Music To Write To: Loreena McKennitt

So, my music segment is a little later than I had planned it but I've had a busy week. I only have a week and a half left of classes before I get off for my Easter holidays and understandably, that means a lot of deadlines for essays and such which I may or may not have already started... *shakes fist at self for procrastination*

BUT I've got a spare few minutes while I'm waiting around for people who are coming to view our house to rent for next year. In all honesty, good luck to them, this house has been a bit of a bad luck charm as far as I've been concerned. It's been a revolving door with people moving in and out due to arguments and general things. Luckily I was never on the end of any of the bother, but it's still been a bit of a roller-coaster! Things seem to be settled finally, with only a few months left on our lease! Oh well, isn't that the way life goes!

Without further ado I give you:

Loreena McKennitt!

 

I found this wonderful lady whilst flicking through my friends iPod. She had an album called 'An Ancient Muse' and I remember being completely entranced with the music! She gave me a lend of the CD to put it on my iTunes and I've never looked back. 

Genres suitable for: historic, fantasy, paranormal, 

Personal highlights: Kecharitomene, Caravanserai, The Highwayman, The Mummers' Dance

Initially I just listened to her because her music was very soothing, and I really liked the Celtic and Arabic influences. Then, however, I got the idea for my Persian fiction and the music, especially that on her 'An Ancient Muse' album, just fit so perfectly it must have been some sort of act of fate that I'd discovered her! 

If you, you out there reading my post, know of any similar music to any of the artists that I post about, do drop me a comment and let me know! I'm always on the lookout for new music to take me - and my writing - to new heights!

Sarah x

Music To Write To: Ludovico Einaudi

Time for our third instalment of Music to write to!

This week I'm listening to Ludovico Einaudi, specifically his compilation album entitled 'Islands'.

Don't make  me try to pronounce that name, because I sure as hell won't be able to!

Genre's suitable for: Contemporary, historical, fantasy, romance, general background writing music

Personal highlights: I giorni, Primavera, Divenire, Ancora

This album is just great for writing either the romantic parts, or for anything really, you can just put this album on and totally forget what's going on around you and just write!

The main instrument on most of the album is a piano, and only a piano. Sometimes there are collaborations with other instruments, mostly string, but most of the time it's just him and his piano! You may have already heard some of the music, as it's very popular with film & tv soundtracks, along with a few TV adverts! It's a very calming sound compared some of the music that I will be recommending in later "MTWT" instalments!

If I can't sleep, I stick this album on quietly and it doesn't take long for me to drift off on the beautiful melodies!




Sarah x

Music To Write To : Lady Antebellum

So this week's segment on music that inspires me to write focuses on the contemporary country band - Lady Antebellum

Now in the last post I focussed on a particular album, because for that group, their latest album was very different from anything they'd ever done before, and that was why I liked it. However, for Lady Antebellum, so far their music has been pretty consistent in that modern American country music style that has been made popular by the likes of Taylor Swift, Martina McBride, and of course Lady Antebellum.

They're all subtly different, and I find that Lady Antebellum hits the perfect chord for me, where as Martina and Taylor sometimes just fall short!

Genres suitable for: Contemporary, Romance

Personal highlights: Need You Now, Something 'Bout A Woman, We Owned The Night, Just A Kiss

One of my house mates introduced me to Lady Antebellum just before Christmas and I fell in love because at that point I was working on a contemporary YA romance and it suited perfectly! 

Their songs just remind me of summer, and the sound of your typical 'contemporary teen romance' movie. Quite a few of their songs have this bright, happy, hopeful sound that just fits perfectly with everything you feel when you're starting out on a relationship with someone.

This song captures what I've just said perfectly.

What do you think of Lady Antebellum? 

So that's it for another segment. I'll be doing a review of what I read in February in my next blog post, so be ready for some book reviews! 

Sarah x

Music to write to: Progressed

So as you may (or may not) have noticed by my relative inactivity for the last week, I've kind of run out of things to blog about!

Already? But you just started!


Apparently so. It might have something to do with real life drama's becoming, for once, more overwhelming than the drama's being played out in my head! Having some serious house mate issues, spliced with a dash of stomach bug to contend with. So, understandably I'm feeling a little uninspired.  So I thought I'd write about something that helps me write, and that's music!

I'm going to do a segment, hopefully every week for a little while until I get my 'mojo' back!

Listening to music whilst writing is a very touchy subject for some people. Some can't write with it, some can't write without it. I'm in the later group. Music is a big part of building an atmosphere for me and as a result I have different play lists set up in my iTunes for different moods.

So, this week's Album of choice: Progressed by Take That



Genre's suitable for: Contemporary, Futuristic, Science Fiction

Personal highlights: Love Love, SOS, Underground Machine, Man

The marketing of this album bugged me. Take That released their album 'Progress' in November 2010 and it was their first album as a fully reunited group, i.e. with Robbie Williams back. (If this is all going over the heads of my American readers, I do apologise!) However, in June 2011 they RE-RELEASED the album with 8 new tracks and retitled it 'Progressed'. It was a very similar thing to what Lady Gaga did with The Fame, and then The Fame Monster. It's a kick in the teeth for fans that buy the first album, and then have to essentially buy the first album again to get the extra tracks.

But enough about bad record label choices. On to the writing side of things!

To me, the album has a very industrial (I use that term VERY lightly because I do know there is a very large genre of music that is ACTUALLY called industrial and I do not wish to offend) theme running through it, without departing from what can be considered 'pop' music. My absolute favourite song from this album is Love Love because it was the song in the closing credits of 'X-men: First class' (which I adore) and it always reminds me of the film.

From the angle of using this as a background to writing, the sound of the music is very important, especially for science fiction because most things in science fiction tend to rely heavily on machines, and the sound of this album can be very mechanical at times. But in a good way. The second thing is the lyrics. In one song especially, SOS, the lyrics are very poignant of our future and remind me somewhat of Beth Revis' book Across the Universe (which I haven't finished so don't spoil me!). There aren't parallels in the lyrics to the book, so I'm not spoiling anyone who hasn't read it, but there are sort of, themes that are similar. If you've read the book you might know what I'm talking about.

Here are some of the lyrics which make me think:

"When the levee breaks 
And Manhattan sinks 
There won't be water fit to drink 
When the winter's warm 
And the summer's cold 
The poison stops you looking old"


"No antibiotic can save us now 
No, no, no, no, no 
We are the virus that we talk about"


I'm going to leave you with the Love Love video. There are some clips of X Men in it, including my gorgeous Michael Fassbender as Magneto. I sure do 'Love Love' that man. Sorry. It had to be done.






I'm going to be possibly doing this segment every week, for a few weeks at least, breaking down the favourite music that I write to, and what genre's they inspire me to write for. I hope you find this segment interesting! Perhaps you'll find a new group or artist that appeals to your music tastes, or fits nicely in with what you're writing! 


Sarah x


EDIT: Also, if you're not following me through blogger, and are still interested in what I have to say (which I hope you are!) then you're going to have to switch to the Linky Follower, because at the beginning of March Google Friend Connect will cease to be working/exist! (I don't understand why, but there we go.)