“The novel was inspired by my own working-class upbringing in Glasgow, and reflects my love of punk rock. This mixtape has been dictated by my characters, all bands/songs included are name-checked in the book, and the fact that there are so many punk tracks is entirely coincidental!”
“I did most of the writing of Mass Mothering in silence, as it’s hard for me to write with music on without getting swept up and unduly influenced by it.”
“Writing the Dollartorium was an exercise in anger which I hoped to temper with satire, absurdity and a sense of hope at the beginning and end. These songs reflect the satire I felt or the values that underlie my own feelings and something of my own reaction to the events of the novel, both the good and the not so good.”
“During the year it took me to compose Mule Boy, I found myself going back to songs of longing, told like stories, and sung as though these might be the last songs a songwriter sings.”
“‘Visions of Johanna’ is the clearest artistic account of how desire distorts perception. Louise is present. Johanna is absent. Yet Johanna dominates. The song is not narrative so much as accumulation: images piling up without resolution, because, once again, obsession doesn’t resolve.”
“Neon Steel is a speculative collection of fiction set in Pittsburgh in the late ’90s and early 2000s. I wanted this playlist to reflect the flavor of the post-industrial city and project a certain energy, futurism, and joy.”
“I have to confess that I am not a music person. Paradoxically, I am very much a mix CD person.”
“Cleaner is told in one paragraph with no chapter breaks: this song is how I wanted and how I imagine the reader’s experience to be. Pure uncut momentum and insanity.”
“When you get to interview two dozen incredible women filmmakers, you get to watch at least 5 times that many incredible movies that offer up music , scoring a few memorable moments.”
“As I compose this piece on a long train journey, it occurs to me that the rhythmic, occasionally juddering, song of the rail below me is in spirit a musical companion to my novel.”