Writing Music

What kind of music do you listen to while you write?

Please don't tell me you're one of those people who needs total silence while they write, because that's just... bizarre. I can't do anything in total silence. Even when I read I need something in the background (just as long as it's not people talking). Music has been a part of my life in one form or another forever. I am what you would call an avid music listener. I can't drive in a car, sit in a room or drink a beer without having some music going. Most importantly, I can't write without music.

So what do I listen to? I guess it depends on my mood, or what I'm writing. At the moment I am listening to hardcore: Damnation AD, Agnostic Front, Integrity, Youth of Today, etc. I've been in a sour mood all day, so this music is helping me maintain. Although, if I wanted to get out of this bad mood, I would put on something a bit more... mellow. Something like the Pixies or the Velvet Underground. If I want to be sad, I know that Counting Crows will do the trick. Or Sarah McLachlan. When I need to be picked up, I usually go to the Eagles of Death Metal, the Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, or something similar.

But my go-to music is usually always grunge and rock from the 1990s. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Soul Asylum, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, the Smiths, Catherine Wheel, Garbage, Jane's Addiction, the Lemonheads... the list can go on and on and on. I'm not sure what it is, I just enjoy this music most. It inspires me, it makes me mad, it reminds me of great times, it brings out my best, it makes me happy, and it helps the words flow out just that much easier. I think part of the draw to this music is that I became a writer in one sense or another while listening to this music. There are some amazing memories that this music pulls out of me, and that always helps my writing.

Even if I'm writing an assignment for school (either as a teacher or a student), I still need really great music to accompany me. I have never been one of those people who listen to classical music or instrumental music, but I am also not one of those people who knocks "word-less" music. I dig on that stuff. But it really doesn't inspire me. And that's what I need when I'm writing. I need inspiration. My buddy Danny turned me on to a new shoegazer band called M83. They're pretty cool. I used to get into the shoegazer scene back in the day, mostly bands like Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Starflyer 59, and the Jesus and Mary Chain. M83 fits right in to the "old guard" of shoegazer bands. And it stirs the same emotions.

So what kind of music inspires you while you're writing?
I'm always on the lookout for some cool new tunes!