Three Celtic blades
While I enjoy a wide range of music, I’m mostly a Rock n Roll kind of guy. The Cult, Angels and Airwaves, David Bowie, Soundgarden, Sabbath and more, nearly all of my favorites fall into one of the alternative rock categories. Sure, Tricky and Massive Attack fall under trip hop, but there are certainly rock influences to both styles.
The problem is, I can’t listen to this style of music when attempting to create. It could be the energy or the cacophony, but I’ve always expected it’s really the lyrics. That processing those words interrupts my ability to paint with my own. And since I’m not a fan of quiet emptiness, I needed alternatives.
I once worked with a English prof to search for a video. He was not comfortable with computers, admitting he had been unable to find an appearance of a famous jazz musician on a late night talk show. I asked two questions, punched words into Google, and it was the #1 hit. No, that’s not a major brag, just pointing out I’m pretty good at finding things without too many tries.
That said, finding music I wanted to listen to was hard. Really hard. Searches for variations of music without lyrics always turned up world music or folk bands or strange electronica. None of those worked for me.
Eventually, friends recommended video game music and I later ran across an article pointing out the purpose of video game music is to entertain in the background without interrupting your focus. It almost worked. Like classical, there’s some great stuff and some “What the hell is that?” stuff. And too much of the latter.
Things finally changed last year when a friend recommended a track on Youtube titled Nordic Ambient Music. it worked well, though a bit dark for YA fantasy. This led me to Lisa Gerrard’s Silver Chair and Twilight Kingdom, both excellent work and, while with lyrics, not sung in a way to draw my attention.
Later, I discovered an ambient mix named “Awakening of a Dream.” I’m always a bit uncomfortable with Youtube tracks of an artist’s work, but Youtube’s referrals of ‘like’ media has helped me discover a range of new music. “Awakening…” really helped me connect with the feeling of the world I was attempting to describe. I don’t know how it works, but by this point it’s become a great focussing tool. Part of the ritual if you will.
There are some other tracks I’ve been using and, if you check the “music” category on the right, maybe you can find a few tracks which will work for you. Also, I’ll be including some of my practices on using music to set tone and feeling for characters. Music has really worked for me and, if you aren’t already, maybe you can use it to inform your own creative process.
