“Music & Me” is a feature in which authors talk about their musical influences, their favourite musicians and their “musical guilty pleasures”. This week’s victim guest is Louise Phillips. Louise is the bestselling author of four psychological crime thrillers. Her new novel, The Game Changer, is on sale now.
What are your earliest musical memories?
Hearing the singer Mario Lanza had to be one of the first. He was a favourite of my Dad’s, an actor with a tenor’s voice, and I still remember his voice bellowing through the small flat we lived in.
Who or what were your musical influences growing up and why?
I had two older brothers who had their own record player and tape deck. They played an eclectic mix, but the two albums I remember most were both vinyl records. One was Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells and the other was the soundtrack of the 1968 Romeo and Juliet film.
Later I found my own choice of music, which comprised of Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and later still, Steely Dan, and later again, The Boomtown Rats, and even later, The Cranberries, and later, later, Juliet Turner, Amy Winehouse and The Script, to name but a few.
Does music influence your writing?
Music influences my mood, which I guess influences my writing. I like the sad, slow stuff far too much – note to self, try upbeat happy!
Do you listen to music while writing, editing, etc.?
No, I don’t listen to anything other than then words that are falling from my head to the page. The words are not always pretty, but that’s what I concentrate on. As much as possible, I try to be someone else, who happens to be somewhere else, with a whole host of questions to answer.
Is there one particular novel or piece of writing you wrote that was directly influenced by a piece of music?
Hmmm, that’s a hard one. If I want to get really maudlin, I’ll listen to Juliet Turner’s Broken Things, because it reminds me about part of my life.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Ed Sheeran and Hozier are getting fair play on the car CD player.
Musically, what’s your guilty pleasure?
I love old musicals….I’m a complete fan of Judy Garland, there, I’ve said it….and Somewhere over the Rainbow gets me every time, whether it’s the original version or Eva Cassidy’s….