The playlist
Getting the music for the character
There are writers who listen to music while they’re writing. And there are those who can’t have any distractions.
I can’t do the music.
But I also can’t do without the music. It is an essential part of my crime fiction and I couldn’t imagine writing these books without a playlist.
This all started because, at about the same time as I launched into writing krimis, my artist friend, Jo Ractliffe, began putting together what she called Killer Country collections of country rock music. Those songs became the soundtracks to my early crime fiction, and even gave a title to book two in the Mace Bishop series, namely, Killer Country.
When it came to writing the Fish and Vicki series I had to go scouting for different music. Somehow, probably through YouTube trial and error, I got to The National. Once again, this search for a musical backing to the story came at about the same time as I was getting to grips with the character of Fish Pescado. The voice of the lead singer, Matt Berninger, was a great help. As was The National’s album, “Trouble Will Find Me”, as trouble always found Fish.
By now I had realised that in some way the music “coloured” the character. By that I mean gave emotional substance to the character. Which is not to say that from the get-go I didn’t have a good idea of Zara Dewane’s character, I did, but the music and the lyrics that now turned up reinforced my ideas.
Which is to confess, once again, that I have not the faintest idea how I got to 4 Non Blondes for Zara Dewane.
What I do know is that many pages into my notebook for the Shadow manuscript and probably three months into the first draft, there’s a cryptic note at the top of the page with the name 4 Non Blondes circled. And next to it I’ve noted three songs: “What’s Up”, “Dear Mr President”, and “Spaceman”. The group had its heyday in the early 1990s and I don’t ever remember listening to them then.
Also it’s not as if I trawl for songs on the internet daily - or weekly, or occasionally (except when starting a novel). The only thing I can imagine is that in searching for songs by The National for Hammerman, the last of the Fish and Vicki series, YouTube might have brought up 4 Non Blondes and out of curiosity I listened to them - and was hooked.
Without a doubt, Linda Perry, the group’s lead singer, gave me Zara’s attitude in those three songs. There was something so bolshie, so “out there” about Perry’s voice that I just had to carry that emotion over into Zara Dewane. Particularly Perry’s strident “What’s Up”.
If 4 Non Blondes was behind Falls the Shadow, it was a solo Linda Perry who went on to influence Zara in the next book, Firing Line (due out in February 2027). For me, Perry came into her own on the album “In Flight”. Closer to the publication of that novel, I’ll write more about the songs that contributed to Zara Dewane as she went hunting for the baddies in true jackal fashion.
Get the vibe here: What’s Up ; Spaceman ; Mr President
don’t really do music to characters. I do music to scenes. I like playing classical music, particularly waltzes when I write violent scenes. Why? Because, like music, violence feels orchestrated, performative, especially when it is premeditated. Verdi’s Hebrew Slave Chorus is a favourite. It’s beautifully paced. Just thinking about it I can see an axe chopping, a high speed car chase, an assassination unfolding at a tech-bro dinner.
Otherwise, it’s ambient music like Brian Eno to help me focus.
So interesting to hear how music influences your character development. For me, my characters' (fictional) taste in music tells me so much about them. One might be a Swiftie while the other is a jazz aficionado. Neither good or bad, but says a lot about a person, I always think.