Romance Writer
The last month, I’ve been listening to this song a lot. Like, probably too much. I’m just sort of waiting for Spotify to post a message on their Twitter along the lines of: “User in the south of England who has played ‘I am a Stone’ three-hundred times the last month… Are you okay? Is the repeat button stuck?”
There is just something about this song that I really like. It’s relaxing, and I like the smooth voice of the singer.
Since I watched Disney’s Encanto a few weeks ago, I cannot seem to get the songs out of my head. So lately I’ve been listening a lot to Surface Pressure (my favourite) and We Don’t Talk About Bruno. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I’d suggest giving it a try, even if just for the amazing soundtrack. The songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (of Hamilton fame, and also the one who made the amazing songs from Moana), so you can pretty much be sure they will be earworms.
Surface Pressure is my absolute favourite, and anyone who has ever felt stressed out/like they are taking on too much will be able to relate to this song. It’s silly, but I swear I struggle to listen to this without getting tearful.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno isn’t quite as catchy (to me) but still an enjoyable (and kind of amusing) song.
In my effort to be more active on social media and my website, I’m starting with the year’s first Music Monday. When writing, I nearly always listen to music. In fact, I struggle to switch my brain into writing mode without it. As I started writing on the fourth Howerty novel, I had Spotify on random, and in the middle of a chapter, I reacted as I heard a familiar voice… in an unfamiliar song.
It was the voice of Tommy Körberg, a Swedish singer who has a long and impressive career in musical theatre and other singing endeavours. A national treasure, that man. If you’ve ever heard the songs of the old musical Chess, he is one of the lead singers. At his prime, his voice was absolutely amazing. (There’s a clip on YouTube of him with Celine Dion, where he surprised her with his singing chops… she thought she was just singing a duet with a random Swedish dude, and then this guy starts singing! You can see the surprise on her face.)
Anyway, I loved finding this song because Dead by April is a metal band. This particular song is a ballad, but it still amuses me that they convinced Tommy to join them (who was if not 70 at the time, at least approaching it when they recorded it).
The lyrics speak to me as well, as they feel a lot like how I see Marcus, the hero of the fourth Howerty novel, and as such, this has kind of become my anthem for that book.
What do you think?
May has been a month of rock music where I’ve pretty much put the Spotify Rock Mix on play and just let it keep going. I’ve been reminded of some old classics and discovered a couple of new songs I really enjoyed.
A few of the songs I’ve really enjoyed this month:
I realise it’s technically May (I’m not that out of the loop), but I forgot to post this, so here we are.
I’ve still been listening a lot to metal, but this song has also been listened to a lot as I’ve been feeling a bit down. It just hits a chord with me at the moment.
What are you listening to?
Music is inspiring and can help set the mood while writing, but more than that – I just love listening to music in general. When writing I usually have to stick to instrumental pieces, but not always. One Monday a month, I will check in and share what I’m currently listening to.
Right now, I’m on a bit of a Metal binge, and I’ve been listening to a lot of covers on YouTube and Spotify. There’s a lot of Dan Vasc covers running in the evenings at the moment. Two of my favourites of his are these two:
Toss a Coin to Your Witcher
Like most everyone else, I loved Henry Cavill Geralt The Witcher tv-show on Netflix. The songs in it are great, and this one in particular is a bit of an ear worm. But do you know what makes it even better? A metal version!
I’ll Make a Man Out of You (from Mulan)
So, I’ll admit it now already, I kind of love (some) Disney movies, and Mulan was always one of my favourites. I love the trope of a woman masquerading as a man. I was bitterly disappointed when the live-action movie of Mulan featured neither the song nor the Shang character in the same way he was in the animated movie. As a consolation, we get this metal cover. And now I want to write a story about a woman dressed as a man… oh wait, I already have! I might write another… (As I said, I do love this trope!) Also, I may have to go rewatch this movie.
What are you currently listening to?