Island Tunes

Ok, y'all, I've been on vacation for a solid week. Out of cell and wi-fi range (it was spotty at best) in the islands. Specifically, the Abacos.

And it was awesome.

Here's a visual:

Yup, it was as gorgeous as it looks.:) It was our first family getaway in years (since the birth of boy #4), and it was all we could have asked for--and then some.

As we chilled out on the boat or on the dock, we played tunes. Our main choice? Jack Johnson. We've seen him in concert, and he's AMAZING live. And we listen to him all the time around our house.  His music was a perfect island fit.

Which got me thinking...what are the tunes that perfectly capture that summer vibe?

Classic summer island tunes call for Jimmy Buffett--like Cheeseburger in Paradise, Margaritaville, or Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.

More recent tracks (by an artist with country roots but channeling Buffet's laid-back vibe) are Summertime and No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem by Kenny Chesney. (Kenny rocks in concert too, btw. I've seen him take a huge venue and turn the whole scene into an island party.)

Other picks? Summer Vibe by Walk Off The Earth, Waves by Blondfire, and La Mar (The Ocean) by The Beautiful Girls. All strong contenders for a sweet summer song.

I could go on, but I'll stop and turn it over to you.What tunes would you add to a summer tunes playlist? What song--or artist--best captures the feel of summer for you?

(For more tunes, check out my Island tunes playlist)

Super Obsessive Playlists and Welcome to the Medicine Tribe

If you don’t recognize me at all, it’s because I’m new to All the Write Notes. (When this post is over, you can thank--or blame--Jay Spencer for my arrival) I’m so totally not new to music and writing, though. In fact, they’re just a few of my favourite obsessions (you might recognize part of that last line—just a friendly nod to Frank N. Furter). I was going to do a playlist as my first post. Then I realized it wouldn’t quite work out. Then I thought, maybe I could do an interview. But that will have to wait for another day.

You see, I’m—in a word—swamped. Funny I should mention that word. One of my musical obsessions just happens to be Swamp by Talking Heads.

But I digress. I’m not here to talk about the Talking Heads.

By now, you might be asking yourself, “Why can’t he do a playlist?” Well, It’s because the playlists I create for novel writing mostly consist of ONE SONG. Yep, that’s right. I’m so obsessive that I will listen to just the one song—over and over again ad infinitum—for an entire novel. Don’t try to do the math, it will boggle your mind. 50,000 words x 3 minute song divided by 15 chapters…let’s see, carry the 4 and multiply by the number of years…yeah. Fugetaboutit.

There is a catch, though. I don’t spread my novel writing over years. I write my novels in 48 & 72 hour marathons. So, although it sounds like madness to listen to the same song on repeat for the entire duration of a novel…it really only amounts to 72 hours at the most. That’s only, like, 1,400 plays. That is NOT obsessive. I do a little thing called the Muskoka Novel Marathon every July. It raises needed funds for the local literacy network, but it’s also an amazing retreat wherein thirty writers barricade themselves into a room for 72 hours and attempt to write complete novels.

I’m an addictive personality. If you know me, you know this. So…for my first marathon, I listened to Anthem by Leonard Cohen for 48 hours straight. What came out of the marathon was a finished novel called Sebastian’s Poet. Now I could create a playlist link here for that marathon, but I don’t see the point. Nothing is sadder than a one-song playlist. If you were to scan the pages of Sebastian’s Poet, you would probably notice that the boy’s ‘poet’ is a reincarnation of Leonard himself. I mean, it’s ridiculous. Anthem is just such an incredibly awesome song, though. It drove me to write that novel non-stop for 48 electrifying-ly amazing hours.

After that marathon was over, I contacted Leonard Cohen’s people. I wish I could say I had my people contact his people, but I’d be lying. I received permission to use, ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’ (Anthem lyrics) as the epigraph to the novel. To go one step further, I then got it tattooed on my arm. Yeah, I’m not obsessive.

That novel also has a real-life celebrity in it. Gordon Lightfoot shows up in the last chapter. One of the last orders of business that Lightfoot’s agent, Barry Harvey, did before his death was provide me with permission to use Gordon as a character in the novel.

I should let you know right now that my tangents are so wide and chaotic, they require a bus route. So, you’re either on the bus or off the bus (my nod to the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). This post is actually about my favourite NEW obsession. Let me introduce you to Medicine for the People (and the song I will have on repeat during this July’s Muskoka Novel Marathon!)

 (click on the album covers to go to MftP's website)

I stumbled upon Medicine about a year ago, and from that point on the obsession has slowly taken over my life. After I obsessed over their first album ON THE VERGE for several months, they were kind enough to recently release their second album DARK AS NIGHT. This band, and their peaceful reformative vision, really pumps my blood. They are FolkMusic2.O Or, rather, 11 on the volume knob of my obsession scale. Before I totally lose you, I’m going to leave you with something from their new album. ALOHA KE AKUA will inspire you to sit. To write. To marathon that next novel. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself suddenly writing Hawaii in as the novel’s setting.

Here’s a challenge for you. As a writer, can you pick just one song? Choose the definitive one-song soundtrack for your work in progress. And spin that puppy ad infinitum until you keystroke THE END on your novel. It’s transformative. Really.

You can follow NAHKO, the lead singer of Medicine for the People, on Twitter: @NahkoBear

 Nahko Bear & Medicine for the People

When you become a fan of MftP (and you will) you will call yourself #MedicineTribe on Twitter. And it will be good.

Are You Trying to be the Singer, Songwriter and Producer?

When I was little, I had this idea that singers always wrote their own songs. I thought it was incredible that one person could write, sing, arrange and produce a song or a whole album. 

Of course, I grew up and learned that was not how it worked.

It takes a whole team of people, normally, to write hit songs–or any song, for that matter. You have the artist, the songwriters, the musicians, the producers, etc.

When people collaborate, great creative product is produced.

As an introvert, I say that cautiously. I like owning my own work. I like sitting in front of my laptop, writing my own story for hours and hours without interruption. But there always comes a moment, when I've created a problem in my story that I can't solve on my own.

For example, I've been working on a story that is set in more of an ancient Rome setting. I came to a point in my story, where I wanted to collapse a structure. But I wanted it to be the only building that collapsed and I didn't want any kind of natural disaster to have anything to do with it. If my story was set in a modern era, I'd have just had a character blow it up–but that wasn't going to work for this story. 

I happened to be explaining this dilemma to a friend, who isn't a writer but has always been patient with me when I start talking about my projects, and he said, "What if there was an unstable catacomb under this building and it collapsed, causing the building to collapse?"

I had been thinking about this scene for DAYS and here he was, he'd listened to my problem for all of five minutes, and he had a solution!

Needless to say, I have a catacomb in my story now.

Talk to people about your work. Let them read it too. I've always been painfully shy about letting friends read my work–not because I think they'll tell me it's great when it isn't. They won't. But because they'll think it's so ridiculous, they'll never be able to look at me the same again. 

But that's foolish too. 

An author does not have to write, sing, arrange and produce their book all on their own. It's a team effort, but only if you let it be.