The soundtrack to 'Songs About A Girl'.
Hey,
music lovers. And YA readers, you too! Especially
you #boybandlit folks,
this one's gonna be your jam...okay, now I have your attention, I'll
be keeping my intro minimal today. Let's hand over to the mega star
that is Chris
Russell; the sweetheart, undiscovered hair model, hardcore
Directioner, and author of 'Songs
About a Girl',
the book that rocked our worlds in 2016. He's going to tell you all
about the music behind the book!
"Songs
About a Girl is a book about music, in more ways than one.
My fictional boy band Fire&Lights are at the centre of the
story, of course, but as someone whose entire life has revolved
around music, I also wanted to explore the way songs can function as
“memory keys” - potent little time capsules that unlock forgotten
moments in our past.
"Like
many authors, I built a playlist for the novel as I was writing it,
featuring the songs that inspired the tone, emotions and heart of the
story. And as Grace and I have overlapping music tastes, we thought
it would be interesting to talk about the playlist in tandem: first,
from the perspective of the author, and second, from the perspective
of a reader. Enjoy!"
Chris: As
Aristotle once said, “Ain’t no playlist without Tay-Tay” (I may
be paraphrasing). When Charlie and Gabriel were first beginning to
form in my mind, I was listening to this song a lot. Like, A LOT. It
was the launchpad for the whole trilogy. Because as Charlie herself
tells Gabriel: “When I’m around you...bad things happen”.
Grace: Y'all
know I'm a die-hard Swiftie. IKYWT is one of the classics – and is
often wrongly assumed by journos to be inspired by That Stylish Guy,
despite the fact that it was released 3 months before their
little romance...true fans know this. Anyway, this is one of the
T-Swizz songs that would come on at the SU and I'd have *everyone*
grabbing me at once to sing together. Oh, Tay.
(Grace's
signed copy of SAAG, with an additional Tay
Tay lyric, obvs.)
Chris: I’m
a huge 1D fan, and not afraid to say it. Indeed, Songs About
a Girl was directly inspired by a freelance job I picked up
in 2013, ghost-writing for a One Direction fan-site in Australia.
Back in the early research stages, I was racking my brains for the
central hook of the book - the thread that would span the trilogy
from beginning to end - and it was while I was listening to this song
that the idea came to me. No one likes spoilers, though, so I’ll
leave it at that!
Grace: My
1D love began in the early days of uni. Yeah fine, I admit it, I'd
often let a guy serenade me with WMYB on the dance floor. I've come
to accept my love of 1D, and stopped burying it in the darkest
recesses of my iPod. 'Story of my Life' is emosh af; it brought
out a whole other side of the band for me, who up until that point
had just been happy carefree jams I'd hear every Friday night out on
the town.
Chris: I’m
a massive fan of Lawson. Not only are they a class act, they’re
also distractingly handsome. Suspiciously handsome,
you might say (I’m not suggesting they’re genetically engineered,
but, come on … they probably are). Anyhow, I digress. In the same
sense that Trouble is Charlie’s song and Story is Gabriel’s
song, 'Standing In The Dark' is Olly’s song. “I’m looking
through the glass, she’s someone else’s angel …”. Poor fella.
Wild
Heart by
The Vamps
Chris: In
my head, the Fire&Lights sound is somewhere between One
Direction, Lawson and The Vamps. This is arguably The Vamps’ best
song, and I was spinning it regularly when I was originally piecing
together my imaginary boy band. As a side-note, The Vamps’ lead
singer looks about nine years old, and it kinda freaks me out.
Chris' writing set up, obvs.
Do
You Remember? by
Phil Collins
Chris: It’s
always fascinated me how memories attach themselves to music. One of
my earliest inspirations for Songs About a Girl was
the gut-punch feeling you get when you hear a treasured song from
your childhood. Suddenly, you’re a kid again, on a long car
journey, dozing in the backseat, orange lights flashing by outside
the window. We always listened to Phil Collins when I was little, so
anything by him, particularly this song, sort of breaks my heart a
little, but only in a good way.
Chris: “Missing
You” is another song that reminds me of childhood, but it earned
its place on the playlist because, in my head, this was always
Charlie’s dad’s song. He lives in a state of inertia - denial,
almost - over the death of his wife, and although this song is about
a break-up, as opposed to a loss, many of the lyrics resonate with
Ralph’s character for me. “Every time I think of you, I always
catch my breath...And there’s a storm that’s raging through my
frozen heart tonight.”
Hello,
I’m In Delaware by
City & Colour
Chris: My
band’s sound engineer, Danny, is a massive Dallas Green fan, and he
introduced me to City & Colour a few years back. I felt
instinctively that Charlie would be into C&C, and always
imagined her finding the lyrics to this song comforting, when she was
thinking about her mum. “And I will see you again...a long time
from now”. (Also, the title of the track is a Wayne’s
World reference, and Wayne’s World is
TOTALLY BOSS.)
Grace: Okay,
don't even. This might be my favourite song of all time. I've written
about it before, and the enormous effect it had on me seeing the
man himself singing
it live – to a room full of tattooed twenty-somethings who
were once misunderstood scene kids just like me – after so many
years of listening to it and loving it...I cannot explain the
explosion of goosebumps that happens every time I hear “there goes
my life”...
Chris: Remember
I talked about the emotional gut-punch of hearing a familiar
childhood song? Charlie gets one of those when she listens to “Cat’s
in the Cradle”. I won’t say anymore (again, SPOILERS!), except to
recommend that you listen to this song again. It remains popular,
decades after its release, but I’m always surprised how rarely
people have actually listened to the lyrics. It’s a song about
family ties, and what happens when your child learns the lessons you
never wanted to teach them in the first place. Powerful stuff.
Click
here to subscribe to the playlist on Spotify (no
“I Knew You Were Trouble”, though. Sad face.)
ps.
I’ve written quite a bit of the music that features in Songs
About a Girl. Check out the video below to find out more!
'Songs About a Girl' is published by Hodder Children's, and can be purchased on
A Great Read (for just £4.50!), and also Amazon, The Book Depository, and at Waterstones.
The sequel, 'Songs About Us', will be out 13th July 2017. Get excited, fans.
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