The Downward Spiral Forum When I Write I Listen To...

For poetry, it's silence but when I'm working on my book I usual like some old school Metallica or other metal from that genre when I'm writing some more violent scenes and I listen to some more poppier style of music for the mellower and romantic scenes. Just curious what you are listening to when you create your magic.

so cool, sometimes there is silence for me too. I listen to a Perfect Cirlce a lot. He reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe. I wrote one story based on his song, "Magdalena" I called my piece in regards to his Magdalena and used a lot of his words in the piece. I also listen to Cranberrie, Live, Him, Incubus, Killers, System of a Down, and so much more. But they are my favorite.

::tongue::

Maynard James Keenan (vocalist for A Perfect Circle and tool) is not only one of the best vocalists in the world but his lyrics are like magic painting very vivid pictures. He also has a guest appearance for the song Passenger on the Deftones album, White Pony. An amazing piece.

Anyone else? Watcha all listenin' to when you create?

Godsmack for my battle scenes, or really hot hot spicy f*****g scenes. Then slower lazy s**t for reg talk and/or when I'm stoned, hah!!

Usually I listen to Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails, My Chemical Romance, & Suicidal Romance

Seems apparentally people who write dark also listen to good music. Is there a connection? Who knows?

Ozzie, and alot of ACDC, gotta throw in some mettalica, pink floyd, I guess I just listen to a varitey for my horror or rage. For love scenes okay I know your'r gonna laugh but I listen to Rod Stewart.

Rod Stewart, eh? Oh ya, I'm laughing. j/k bro, you can listen to crap all you want, lol, j/k again.

To all: I find it very interesting how the music you listen to changes. Next time you sit down and write, change the music and listen to something you wouldn't normally listen to. The results could be interesting.

For the last two months, I have been completely obsessed with Blue October, Senses Fail, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Dragonforce (Herman Li and Sam Totman are my heroes).

I also listen to all genres of music as well, but those are the most frequently hit up on my playlist. I tried your experiment and the only thing that changed with music selection is the speed in which I type. That, of course is just me as I use music as background noise to help me focus. Outside of my latest "epic" 'Penelope', music has very little to no baring on my writing whatsoever.

Interesting to hear, Noah, as much as I feel the same. I didn't exactly feel a change when I change my music cuz it's exactly that, background. Majority of the time I like writing in silence, I find anything that reminds me of this world is a distraction. I just thought it might be a neat experiment for those are more influenced by their writing when they write.

See, I have a an issue. It's like when I'm listening to music and writing the content sneaks into my writing, almost subliminally, so to maintain my originality, I stick with the silence or the murmur of a tv in the background or something.

lets see half the time i dont listen to anything when i write.. i just like it quiet.. umm but if i do.. most of my stuff i listen to The used, Metalica, Tool, Counting the stars, boys night out.. stuff like that.. now if i want to write a love poem which i dont do that much i listen to some secondhand serinade, jack johnson or some country or something.. but other then that i listen to everything but rap...

I have to listen to something I can zone out to, which means I can't listen to my normal metal and hardcore. There's a band called Isis who used to be very sludgy metal, but recently they've started writing epic length songs with very little vocals that helps me totally trance out. The new Breaking Benjamin does it too, I listened to that last night as I finished my latest horror piece. There's a band called Grey Skies Fallen which is a mix between Opeth and My Dying Bride that helps me do it as well, Tool, some Deftones. Basicly anything that's still on the heavy side, but still has a smooth sound that I can just drift off into.

My tastes in music are mostly within the metal and hardcore genres: death metal, technical death metal, brutal death metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, power metal, black metal, sludge metal, doom metal, folk/viking metal, grindcore, metalcore, deathcore, mathcore, etc. I like almost all of the sub-genres of metal and hardcore and I try to stay open-minded, for my tastes consist of classical, jazz, and whatever else I find has meaning/talent behind it, or simply sounds good to me. What I listen to when I write varies based on what I am writing and the emotions I'm trying to express. Most of my music is angry music, because I am an angry person, so I write quite a few angry things and that's what I listen to when I do so. And when I'm writing something serene or passionate I will listen to Enya or my Lord of the Rings soundtracks or something. Like I said, it depends. =]

-Phoenix

Quote:



Opeth is f****n' amazing. :)

Quote:


Old school Metallica is the real Metallica, I pretty much stop at the Black Album.


-Phoenix

I agree, Black is really where you have to stop defining Metallica. Everything before it was genius, and everythng after....well...lets just stop. As far as what I listen to... I once wrote a play and included a soudtrack for production because the entire dramatic action came out of what ever music developed from a 700+something song playlist I had in my hard drive at the time. It contained everything from classical to jazz to pop to punk. I once wrote an entire journal entry while listening to Sarah Machlachlan's Surfacing album. That was an amazing night. When I work on my auto-biography I am constantly searching through catalogs of music to find something that puts me in the right mood and frame of mind. Lately I have been spending time on Projectplaylist.com formulating playlists that I can use to work with.

I can listen to anything while I write, but I write the best nasty when I'm listening to Pink Floyd, the best "acid dipped fairy" when I'm listening to Queen, and the best politics when I listen to absolutely black pieces of classical music.  "Freedom!" was written right after I go a copy of John Rutter's Requiem, which I got to sing back in the day (when I was actually attending school).