Music for Writing

I write better to music. It helps my concentration, keeps me focused. I listen to music whenever I can during the day. During my commute. At home after work. Hanging around the house on the weekend. I have a job that allows me to use my iPod much of the time, filtering out the noise of cube-city and the nearby printing station. Silence is fraught with random pops, bangs, and clicks. It drives me up the wall if I'm trying to concentrate. That's why I go on the counter attack to create my own noise.

Classical music and jazz don't always work for me, unless the pieces are low-key and consistent. Erratic melody interrupts concentration. Instrumentals work best, or music with the lyrics well buried. Buried under what? A wall of consistent, impenetrable sound. I cannot write, or read for that matter, to any music where the vocal tracks are front and center. This includes most pop and rock songs, all rap, r + b, ballads, and standards.

I've put together a series of mix CDs (which, when I went digital, became playlists) that I listen to when writing. They are top heavy with music by bands and artists like Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie, Thievery Corporation, Ulrich Schnauss, Brian Eno, Bethany Curve, Air, Lush, Readymade, Slowdive, Engineers, Ride, Chapterhouse. These bands perform music that contain melodies wrapped in guitars and reverb, or mellow beats and airy, atmospheric vocals that sit way back and watch the show, or walls of guitar distortion and effects that allow me to sink into my writing. Most of my output is due to these and other similar-sounding bands.

Here's a sampling:

Here the Cocteau Twins throw down probably their biggest 'hit' (I remember seeing it featured on MTVs 120 Minutes), Carolyn's Fingers, which mixes their dreamy blend of pop sensibility, shimmering guitar, reverb, and Elizabeth Frazier's otherworldly voice singing nonsensical lyrics. This falls right into the category of instrumental music, since I don't know what she's singing about except for an occasional phrase in English.



Robin Guthrie was the guitarist for Cocteau Twins, and he went on to release mostly instrumental music much in the vein of the Cocteau Twins' later output. It's like hearing the Cocteau Twins, minus the instrument that is Elizabeth Frazier's voice:



Thievery Corporation are a bit different, since they use multi-vocalists and meld many different styles, such as salsa, Latin, African, among many others. Not all their stuff is writer friendly, but they are consistent within songs. I know what to expect when a song comes on and can always skip it if it features some inappropriate vocals. Here's a good example of their beat-heavy, but still mellow (chill, if you will) stuff that features delicate female vocals and a dreamy soundscape:



Ulrich Schnauss mixes the best of all worlds; his stuff is mostly instrumental electronica, with harmonies, and perhaps a guitar or two (who can tell?), and the songs that feature vocals have them buried in waves of multi-tracked soundscapes. His music achieves a thoroughly integrated, fugue-like sound. It's especially good to listen to at work; when I have some really dry material to read or write about, I just click on old Ulrich and I'm lost for hours in concentration.



Brian Eno is the father of modern instrumental ambient music (or at least the older brother) and so I find that I can listen to most of his output interchangeably, whether it's his early stuff from the 70s, through to his gorgeous work on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks in the 80s, or his poppier 90s efforts.

Here's a selection from Atmospheres and Soundtracks:



I discovered Bethany Curve on a website devoted to shoegazer bands. Popularized in the late 80s and early 90s by bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ride, and My Bloody Valentine, shoegazer literally refers to some moptop dude or dudette staring at his/her shoes while playing guitar. The music is marked by a wall of guitar distortion and reverb, propulsive drums (sometimes), buried vocals (my favorite kind), and often extended song lengths. Bethany Curve is part of a second or maybe third wave of bands to follow the lead, or continue the cause, since most of the original shoegazer bands are MIA. When I'm feeling less mellow but no less writerish, I'll put on a little shoegazer for the soul.



Slowdive was part of the first wave of dreamy shoegazers, heavy on the echo and thick guitars. Dense but pretty, they never quite got the respect paid to My Bloody Valentine. Or maybe I just made that up. Singer and guitarist Neil Halstead went on to form Mojave 3 and later record solo.



My Bloody Valentine started the whole shoegazery thing. Not always perfect for writing, but occasionally, when I need to go deep, I'll throw on Loveless and the writing time just floats on by and 50 minutes later I'll surface and notice the sunlight and take a breather. Loveless has been influential enough to be beget a book in the 33 1/3 series.

Here's a clip from their recent successful reunion tour:



Do you listen to music when you write? What kind? Or do you need complete silence?

