Thursday 7 February 2013

Writing Music: The Outlaw Varjak Paw

A while back, one of my readers asked if music ever inspired me while writing.  It certainly does, so I made this post about the music I listened to while writing Varjak Paw.  This time, I'm going to share some of the music I listened to while writing The Outlaw Varjak Paw.

I started writing Outlaw in 2002, and finished it in 2005.  During that time, I discovered the band British Sea Power, and particularly their first album, the brilliantly titled The Decline Of British Sea Power.  




I played that album hundreds of times while writing Outlaw.  It had the epic sweep I wanted the book to have; the same combination of darkness and hope.  I would always feel electrified by the surge and crackle of their songs, which often seemed to be on the edge of spiralling out of control - as you can see in this amazing video of them playing live on Jools Holland.

But old habits die hard, and I have to admit, I also listened to a huge amount of The Cure while writing Outlaw. This time, it was mainly their Disintegration album, which remains my favourite of theirs.  To answer an interesting question on my earlier post, I would pick the spine-tingling 'Plainsong' as the music I imagine when Varjak and Sally Bones are on the tower at the end - perhaps not the battle itself, but the moments just before it.


The live version in this video is great, but if you want to hear the original version I heard while writing, you can listen to it on Spotify, where I've made a playlist with a few other tracks that I put on a CD for Dave McKean, when he was doing the illustrations...


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's quite interesting, the music for vardzhak!

Anonymous said...

I would have chosen for the book varjak outlaw song Sully Erna - broken road. It is rather sad, but I think it is appropriate for him.

Anonymous said...

VERY COOL!!!!! I AM A BIG FAN, OUTLAW PAW IS MY FAVOURITE BOOK!!!!

SF Said said...

Many thanks for the kind comments, they're very much appreciated!

I'll make a post soon about the music I listened to while writing Phoenix - but in the meantime, I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on what kind of music they imagine for the Varjak Paw books...

Anonymous said...

Dear SF Said
tell me please:
Will the film Varjak paw?

SF Said said...

I hope there will be a film of Varjak Paw one day! Dave McKean, who did the illustrations, is also a brilliant film-maker, and we have worked very hard together trying to get a film made. We've had lots of ups & downs with it, and many adventures with studios in Hollywood, and also in France... At the moment, it doesn't look like it's going to happen in the near future - but I would still love to make that film eventually. There are a couple of other possibilities too, one involving a potential TV adaptation... But if there's any news, I'll make a post about it here!