My Music
I grew up listening to John Peel on Radio One. Before his untimely death in 2004, John had a two hour slot each week- night from 10pm until midnight. From age twelve, I listened to John every single night on an old portable car radio when I should have been asleep (my parents still don’t know this, but since they don’t have wi- fi, I’m safe for now). Later, I saved up for a halfway decent hi- fi system, and continued to listen every night through headphones.
I was driving when I heard John had died. I had to pull over and sit for a while. It felt like losing a kindly (if slightly eccentric) uncle. His gift to so many of my generation was musical diversity and an open mind. As a result of all those years hiding down the bedcovers trying to cut through the clunky old AM reception, I listen to pretty much everything. Classical to Dark Techno. Folk to Death Metal. If I have a listening trend, or taste, it’s towards the unusual or experimental. Artists that push the envelope in terms of composition and what can be done with their musical instruments.
I learned to play guitar by listening to Jimi Hendrix records. I figured out all the weird feedback sounds and divebomb shrieking first, and then eventually conceded that I would have to learn a few chords too. I still have a soft spot for Jimi. These days I dabble in electronic music. You can hear some of my 'opuses' here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU2vzGTO3N6EyuTpY_tW7Ow
It's all me, despite the different artist names. I had a lot of fun under my People Of the Mounds guise, creating my own soundtrack to some of the Green Man's more cinematic scenes.
With the advent of samplers and dj’ing techniques being incorporated into song structures, came The Orb. The Orb has been (since the late 1980’s) Alex Patterson and an ever-shifting collective of mates, musicians, sound engineers, etc. I love their music. The inventiveness of it, the quirky humour which pervades it, the bumping together of genres.
Dead Can Dance is another favourite. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry are musicians and vocalists without equal, in my humble opinion. Their albums have touched on themes from fourteenth- century Baroque, to English folk songs to gothic orchestral magnificence. All of their work is built around Lisa and Brendan’s unparalleled singing voices.
One of my current favourite artists is Jon Hopkins. Jon, I believe, is a musical genius. Classically trained, although he plays it down, Jon has the (perhaps unique) ability to drop you into a floating ethereal sound environment and then move you seamlessly into what sounds like electronic Armageddon, often in the space of one song. There are many musicians in the electronica genre, but few bring the breath-taking beauty, or ground- pounding aural assault that Jon can muster. His soundtrack to the film Monsters was my introduction to his music. I played it on a loop while writing The Green Man, so it probably contributed to the tone of the book in some small way. If the book gets turned into a film, I want it written into the contract that Jon Hopkins does the soundtrack. I’ll pay him out of my own pocket if I have too.
We live in a golden age for music. Advents in technology have given musicians the ability to create literally any sound they can conceive of. And for the same reasons, we can now access it in minutes from the comfort of our armchairs in higher than CD quality. All that said, I still yearn for the days when John Peel would play a record for a good minute or more (this was in ye olde days of vinyl, remember), before switching it off and saying casually “That might be at the wrong speed, let’s try it again on 33rpm”.
I grew up listening to John Peel on Radio One. Before his untimely death in 2004, John had a two hour slot each week- night from 10pm until midnight. From age twelve, I listened to John every single night on an old portable car radio when I should have been asleep (my parents still don’t know this, but since they don’t have wi- fi, I’m safe for now). Later, I saved up for a halfway decent hi- fi system, and continued to listen every night through headphones.
I was driving when I heard John had died. I had to pull over and sit for a while. It felt like losing a kindly (if slightly eccentric) uncle. His gift to so many of my generation was musical diversity and an open mind. As a result of all those years hiding down the bedcovers trying to cut through the clunky old AM reception, I listen to pretty much everything. Classical to Dark Techno. Folk to Death Metal. If I have a listening trend, or taste, it’s towards the unusual or experimental. Artists that push the envelope in terms of composition and what can be done with their musical instruments.
I learned to play guitar by listening to Jimi Hendrix records. I figured out all the weird feedback sounds and divebomb shrieking first, and then eventually conceded that I would have to learn a few chords too. I still have a soft spot for Jimi. These days I dabble in electronic music. You can hear some of my 'opuses' here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU2vzGTO3N6EyuTpY_tW7Ow
It's all me, despite the different artist names. I had a lot of fun under my People Of the Mounds guise, creating my own soundtrack to some of the Green Man's more cinematic scenes.
With the advent of samplers and dj’ing techniques being incorporated into song structures, came The Orb. The Orb has been (since the late 1980’s) Alex Patterson and an ever-shifting collective of mates, musicians, sound engineers, etc. I love their music. The inventiveness of it, the quirky humour which pervades it, the bumping together of genres.
Dead Can Dance is another favourite. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry are musicians and vocalists without equal, in my humble opinion. Their albums have touched on themes from fourteenth- century Baroque, to English folk songs to gothic orchestral magnificence. All of their work is built around Lisa and Brendan’s unparalleled singing voices.
One of my current favourite artists is Jon Hopkins. Jon, I believe, is a musical genius. Classically trained, although he plays it down, Jon has the (perhaps unique) ability to drop you into a floating ethereal sound environment and then move you seamlessly into what sounds like electronic Armageddon, often in the space of one song. There are many musicians in the electronica genre, but few bring the breath-taking beauty, or ground- pounding aural assault that Jon can muster. His soundtrack to the film Monsters was my introduction to his music. I played it on a loop while writing The Green Man, so it probably contributed to the tone of the book in some small way. If the book gets turned into a film, I want it written into the contract that Jon Hopkins does the soundtrack. I’ll pay him out of my own pocket if I have too.
We live in a golden age for music. Advents in technology have given musicians the ability to create literally any sound they can conceive of. And for the same reasons, we can now access it in minutes from the comfort of our armchairs in higher than CD quality. All that said, I still yearn for the days when John Peel would play a record for a good minute or more (this was in ye olde days of vinyl, remember), before switching it off and saying casually “That might be at the wrong speed, let’s try it again on 33rpm”.