Music As Inspiration

So, I like to listen to music for inspiration.  In fact, how much I like a song is based on how many images run through my head while I listen to it that give me ideas for stories.  This is why I like Nightwish so much, most of their music has a lot of great imagery in it and it has an epic feel I just love.  When I write to Nightwish, even if I'm writing a scene where characters are in class having a conversation, I feel like I'm writing the most epic classroom conversation ever.  If you've ever seen the DeathNote video where Light Yagami takes a potato chip and EATS IT, it's like that.

So... There's Nightwish, but what are some other bands that come with great imagery for me and my burgeoning creative mind?  What bands have worked time and time again for me?

Abney Park is one.  An ex-boyfriend of my introduced them to me.  They can be categorized as goth-techno (in my mind) or the ex identified them as "steampunk".  I didn't even know there was a steampunk genre of music.  I know about the genre of books and movie style, but I didn't know it extended to music until I heard the album The Lost Horizons by Abney Park. They're music usually incorporates some odd sounds that you wouldn't expect in music and the man who sings kind of has a deep almost creepy voice that sounds like he just woke up and he's pissed off about it.  It's really nice to listen to and the music covers so many topics.  Sleep Isabella and Dark and Twisty Road are particular creepy.  Meanwhile Aether Shanty really makes me want to get my car fixed.  Victoria and Dear Ophelia and I Am Stretched On Your Grave manage to have a somewhat poignant feel to them.  While Nightwish makes me feel like I'm writing something epic, Abney Park makes me feel dark and gritty, like I'm writing something more along the lines of S.M. Peter's Whitechapel Gods or something written by Alan Moore. I'm all serious and dour and it must be perfect.

I love listening to soundtracks for movies and musicals.  Especially Disney movies and Sondheim musicals.They're always a good go-to for calling up emotions expressed in said movies.  Everytime I listen to Zydrate Anatomy from Repo! The Genetic Opera, I want to write about my character, The Alchemist... even though I've had him in my head for years and mostly people to refer to him, he never actually appears.  These songs are tried and true for calling up certain emotions and situations so of course they work for me to write to so long as I keep the stories sufficiently different from the story the song is actually part of and they usually are.  I do want to write a Sleeping Beauty based story, but I'm not going to listen to Disney's Sleeping Beauty soundtrack.  If I did that, I might forget the flaming chariot pulled by dragons.

Concept albums.  So, I'm a concept album fiend. A fiend, I tell you!  I love them because they tell stories and express emotions and imagery while still remaining somewhat vague so that a single can be released off the album and be played on the radio.  So, there's a lot a person can pull from the music.  I mean, Nightwish's concept album was vague enough I did a two part post on my interpretation and there are too many concept albums out there.  There's even a musical project called Ayreon created by Dutch composer Arjen Lucassen which is a single story stretched over eight albums each with their own individual stories.  It's epic and there's this one part in one album when they sing in binary.  It IS AWESOME!!! Kamelot is another band that does concept albums, I got into them because they wrote two concept albums based around the story of Faust: Epica and The Black Halo.  A lot of the song from those albums I use for inspiration because they really are amazing.  If I were to list all the concept albums I've listened to, I'd have one post, so I'll save the topic for another day.  But you should look into concept albums by various artists. They're good for inspiration and they're just fun to listen to.

Celtic music.  Now, I didn't get into Celtic music until my grandma took me to the Celtic Festival in Dayton, Ohio several years ago, but since then, I don't know where I'd be without the genre. The music speaks to some part of my heart (must be the 16th of me that's Irish and the 1/4 of me descended from the British Isles in general).  It's really bad because any person I see who can play a fiddle or violin immediately becomes hot in my eyes, I don't know why.  There is something inherently sexy in someone who can play those instruments.  Either way, whenever I want to write about friends hanging out being friends or people drinking at a bar, I break out my Gaelic Storm or Enter the Haggis or Dulahan or Scythian and just let the music take me away. It's really relaxing and fun to write to. The problem is, I take frequent breaks to sing along to the lyrics or go get something alcoholic or break into dancing around.  It interrupts the writing flow just a little bit.

So, those are my major musical inspirations.  There are other. For example, someday I'll go into a full-scale post on Emilie Autumn and Rasputina, but I thought I wouldn't break out the terribly weird and they are kind of like Celtic music or Abney Park in their own individual ways, but not too close. In fact, where did my brain get that comparison? Oh well. 

Sweet Dreams!