Category Archives: Music

It begins

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Those of you who have read my about page will know I am studying for an MA in Creative Writing. The main part of my assessed work will be a completed novel. I write one or I fail.

Well, started yesterday. 553 words typed into Scrivener after a week of sorting out my first lot of research notes. I’ve been documenting the process in the rather brilliant Day One journal app. Decided on a digital journal as it mean one less notebook to carry around (already have my pocket notes, my Moleskine week-to-a-page/notebook combo and a Conceptum notebook dedicated to research notes and scraps and jottings for the novel) plus I can add links to research and (once they update it) photos and such. So far I’ve been good, taking five minutes at the end of each day to update the journal. Already, looking back it shows the baby steps I have taken.

In the coming weeks and months I plan to share little bits of info about the book as well as stuff I discover along the way about the process, or at least my process, of writing a novel, or at least this novel.

Of now to get to work. Things to be done:

  • complete 4,000 words of novel for submission to my MA group
  • research the mathematics of impact, body trauma from non-fatal injuries, and how buildings are demolished (all cheerful stuff)

So, as you can see, still in the very early stages. Exciting and daunting at the same time. This video, with its rather apt car metaphor in the opening, probably best explains how I am feeling. Got a long way to go and won’t know just how far till I get to the end. 10 miles to go, on a 9 mile road, but I don’t care:

Here’s hoping the whole thing turns out as brilliant as it feels in my head. But as Jim White says so eloquently:

‘There ain’t no guarantees,

None of that nonsense like on TV

Just gotta role the dice

And take your lumps’

I’m off to write.

Wilco Spinach

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Been a little quiet here, due in part to my being busy working on a short story for this, research for this and coming down with a nasty cold of the bone-chilling, head-squeezing variety. Started feeling a little better today, which is in no small part due to this rather brilliant video of Wilco’s Dawned on Me:

Apparently it’s ‘the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years.‘

You can find out more about it at wilcospinach.com (how cool is that url?)

Normal service will resume shortly with, amongst other things, the skinny on my actually making a start on my MA novel, the first of 2012′s My Life in Short Fiction posts, and some awesome news that I can’t wait to share. Until then, I might have to see if some spinach can get me back on my feet.

Happy New Year

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Just a quick post wishing everyone who’s read, contributed to, blogged about, or tweeted a link to this blog a very Happy New Year. Here’s hoping 2012 is everything you hope it will be.

I leave you and 2011 with this acoustic version of my favourite Iron and Wine track from the sessions/albums released this year. It’s a song that manages to express both the despair and the wonder of being alive. 2011 has been that kind of year, one minute kicking your teeth in, the next bringing you flowers. It’s also a song that is full to brimming with wonderfully inventive metaphors. Which makes it a perfectly fitting song for me to see out the year with on this blog.

May your words be well worth stealing
Put your hand on your heart when you’re singing

Happy New Year everyone! See you tomorrow/next year.

We’re the smoke on a burned horizon
We’re the boat on a tide that’s rising
Both the post and the pig you’re untying
The butcher gone for the blade
Someday we may all be happy
Someday all make a face worth slapping
Someday we may be shocked to be laughing
At the way we behave

May your hands be strong and willing
May you know when to speak and to listen
May you find every friend that you’re missing
There’s no check in the mail
May you end it bruised and purple
Know that peace is the shape of a circle
‘Cause round and round you’ll go, biting your tail

Iron and Wine – Biting Your Tail

lyrics and music all copyright Iron and Wine

Top 5 Writing Music Albums of 2011

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Regular readers will already known that music plays an important part in my writing process. This year has seen a bumper crop of new albums finding their way onto my Writing playlist to loop while I scribble, scrabble and tap my first drafts into notebooks both analogue and digital, both actual and virtual. As there were so many, I’ve given them their own wee chart, separate from my other album choices. These are my favourite pieces of music to write to released this year:

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Industries of the Blind – Chapter 1: Had We Known Better

Industries of the Blind is a nine piece instrumental post-rock ensemble with a rousing ambient sound. They are currently offering their first three-track EP Chapter 1: Had We Known Better for free on their website. It’s well worth a download, and a donation if you like what you hear.

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Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care

Explosions in the Sky have long been my go-to-band for writing sessions and their latest collection of instrumental brilliance has soundtracked the first draft writing of at least two short stories this year.

