Sound track to The White Tower
Photo Credit: Beth Evans
I’d
like to say that when I am writing, I listened to Faure, or maybe a bit of
Saint-Saens… But the truth is that I don’t listen to Classical music at all. I
find it too distracting.
I
have to have headphone on and a playlist to get through before I start to
write, but what I’m listening to is really ‘noise’ to block out the concept of
any world other than the one I am writing about. Oddly, this has led to quite a
weird selection of dance music or… and this was a surprise to me… K-pop. But
anything is good which gets you out of your own thoughts and into some new
place.
1 Stigma, BTS
It’s
probably shameful to be quite so old and listen to quite so much K-pop, but I
think if you grew up listening to Duran Duran, K-pop isn’t quite so much of a
stretch. I feel slightly guilty not picking a track by SHINee, because those
boys are K-pop majesty (Taemin is the best dancer in K-pop, Onew has the most
beautiful voice, and all five of them make me smile) but BTS have had some
amazing songs. My daughter loves them (especially Jimin) and I suppose there
aren’t many bands that can have the prints on their jackets explained away as
being an homage to Hermann Hesse’s novel, Demian. Yes, it’s pure confectionary,
but who says no to a big box of chocolates?
2 The City, Madeon
I
listened to this a lot when I wrote the first chapter of The White Tower. I do
love a bit of dance music because it keeps the fingers (if not the feet)
moving. Any time it comes on, I feel I am sitting on the bus with Livy, my main
character, drifting down the Holloway Road.
3 Teenage Fantasy, Cherokee
Just
love this for the bass line.
4 Kitsune Compilations (various).
There’s
a shop in Paris called Maison Kitsune that I went to with my eldest son when he
was doing French A-Level. The fashion is sort of preppy normcore meets Parisian
hipster (I mean, you’re not going to offend anyone wearing their clothes). I
bought him a T-shirt. The guys who set up the label also do music compilations
and find lots of new artists (again, nothing very offensive, but quite smart
and dance-y). They’re all good.
5 Get it right, Aretha Franklin
It’s
a banger.
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