{"id":2454,"date":"2011-09-07T01:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T07:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=2454"},"modified":"2011-09-07T22:11:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T04:11:05","slug":"music-of-icefall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=2454","title":{"rendered":"Music of Icefall"},"content":{"rendered":"

In anticipation of the release of my next novel, Icefall<\/em>, I thought I would share some of the music from which I drew inspiration while writing it. Like a lot of authors, I have a few tricks I use to help me enter into the world of the story I’m telling, and music plays a big part in my creative process. I typically have a playlist of songs I listen to while working on a given project, music that evokes the emotions, the mood, the setting, or the feel that I’m going for. The music I draw from may not always seem like the obvious choice (Rage Against the Machine and Tool are on rotation as I’m writing my next book set in Colonial America). But there’s always a reason for my choice that works internally for me.<\/p>\n

Right about the time I began Icefall<\/em>, I heard an interview with the composer Ben Frost. While I use the term “composer” to describe him, because it’s really the closest word, it doesn’t completely capture what he does. His work is hard to define – it crosses boundaries, or blurs them, or makes them seem irrelevant. There is an electronic component to it, an industrial component, a lot of traditional instruments sometimes used in nontraditional ways, and a few other sounds you might not find musical at all until you hear what he does with them. Like the sound of wolves growling and howling. Or the sharp intake of breath when your body hits icy water. It is relentless<\/em> music and sound, visceral almost to the point where your ears want to turn away, and that is exactly<\/em> what I needed for this book.<\/p>\n

At any rate, when I heard Ben Frost interviewed on NPR’s Studio 360<\/span><\/a>, I knew just from the few bits they played that this was what I was looking for to help me bring Solveig’s icy and forbidding Nordic world to life. I’ve embedded the interview here, and if you have any interest in music or the creation of art, it would be worth a listen.<\/p>\n

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