Good morning, readers!
*Apologies again that I was not able to complete this posting last night.* I was on a writing binge last night. I wrote six new pages on my third book in the Monstrum Chronicles series as well as finished up a section I was adding to Aequitas. I really needed to do that, so thank you for your patience.
I have a vast catalog of action music. A lot of it is techno and orchestral. My list includes some of the greats; The Crystal Method, BT, Moby, Fluke, and of course, the Glitch Mob. I discovered The Glitch Mob while watching America’s Got Talent of all things. There was a group of kids who performed some pretty amazing glow-in-the-dark stunts which made them appear weightless, all the while as The Glitch Mob played in the background. The name of their act was Fighting Gravity. Here is a video to their first performance.
I find that the style of Glitch Mob would fit perfectly into a science-fiction story and apocalyptic futuristic fiction as well. There is a very raw quality to their work that makes it sound very strong. It lends a kind of authoritative power as well as just sounding “bad ass”. While I have listened to their work in order to complete certain sections of my horror series, The Monstrum Chronicles, I find that this music also has a rebellious quality to it. An uprising of a group of less fortunate people against a supreme dictator. And immediately it conjures images of The Hunger Games, Star Wars, and Terminator, among others. Today, I’ve selected six songs to talk about:
Beyond Monday: Tension builds at the start of the song but is quickly cut off by lullaby tinkling piano keys. I was immediately reminded of the song “Prologue 12/24” by AFI, who used a similar tactic. Then the song switches again to the harder techno beats. This song is truly one of the pioneers of new techno. The Glitch Mob used an architectural map of an industrial district in order to plan the beats in their song. And while listening to it, one cannot help but picture a dark and industrial looking city, rife with deadend alleys and abandoned factories, in which lie who knows what. The character, knows these streets like the back of his hand and walks them every night, intent on investigating everything in their dark shadows.
Animus Vox:This song is easily my favorite Glitch Mob song. (And no, it’s not because it has the word ‘Vox’ in it, hehe) The repeating notes at the beginning prophecize that something is coming. Whether it is redemption or total annihilation, no one can tell. But one thing is for certain. There will be a war. The music kicks it up to a very amped up beat and is struck by those raw heavy notes that Glitch Mob is all to famous for. I had plans to use this song in the last book of the Monstrum Chronicles despite my eagerness to write something with it sooner. The best part of the song (in my opinion) starts at 2:30. It somehow transforms the machine-like beginning into something more personal.
Between Two Points (Feat. SWAN): This song I listened to while composing the plot of Book 4 in The Monstrum Chronicles. Unlike a lot of the Glitch Mob’s music, this one actually has vocals. It’s also quite moving when one listens to the lyrics. They speak almost perfectly to vampire characters because it speaks of “time slipping through [their] fingers”. I can see where this can be used in time traveling stories as well, or for space-exploration novels. There’s a romantic relationship between two characters who can see one another but for some reason, can’t touch. And they are miles and miles apart despite their visual interaction. And yet, they both feel as if they are close together even though they are far apart. This story could be played a number of different ways and I can see several of them right now. If only I could write them all. *sigh* I will, someday.
Bad Wings: There’s an ethereal and spiritual beginning to the song and then it quickly heats up with fast-paced music. Other than just being excellent travel music, I definitely can see where time is important in this song. The characters are in a hurry to get something accomplished and have to focus all of themselves towards this one thing. There are underlying issues between certain characters being ignored, issues that need to be dealt with but are not because there is no time to. The piano accents this quite nicely. There is also a lot of eye communication going on, things that are being said without any words. And of course, when I said travel music, I totally meant air-travel music. I can see the hovercraft/spaceship/futuristic jet soaring over green plains and then industrial wastelands as they fly on toward their goal. All of it is a reminder of what they are about to do.
How To Be Eaten By A Woman: This song makes an appearance in Aequitas toward the end. I will not be giving you a clear indication of what happens in the scene for doing so would be a spoiler. Instead, I invite you to just listen to the song, the intensity of it, close your eyes, and imagine. *I would also like to point out that the scene I used this for has absolutely nothing to do with the title of this song… dear lord.*
We Can Make The World Stop: At first when I heard this song, I thought it sounded rather optimistic and different from what the Glitch Mob normally does. It almost starts out sounding like a victory song. Something good has happened to tip the balance in the rebellion’s favor. Then, it becomes that familiar hard beat that I’m used to. I can definitely see this being a fight song in addition to a composite of scenes about different characters, all training for a big event. The video for this song is actually rather brilliant and definitely worth a watch.
Next week on Inspiration Through Music, I’ll be looking at a genre rather than a specific artist. Dark Ambient is a HUGE inspiration while writing almost any genre. Well, maybe not books about candy and ponies, but almost everything else. Action, thrillers, suspense, horror, science-fiction… you name it. I’ll be picking a few of my favorite songs from this genre to share with you, among them, Aphex Twins, Akira Yamaoka, and Fever Ray.
Tonight is my big shindig at the Union Vose Library. I’ll be discussing my books, upcoming projects, and how I got started writing! I’ll be reading a section from Vox and from my upcoming novel, Aequitas. Please come! It starts at 7 o’clock. The facebook event is here.
ALSO: My website is currently under-construction. I had someone else updating it for me and last week, we switched everything over into my name. However, the previous design vanished when we did that. So now, I’m busily rebuilding it in hopes of giving it a fresh look and style. The only thing I’m having an issue with is that I’ve somehow managed to use the wrong domain name for my main page! AHHH! I hope to fix this within the coming week.
Thank you!
~KSilva
[EDIT: I fixed the link in “We Can Make the World Stop.” I’m not sure why it was linking back to the America’s Got Talent video but it should be linking to the official music video for the song.]
The Kat At Night 