Music In My Office

Since I've been making some lists on this blog, what more appropriate topic could there be for this competition entry than to discuss the music I like to play while writing? Here are my TOP FIVE OFFICE ALBUMS. It was going to be ten but it took too long to write about just these ones and I didn't want to bore you all to death.

The music I listen to depends on what I'm doing, of course. While I'm working (bleah) I'll often choose something high energy like the Kaiser Chiefs, to try and motivate myself into emailling my faculty members the minutes of our latest meeting, searching the government website for VELS documentation (double bleah) or adding staff members to the VCTA website (don't ask). At the moment it's Gogol Bordello because I'm just in a crazy Ukrainian gypsy punk kind of place right now.

But writing music depends on my mood. It depends on the story I'm writing and how the characters are feeling, and of course it depends on how I'm feeling. And if I owned a nice new laptop with a huge hard drive, I'd download the student access version of Office at www.itsnotcheating.com.au. So would you.

1. Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright
This album is largely responsible for the rather high output from my creative brain late last year when writing A Subtle Shade of Red. So you can blame Martha's Bloody Motherf-ing A-hole for the strange antagonism the two main characters seem to feel towards each other, you can blame Martha's This Life for the apathy and the boredom of everyday life they express in their emails. You can blame GPT and When the Day Is Short for their cynicism. Or you can blame Martha for writing a set of songs that matched my mood at the time and filtered their way into my story.

2. Bill Whelan, Riverdance
I have already confessed to being a total dag by reporting upon the number of Enya albums I own, so it should shock none of you to learn that I also listen to this album, the soundtrack to the Riverdance show. It's energetic, fast and it has few lyrics (and the few lyrics are in Gaelic). The rhythm forces your fingers into action, so that you type along with the songs, especially in Reel Around the Sun. Listening to this album at the end of the year also reminds me of Christmas, for some reason. Anyway, I've put it on continued repeat and been extremely productive. Don't blame me for my bad taste.

3. Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York
I was given this album around the time last year when I was writing, so it was more by coincidence than anything that it became a soundtrack for my working. However, it's far less distracting (and loud) than its electric counterparts. The song Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam in particular suited the frame of mind I was in at the time.

4. Youth Group, Casino Twilight Dogs
The songs Let it Go and Catching and Killing were especially influential for the story I was writing last year. Also, Daisychains described an experience I'd had which I'm sure wormed its way into the plot somewhere, obviously or not.

5. The Killers, Sam's Town
I read some less than favourable reviews of this album with which I did not agree at all. I find this album addictive and love most of the songs it contains. It was played frequently when I was writing last year and I'm yet to tire of it. Whenever the mood strikes me, I wheel it out again for another play. I like the lines of For Reasons Unknown which I think also matches the mood of my characters.

So there we have it. Please leave a COMMENT so I can have some small hope of winning this competition. Thank you for indulging me.