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Bill Ryder-Jones – If

If is a musical adaptation of Italo Calvino‘s 1979 novel If on a Winters Night a Traveler. A surprisingly leftfield move by the former guitarist of The Coral, but one my writing self is very grateful for. Atmospheric and moving, this has not only helped me draft my Willesden Herald Short Story Competition entry but also has pushed the novel up to the top of my reading pile.

Unfortunately there are no If videos on Youtube to share with you. Shame.

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Ólafur Arnalds – Living Room Songs

Icelandic contemporary composer Ólafur Arnalds created and released a new song, one per day for a whole week during the month of October 2011. The songs were recorded and filmed live in the living room of his Reykjavik apartment and released instantly for free as streamed videos and mp3 downloads. You can check out the tracks and videos here.

I’m not the only writer inspired by Arnalds’ emotive music. Andy Harrod produced seven flash fictions inspired by Living Room Songs, one for each track of the album. The initial print run of the Handmade Edition is sold out, but Andy will be releasing a second print run soon. I’ll be reviewing Living Room Stories here in the new year.

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A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen

On May 24th 2007, in Bologna, Italy, Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie & Dustin O’Halloran embarked upon a curious friendship while Adam was on tour and playing with the late Mark Linkous & his beloved Sparklehorse, on what would be their final european tour. That night, through a strange twist of backstage conversations surrounding passport cache conundrums, and love of italian gastronomy. The  offspring spawned from this friendship is this collection of harmonic robitussinal compositions for the world to savour. And I for one am very glad of its existence.

This album has received more play than any of the others during my writing session. Like four times as many plays according to my iTunes meta-data. It’s the perfect balance of ambient and emotive. I can’t see myself getting bored of it any time soon. It’s too beautiful.

Top Ten Albums 2011 – one

Posted on by Dan Powell
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The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

The Decemberists’ fourth album was released on January 14th and made my top ten list of the year even in those early days with the whole year of releases waiting to knock it out of the ring. Over the course of eleven and a bit months it managed to see of all challengers and retain its crown as my favourite album of 2011. The King may be dead but he still rules.

2011 was the year of the last REM album release and their break-up. One possible contributing factor to their retirement might well be that REM didn’t release the best REM album  of 2011, The Decemberists did. Band leader/songwriter/singer Colin Melloy is unashamed in his love for REM and openly admitted that the King Is Dead was his tribute to the band, his way of thanking them for being such an influence. He even managed to rope in Peter Buck to add guitar and mandolin parts on the album, including this first song Down By The Water:

The whole album is full to brimming with harmonica, mandolin and accordian and, played in its entirety, feels like a road trip through all the major sub genres of Americana. From the  uptempo folk of Don’t Carry It All and Down By The Water to the haunting twin songs January Hymn and June Hymn, to the down home, feel good vibe of All Arise!, the album displays a level of quality through all ten tracks that few bands recording today can match. Stripped down acoustic versions of the tracks show the sheer quality of the songwriting on display, this acoustic version of This Is Why We Fight being a prime example, the bombast of the album version reworked into a soleful acoustic piece, resplendent with fiddle and lilting female backing vocals:

The standout track, for this listener at least, has to be Rise to Me. Colin Meloy and his wife, artist Carson Ellis, have a 5 yr old son with high functioning autism and Rise To Me details both the struggle and the triumphs of raising a child with autism, intended as a dedication to his son. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt piece that any parent can relate to. I am not ashamed to say this one chokes me up a little each time I listen to it:

The King is Dead was recorded over a six week period in a barn at an 80-acre site called Pendarvis Farm, near Portland, Oregon. The band recorded a superb 30 min documentary detailing their recording process called Pendarvia. Directed by Aaron Rose, it’s a warm, inviting piece of film that takes you into the process of recording an album live in a band with a group of friends. If this post has you seek out the album I would recommend tracking down the CD/DVD version with Pendarvia included.

In a neat piece of symmetry, The Decemberists saw out the year releasing a companion EP in December entitled Long Live The King. It features 6 tracks that could easily have sat alongside those on the main album and I can’t help feeling I’m not the only person whose music purchases this year have been bookended by Decemberist releases.

And that was my Top Ten Albums of 2011. Eagle-eyed readers will notice I missed off albums of writing music I’ve been blogging/tweeting about this year. That’s because there were so many great albums ideal as background music for writing sessions that I decided to put together a top five. Look for that tomorrow. In the meantime, what was your album of 2011?