An Evening with Thievery Corporation

Thievery Corporation came to Boston on Tuesday night, the third show for the bigger, newer, Boston House of Blues. Taking over the former Avalon space, House of Blues now offers a venue for midsize audiences. Upon walking into the music hall, it was evident that the place fills the same footprint as Avalon, with the stage at one end in front of a large general admission viewing area, with a bar on the left.

The place was pretty full by the time Liz and I made it through security (yes, those are keys in my pocket, and no I'm not happy to see you). I bought a $6.50 beer and Liz a $8.00 mixed drink. Note to self: next time, beer up before you leave the house. We walked around and it was kind of overwhelming. Bodies everywhere. We're used to the relatively intimate confines of TT the Bear’s, The Middle East, or even The Paradise. We walked up to the second floor balcony and staked claim at the very back, with a good stage sight line. Around 9:30 Thievery Corporation filtered onto the stage.

I say filter because they travel heavy: eight band members and a revolving troop of six or seven singers, rappers, and this guy who did a lot of shouty sing-talking. Formed by D.C. buds Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, Thievery uses multi-cultural musicians and singers to mix up an exotic goulash of globe-hopping sounds that conjure a set by a peripatetic DJ. All melded together with a jazzy, Brazilian, and dub electronic beat, combined with exotic instruments like the sitar.


On tour, Rob and Eric stand center stage, up behind turntables and (I'm sure, although I couldn't see it) requisite computer dials and knobs and monitors. Flanked on their right by trumpet and sax players and a bongo player. To their left a percussionist and guitarist/sitarist. And the hard-to-miss whirling dervish bass player, roaming the stage like a rubber band with long hair.

I never expected to see Thievery Corporation live. On vinyl they come across as a very well mannered (and very political) lounge act, leaders in world Buddha-bar, ultra-chill music. Stuff your mother wouldn't mind (or Liz's mother; she's a fan). So live I knew they ran the risk of coming across kind of meh. To help combat this possibility come the aforementioned traveling roadshow of vocal talent. Each song followed basically the same rhythmic template, but with different singers. This made the night more interesting, if kind of like a variety show. The horn section added a vital, organic sound. The bongos and percussionist were mostly lost in the mix, the guitar and sitar showing tame flourishes. The sound was extremely bass heavy, especially during the first few songs. Heavy bass is appropriate for a rhythm-heavy sound. And that's what Thievery Corporation boils down to: a smooth dance band. This is not a bad thing for Thievery lovers. You know a Thievery song when you hear it. You also know a song by another artist that's been Thieveryized (remixed, rerecorded, reconditioned). Thievery do their one song very well.


One singer introduced The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as a song the band co-write with David Byrne, who sang it on The Cosmic Game album. The guest singer started in on the song. He was fine, putting his own gruff spin on the vocals. But at one point he ran behind the band's riser and came around the other side. A move David Byrne used when Talking Heads toured in 1983. The tour that was used for their Stop Making Sense album and film. And this was not the first moment I thought of Talking Heads while watching Thievery.

Talking Heads also used world beats and musicians. The singer's nod to Talking Heads was apt, but it also pointed out what was missing from the night's performance: spontaneity. Thievery was missing one crucial element that would have made the band sound more, well, like a band: a live drummer. Not every band needs one (Depeche Mode) and some are better off without one (Big Black). But the entire Thievery show was performed to the aural backdrop of a pre-recorded drum sequence. This necessitated a coordination of the rest of the band to hit their respective marks, with no room for error. Or spontaneity.

The music went off without a hitch as far as I could tell, so things have certainly come a long way from Depeche Mode's 1986 Wang Theater performance when a malfunctioning floppy disk miscued a few songs and made the band's live limitations obvious. Seeing Talking Heads live in 1983 was like getting hit on the head with a new way of performing live, with an extended family of musicians whose love for the music and, for the most part, each other shined through, all anchored by Chris Frantz's drumming. This isn't really a complaint for Thievery necessarily, just a gentle suggestion to bands that augment their sound with turntablism, to try an organic live drummer and gauge the difference.

It was getting late and they hadn't played Liz's favorite song, The Richest Man in Babylon. Also, I had expected them to play Lebanese Blonde, the track that had made it onto the Garden State soundtrack, but maybe they were saving it until the end. We decided to skip out early. We walked back downstairs where it was twice as loud. We really enjoyed the show. And it was fun to see the new House of Blues. Recession or no, Boston seems ready to embrace the another place to see a show. Thanks Thievery. See you next tour.

Here's a live clip (not from last night's show):