Lint Upon Tweed

When I sit down to write, whether it’s a blog entry or a short story, I use music as a driving force.  I’m always looking for that perfect combination of songs to continue the artistic drive and spark the next idea.

The difficulty is that I can’t listen to song with lyrics when trying to write poetry or fiction.  I have no problem listening to lyrical music when writing blog entries though.

One of my favorite blogs, Paper Cuts from the NY Times, has posted a variety of writer’s favorite playlists.  You can check it out here.  It’s really cool.

I started thinking about what I really want to listen to when I’m writing.  So I decided to put together just a small sample of what goes into my brain while I’m writing.

Blog Entries:

Two by Ryan Adams:  Songwriting doesn’t get much better than this.  God this guy is fucking phenomenal.  He hasn’t had huge commercial success but I’m sure he’s had enough to make a decent living.  Plus, he married Mandy Moore and she has a great ass!  Too bad Ryan is a complete punk and probably back to doing 8-balls again.  He’s going to corrupt my innocent little Mandy.  Fucker.

Heaven can wait by Charlotte Gainsbourg:  This was a freebie from Starbucks.  It’s decent background music without taking your thought process away too much.

Dog days are over by Florence and the Machine:  Flo & the Machine are one of my favorites but not all songs will fit into my playlist for writing.  I’m sure I will find more as time goes on but so far this is the only one on the list.

In State by Kathleen Edwards:  I love Kathleen Edwards.  She’s a Canadian country singer which means she dumped that horrible Nashville twang I hate so much.  Kathleen is more of a folk/acoustic/country.  It’s not so in-your-face and I like its subtly.

The Girls Insane by The Januaries:  This is another Starbucks freebie that I just like.  Nothing else to say.

Fiction, Poetry, etc.

The problem with listening to music while writing original thought is getting some consistency to the rhythm, beat, etc.  When you are moving on a thought, you don’t want a change in tempo to completely move your head out of the thought.  I go for instrumental compositions that tend to last fifteen minutes or more.  That way I don’t get interrupted often.

I almost always head to Pandora when I’m writing anything other than a blog entry.  If you haven’t experienced Pandora, you must get on.  I couldn’t live without it.  I even mow the lawn to several Pandora playlists.

Explosions in the Sky

Friday Night Lights Soundtrack

Pat Metheny

Al di Meola

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