Is There Anybody Out There ?
The novelist Tiffany Murray on the music that inspired her second novel Diamond Star Halo, the music she couldn't listen to while she was writing it and the music that has been inspired by the book.
Posted: 16:39:00 10/02/10
Writing is a solitary business. For six years I’ve been (pretty much) alone in a blue room with a screen and occasional pen. I’ve yelled at the dogs, ‘Shut up!’ I’ve needed complete silence. That’s strange because Diamond Star Halo is a novel that is not only riddled with music, it was born of music – my love for certain singers, bands, and the tracks that suckled me. These are tracks that suckled generations.
Bowie’s Five Years and Gram Parson’s She are two of the best short stories I’ve ever heard.
Yesterday on Twitter (I’m trying) a musician asked me if I listened to music as I wrote. The answer was no. I wish I could. I simply can’t write and listen at the same time. Each takes all my energy, all of my attention. I don’t seem to have the knack of letting one bleed into the other. Both stun me –I’m a rabbit in the headlights. I’m equally stunned at how some writers do write to music, whatever the genre. Maybe it’s because I see certain melodies as memories, and certain songs as stories. For me, Bowie’s Five Years and Gram Parson’s She are two of the best short stories I’ve ever heard.
Gram Parsons
Diamond Star Halo is out now and it belongs to the reader not to me, and so I’m out of the blue room (for a short while). As I blink in the light, I see that the novel does have another life, and so there is more work to do, but it’s fun work because at last I can turn the volume up.
Diamond Star Halo is not just riddled with music – it’s riddled with new songs. I wrote these songs and I’m no songwriter. My father was. I wrote these songs easily because they belong to my fictional band Tequila – seven golden brothers and a hung-lipped girl called Jenny, all the way from America. Tequila are a mash up of The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Kings of Leon, The Band, maybe The Felice Brothers, and certainly Band of Horses. There are other bands and singers in there too, but these guys and one gal are also Tequila my fictional band.
I didn’t notice this chord change on the page until I was slotting the written songs into the final draft.
I knew how I wanted them to sound, without putting one record on. I would send the lyrics to my father, Fritz, and he’d send back an mpeg with his interpretation of the song. It was fun. He recorded Tequila’s signature tune, Stallion Boys. Ever the demanding daughter, I wrote, ‘I want it to sound Cosmic American Music, like fun Gram, OK, Fritz?’ When it came to a song that mourns a character’s untimely death, Fritz came back with a folk dirge. The chords ran, D/A/D most of the way through. I didn’t notice this chord change on the page until I was slotting the written songs into the final draft. I had Fritz’s songs on mpegs but I couldn’t listen to them anymore. Fritz had died and our family was lost.
slide guitar
Now the book is out there I still can’t listen, but other musicians have come on board. Rob Philips has composed new music for The Boy’s Song, and he’s re-imagined Fritz’s takes. In May I’m reading with an entire band at the Lincoln Book Festival. I’m beyond excited. I heard a rumour that there will be a slide guitar.
I’d like more musicians to have a go. I may not be able to listen to music as I write, but I’m all ears now. So I’m sending the songs out there – Jack, Meg, Brendan, Florence, Joni, Polly, Cerys – have a go!
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