So What Did I Listen To While Writing Sound?

Note: This blog was first published online September 20th, 2014. Sound (by Gil Liane) is available on Amazon Kindle. 

I love being enveloped in music, especially when working on my stories. Often I listen before I begin writing, to get my mind in the right place. Music can be the best guide, helping you find your way to a certain mood, or feeling, or something even more nebulous than that… A sensation? A state of grace, or (dis)grace, even? Who knows. Sometimes language isn’t large enough.

In my novel Sound I wrote that music is a spirit animal, the kind shamans used to talk about. Prowling the borders of your mind, seductive and elusive. Tapping into the eternal river of chaos just beyond the eye line.

So what did I listen to while writing Sound?

For anyone curious, here’s a track per chapter listing. I’ve referenced (relatively) new clips, most of which should be available to purchase somewhere online, if you’re interested. (Consider being interested, they’re magnifique x)

Chapter 1. Future Sound of London – Amoeba

Mellow but alive, aural feed for the budding concepts hanging out in my head. I love F.S.O.L.,for years I've listened to their albums when painting or writing. Perfect beginnings.

Chapter 2. Mink Mussel Creek – They Dated Steadily

Wild/sexy/edgy, which seems apt for the scene with more feeding, and eventually, the introduction of the character Michael. Encapsulates the mood I was chasing with my sentences.

Chapter 3. Fait – Surrender To (Be warned, there are flashing lights.)

Fait started releasing material when I was finishing the manuscript (meaning rewrites). Hypnotic, beautiful, unique tune. Creates an atmosphere that gets my head in the right space. Definitely one of my faves.

Chapter 4. Felicity Groom – Finders and Keepers

Brings to mind the color and art in Sound. Think moments a little less ominous. Threads of community, friendly encounters with smiles and conversation. A nice balance.

Chapter 5. Joe McKee – Flightless Bird/Lunar Sea

When working on emotionally intricate scenes, you need music that’s been carefully, beautifully shaped; a reminder that lines of words carrying the heavy weight of complex ideas require a similarly delicate touch.

Chapter 6. Suede/ The Tears – The Asphalt World/Apollo 13

A throwback to the all-consuming passion you feel discovering a band as a teen. Eloquently melancholic. (Anyone lucky enough to catch Apollo 13 at a festival got a taste of the Bernard/Butler magic, albeit in another form.)

Chapter 7. Rising Appalachia – Scale Down

Even though Rising Appalachia makes me think of the Ceruleans in my book, I’ve allocated the song to chapter seven. Text that lets you slow down a little, step back, and breathe.

Chapter 8. Will Stoker & The Embers – Five Beds For Bitsy/Don’t Ever Tell Me

A moody and ominous song. Don’t Ever Tell Me is so different, but both feel like truths. Combined they create a multifaceted impression of the band, which I find inspiring.

Chapter 9. Tame Impala – Half Full Glass of Wine

My favorite band to play in a writing emergency, ie when a chapter just won’t gel together. Slides inside your mind and helps the right ideas find their way out. (I put this track here ecause I think it suits the desert scene.)

Chapter 10. Ben Frost – A U R O R A album (Watch out, there are flashing lights.)

Frost’s soundscapes (for want of a better word) take your mind somewhere else. Or maybe they just take you further inside yourself? Who can tell. The effect is hard to articulate. Listen, and you’ll see what I mean.

Chapter 11. The Dead Weather – I Cut Like a Buffalo/Rocking Horse

Two Dead Weather favorites. Live footage of Jack and Allison playing Rocking Horse bristles with wild, wild energy (google the clip). I love JW in this band, all the pieces seem to fit.

Chapter 12. Eivør – Trøllabundin

A Faroese singer who channels primal energies (no other way to describe it). These sounds reach deep inside and touch your soul. I always feel like a sleeping part of my brain stirs whenever I listen. (This track wouldn't embed so please take a look on Eivør's Youtube channel.)

Chapter 13. Lykke Li – Sadness Is A Blessing

This video is more like a short film, with the magnificent Stellan Skarsgård. Absolutely perfect listening material for the ending of Sound. (I Follow Rivers also resonated.)

