out music that helped you write Varjak!

Jade said...

Wow! I never thought to listen to the cure while reading varjak paw, but it definitely fits! I'm glad you made a post about this, I love seeing artists talk about things that inspire them, especially music, since it seems like not only am I inspired by music a lot, but so are a lot of other people.

SF Said said...

Many thanks everyone! Glad you enjoyed the post - there'll be more about music and other inspirations in the future!

Anonymous said...

Tell me please: What song would you pick for the final battle Varjak and Sally Bones?
Thank you in advance.

SF Said said...

Good question! I'll be doing a post about music and The Outlaw Varjak Paw in the not too distant future, so I'll answer it then...