Rick Rawes

Music has always been a big part of my life. Big shock – and so unusual, right? Okay, so I say some obvious stuff sometimes. This time I want to take a bit of time to chat about how music has shaped the words that come onto the page. How it moves me, evokes emotions that tie into my creative process – and maybe to let you glimpse a little bit more of my writing process. This is how it works for me, maybe that’s how it works for you.

The Early Days

Growing up we weren’t a particularly musical household. I mean, I had a play on a piano and keyboard for a while, but with only a songbook of James Bond themes from Dr No to A View to a Kill, my range became rather limited rather quickly and I haven’t tickled the ivories since. Somebody did it better (sorry, had to). However, music was still important. And I think like many of us, the music of our parents is our first introduction to the world of sound. Long before our friends are going on about the latest band – or even before the music channels on TV started intruding into our everyday lives – we grow up hearing what they play.

I remember a country and western album. A compilation of the greatest love songs of all time. I remember a seventeen-disc Rolling Stones greatest hits CD that went straight in my dad’s boot (because that’s where the automatic disc changer used to be). I remember listening to cassette tapes on my Walkman that ranged from Meat Loaf to Chris de Burgh. I remember being bought a P!nk CD (Missunderstood, I think) and finding that transformative. There was a Whitney Houston Greatest Hits double CD at some point (if you’ve never beaten the Elite Four on the Gameboy with a Mewtwo while blasting One Moment in Time into your headphones…well, you probably got out more). Somewhere floated Tracy Chapman.

I think it’s safe to say there was no one musical identity I came across growing up. Not even when the music tellie started to catch my attention, did I find there any difference between the screaming of Chester Bennington, or the latest aggressively marketed Shania Twain banger (how she managed to be on every television simultaneously in the early noughties was nothing short of impressive…). What always drew me every time was not ‘oooh this is by that person I like’ or ‘of course, I only listen to pan pipe Swedish death metal’, but rather a kind of mental storm that it evoked. Sometimes it was visual, ideas and visions popping into my head like mad. Sometimes it emotions – my heart would thump and the goosebumps spread. And the best of songs? It was often both. From there sprang ideas, from there connections formed and the emotional journey of a story solidified.

The Rise of Spotify & Avalon: Faerie Tales

Music has remained a key component for me creatively for a long time (and again, I know I’m not alone in that). But with my discovery of Spotify particularly (other music services are available…) I began to have a way to add them to a playlist as I went. It was a way to capture key scenes as well as a vibe of a story as it was going.

Avalon: Faerie Tales was going to be that bit campier than it’s predecessor. Some scenes were already there – the hypnotic pop synth of “ET: Extraterrestrial” by Katy Perry was the genesis of the opening scene, the introduction to the world of faeries. “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele had a thumping beat with just the right hint of desperation, perfect for an underworld-meet-seaside battle between good and evil with swords and fur coats. The soft (and yet always desperately beautiful) voice of Whitney’s “How Will I Know”, was perfect for a celebration of love in the face of desperate sacrifice. The rest were songs similar in vein and tone. Ethereal, longing, otherworldly and just more than a little bit camp.

I kind of half-heartedly shared the playlist, which also contained a few throwbacks to what I was listening to during the writing of the first Avalon but didn’t do much else with it.

Fire & Water: A Book Soundtrack

Now my next novel, Fire & Water, started off quite a bit differently. There were still songs which sung to me at key moments. The tragic need of Cam’s “Till There’s Nothing Left” spoke of love in the face of apocalyptic odds, Placebo’s “Running Up That Hill” of a moment where we cross our own lines and boundaries – and not for the better, even Skunk Anansie’s “Weak” as the doomed catharsis of the final brutal confrontation. What was different was an order started to come through.

The Fire & Water playlist is probably the first ‘book soundtrack’ I’d ever done. The emotions of the tracks that I had in the background while writing dovetailed perfectly with the emotional transitions of the characters throughout the story. As I stand back, I see the book in macro-scale, told through these individual sounds. Starting light, foreboding, and gradually escalating in tempo and tone. Rock beats of Through Fire and Linkin Park build until the literal breaking point. In the second half, increasing fracture, harsher lyrics, the hopelessness of Stone Sour and Seether. The last stand, sorrowful and grand – with Snow Patrol’s “Run” and Biffy Clyro’s “Instant History”.

And finally, the one which hit me the most and lingered with me throughout the entire writing process. Johnny Cash’s rendition of “Hurt”. One of the most powerful and moving interpretations of a song I’ve ever heard, that never fails to raise the goosebumps and bring a tear. As our broken characters are thrown towards an uncertain future, it perfectly encapsulated the emotion I felt. The emotions they felt. The ones I hope come through for the reader.

The Future….Ooooooh….

So, what’s next? Well, the playlists are there, and I think if you’re so inclined to, go and take a look and a listen. They’re not strictly meant to be listened to while reading, but they can give you a bit more of an insight into this crazy brain of mine and into the worlds you’re reading about. I think from now on I’ll keep adding them to my various book pages so you can decide yourself.

And upcoming? Well, the soundtracks of my WIPs at the moment are…somewhat unique. Bastet is building itself around strong, chaotic music by some of the best female artists out and around. Florence + the Machine is the heart and soul with both “Drumming Song” and “Raise It Up (Rabbit Heart)” alongside company like Sia, Self Esteem, Robyn and Amy Winehouse. I’m definitely liking the sounds, the messages, the beats. Completely un-1923-like but anachronistic is not just a word, it’s a lifestyle choice for Bastet.

Meanwhile, Fire & Water’s follow up Sinners & Saints is turning out to take the darkness and run with it. Themes of brokenness, redemption, and the uneven path to healing lay alongside the darkness of mass oppression, questions of faith and belief, and walking the hardest roads with no hope. Moving from “Ain’t No Grave” by Johnny Cash and concluding with “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down, navigating the works of IAMX, Bear’s Den and 3 Doors Down in between. Oh, and “La Bamba” for good measure.

It’s a long way from the cassette tapes of Chris De Burgh and Meat Loaf in many ways. And in some others, not that far at all.

Peace and love, y’all.

Rick Rawes

29^th September 2025

Leeds, West Yorkshire

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P.P.S., I don’t own any of the music, rights or anything else. All the above songs mentioned are hella recommended, and can be found on various music streaming platforms, but they’re just a personal preference. I tend to like Spotify (which is where my shared public playlists are), but you find your own and enjoy it. Music is to be shared and to help us connect, with others and with ourselves. If music be the sound of stuff…rock on.