*If adding in Prologue and Epilogue tracks, I’d break my own rule and go old school. Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit (Prologue) and Malvina Reynolds What Have They Done To The Rain? (Epilogue). Maybe slide a mention of Soft Machine in there somewhere…

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The Allure Of The Unreliable Narrator (& Why I Couldn't Resist)

Note: This blog was first posted on March 28th, 2015.

Everyone has a moment when the world breaks. At its core, life is about perception. Veils lift, and an accepted truth transforms into nothing more than illusion. Those times are chaotic, even brutal, but in a way, freeing. Fiction-wise, a truly great unreliable narrator evokes a similar sensation in the reader.

Life is full of liars (even unwitting ones). Who hasn’t listened to a fabricated version of events from a friend who forgot you were at the party/dinner they’re describing? Narrative distortion, textually or otherwise, is endlessly fascinating. I’m not the only one who thinks so: #unreliablenarrator appeared on my social media feed repeatedly while this blog was coming together.

For those unfamiliar with the idea, at its core an unreliable narrator is pretty much what it sounds like: a narrator who, by the end of the novel, you realize cannot be trusted in some way. And it seems, in the fictional world at least, we’ll never tire of people who can’t be trusted.

What makes the unreliable narrator such a powerful tool is our tendency to blindly trust in the perspective of the storyteller; readers invariably become invested in the protagonist (who is more often than not the unreliable narrator). Not even consciously choosing to place our faith in said character, we just assume the person steering the story is telling the truth. In a way, on some level, the narrator and the reader merge: after all, they’re our gateway to the experience. Who else would we trust?

Gone Girl is a recent example of this type of storytelling, as is Life of Pi. For many, Fight Club was a one-two knockout introduction to the wonder of an unreliable narrator. My eye-opening (or should that be mind-opening?) reading experience was A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick.

To say I was blown away by the reveal in that book would be an understatement. (Maybe I should say spoiler alert, but come on, ASD was written in the seventies!) The novel reveals drug user Bob Archer is also Agent Fred working undercover in narcotics. Substance D has screwed with his brain so badly he’s completely unaware he’s living a double life, to the point where the protagonist investigates himself without knowing it.

For me, Bob/Fred will always be the ultimate unreliable narrator.

Before A Scanner Darkly, manipulating conventional literary expectations to mess with the reader had never occurred to me. The novel opened my mind to the possibilities fiction offers when you’re both (narratively) brave, and clever enough to pull off a wild idea. Challengingly left of field, the novel imprinted deeply on my psyche, forcing me to re-evaluate my entire understanding of fiction, and  inspiring a lifelong hunt for “unusual” novels that would expand my (mental) horizons.

Safe to say, as a teenage reader, it changed the fiction I was exposed to, and as a writer, it changed the direction/style of my prose. Looking back, I don’t think it’s a coincidence my favorite Charles De Lint novel at university was Memory and Dream: once again, a story with a beautifully conceived unreliable narrator at the centre.

No surprise, then, that my novel Sound has an unreliable narrator. I’m proud of the book, and glad I tackled a literary trope that has always enthralled me, but creating the lead character was harder than expected. Turns out, from the other end of the spectrum (writer rather than reader), the unreliable narrator messes with your head just as effectively.

Think about it: you’re writing a story with knowledge about the narrator the reader doesn’t have, and isn’t supposed to have, until late in the game. The character has to feel true, but post-reveal, in retrospect, the inferred “truth” has to feel believably unreliable. No simple task.

Some would argue the best way to work this trope is to use a storyline that seems obvious (in some sense) from the outset. I didn’t do this. Fiction in a futuristic setting that sweeps the reader along and isn’t overly expositional is my preference, but that’s a stylistic choice; whether it works in conjunction with an unreliable narrator, well that’s the reader’s call.

