“OK, I can’t I say I recommend this as traditional playlist in the style of old mix tapes where you listen to ‘em all the way through— unless you’re down with some serious genre hopping!”
“I had far more training as a violinist than as a writer, and the curious forms of my fiction and the rhythm of my sentences are best understood as coming from a musicality expressed through words.”
“The stories are filled with nostalgia for a simpler time, so this playlist reflects a ‘90s and Aughts sensibility.”
“Writing fiction has been surprisingly transformative to my relationship with music, though, because I use playlists to work through questions of character and theme, and to provide a mental shortcut to the world I’m writing about.”
“So, if you’re heart-broken, filled with rage over your disappointing ex and his bad behavior, here’s a playlist to see you through.”
“Music is such a time capsule for me, and this playlist reminds me of the person I was in 2001, as well as the people I wrote about in my forthcoming book.”
“Everyone arrives to the writer workbench differently. For me, I need to feel excited about the work in ways that exist outside of writing. I need to dream, and I need music to better visualize the choreography and energy of that dream. Writing is a lonely practice. When no one is around to pump you up in the process, music will always be there. When no one else understands, music finds a way.”
“Dream Facades is about the architecture of reality TV. It explores the feeling of unreality that comes from living in emotionally hollowed-out homes and the resulting yearning to feel real that drives us to look for reality on our TV screens by studying a handful of seminal shows.”
“While those years can sometimes feel like a blur, when I stop and slow down, these are the songs I can still sometimes hear.”
“…Swan Lake, the full discography of Beach House, and the In the Mood for Love soundtrack have long been go-tos for me while writing, as music just generally swollen with drama and emotion.”