To compensate, I did plant a smattering of clues throughout, ensuring the narrator (and therefore the reader) was imbued with a growing sense of unease. I think it’s important the person following the story is already a little unsettled when the unreliable narrator element becomes obvious. I played with a distorted perception of reality in more ways than one in my novel, which probably adds to the jarring impact; maybe that’s ambitious, but it’s the kind of fiction I like.*

To segue: Finishing a blog with tunes I’ve been listening to while writing is my favorite way to sign off. New artist Ty is my current musical preference. Tracks of electronic origin that feel organic, lyrics that feel like poetry. You sense layers and emotions, shadows and slivers of light; music sourced internally that makes my own potential wake up and flow onto the page (in word form). This is a demo, with the album still to come, but the track Bubbleguns is my go-to song so far. http://www.tysmusic.com/

*On a side note: If you’re into novels with an unreliable narrator, I recommend Memoirs OF A Master Forger. The author is listed as William Heaney, the name of the protagonist, but it’s actually written by Graham Joyce. One of the few novels I’ve read in the last couple of years that managed to echo the sudden sense of confusion I felt when reading A Scanner Darkly. The character of Heaney isn’t as extreme an example as Archer, but you still feel sucker punched in that moment where it’s revealed what you believe to be true is in fact a misrepresentation, and it’s beautifully done.

Follow on Instagram and Twitter as @gil_e_liane 

Ebooks Galore

Note: This blog was originally posted January 17th, 2015.

My first novel Optimate is also now available as an ebook on Amazon (2015 rerelease edition).

This time the book is listed as New Adult. I’m interested to see what impact that label will have, in terms of exposure and sales. Marketing tools are weird creatures.

Sound is also an ebook on Amazon, so that’s two live novels on the list. Optimate is quite straightforward, full of tech (and fashion). Sound is much more complex; I consider the book my raison d’être.

Well… so far.

I’m currently working on my tv pilot pitch Gateway (that’s all I can say, these lips are sealed). Being so aware of time while tweaking narrative and dialogue is distracting, and very different to novel writing. You have to be constantly conscious of how the story will translate into screen time. It’s like having a metronome in the room.

Aside from that, still rewriting the final section of my novel The Conceptualist, expanding on a few ideas that I felt weren’t explored/addressed enough, especially in the closing moments. And for A Charismatic Man I’ve been thinking about the nuances of performance art (I know that’s vague, but it’s a heavy topic!).

Right now though, I’m celebrating having both Sound and Optimate up on Amazon Kindle and available for download. The section of my brain that worked on them is vacationing as we speak (most probably somewhere that doesn’t involve making sentences).

Also, if you’d like to follow me on twitter or instagram, I’m @gil_e_liane on both of them x

Finally, I’ll leave this clip from FKA twigs here. I love this, for many reasons, including these:

-A blue that isn’t as cold as you’d expect.

-The odd moments of editing that suggest something stilted.

-The way it’s primal but controlled.

-The choreography, or to be exact, the implied messages in the sum of the movement (and the use of the walls).

-Cinematography that tries on different camera angles. It’s like everything is held back, except this, which is unusual. Why the lack of restraint there?

-The absence of vocals. And the sunlight that can’t really get in. And the poles. And the loneliness.

-Nobody is connecting, not really. It feels like they’re all alive, but asleep.

Novel Collage

Note: This blog was originally published October 12.

My novel Sound has flown away (by which I mean through the wires) to be printed. In celebration, I’ve created a collage that encapsulates the story in my head.

Collage is a fantastic medium; an art form that doesn’t cost anything other than time. To make mine I use old magazines, a glue stick, scissors, and a secondhand poetry book.

The best bit is the way you can’t really plan the final result. Obviously a rough sketch/outline is the first step, but from there, chaos kind of takes over.

I love seeing different moods and emotions creep in. I love how beautifully organic, and tactile, the process can be. I love that you end up awash in a sea of paper.

All my collages are full of symbols that make the artwork personal. In this case I’ve included symbols that represent elements from the novel.

Obviously the visual will make more sense after reading Sound, but references to aspects of the story include:

mask/woman/dome/stars/twins

curly hair/heart/tattoo

flowers/water/ fruit/apple

kaleidoscope/sparkling disks/diamonds

music symbols (musician, speaker, cables, instrument)

bird/cage/frame/feathers

architecture/cubes/broken fence/street/

blue/yellow/gray

clinical lights/street light/starlight/red lights

lots & lots of word…

xxx

Follow on Instagram and Twitter as @gil_e_liane