Paige Toon's writing playlist

Paige Toon has put together a playlist of songs which have inspired her writing.  Some of these are actually my own personal favourites too!  Check them out:

 

Ever since writing my debut novel, Lucy in the Sky, at the tail end of 2006, I’ve loved creating stories to music. Here are some of the songs that have inspired me.

 

‘When You Were Young’ by The Killers

This song will always remind me of Nathan from Lucy in the Sky. It was one of the happiest times of my life – I was ecstatic to have a book deal – and I played this recently-released song incessantly, even putting it on Nathan’s personal mix tape which he gave to Lucy.

 

‘Iris’ by The Goo Goo Dolls

I created a Johnny-inspired rock playlist when I was writing Johnny Be Good and I think my favourite song is still the first one on there: ‘Iris’. ‘Sex on Fire’ by Kings of Leon’s comes a close second. Radiohead’s ‘Talk Show Host’ and The Smiths’ ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’ are also favourites on my Johnny playlist; the latter is key to one scene in the book.

 

‘Someone Like You’ by Adele

I had two babies between writing my second book, Johnny Be Good, and my sixth, One Perfect Summer, so I hardly wrote to music at all as I was always listening out for my children to wake up. When my son went to school and I got a little childcare for my daughter, I was able to write again to music – and I had missed it. The whole plot behind One Perfect Summer was actually inspired by this Adele song, so it goes without saying that I played it a lot while writing. Kingmaker’s ‘You And I Will Never See Things Eye To Eye’ inspired me to make Joe wear a Kingmaker T-shirt…

 

‘Pull Me Down’ by Mikky Echo

I love this song so much and played it over and over while writing The Longest Holiday. It’s completely dreamy. Also, Kal Lavelle’s ‘Shivers’ is so sexy and brooding it reminded me of Leo. I purposefully chose it to write the end of the book to.

 

‘Jump Into The Fog’ by The Wombats

This song will always remind me of The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson. It’s my favourite song on the album ‘This Modern Glitch’, which I often wrote to. Black Kids’ ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You’ and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Maps’ both inspired scenes in the book.

 

‘Love’ by Daughter

I was walking near my home, trying to ease some writer’s block when writing Thirteen Weddings when this song came on my playlist. It reminded me so much of what wedding photographer Bronte was going through with the love of her life – a groom who’s set to get married to someone else. I wrote it into the storyline. I also loved writing this book to the soundtrack for ‘The Great Gatsby’. It’s completely brilliant. I have a lot of respect for director Baz Luhrmann.

 

Paige's new YA novel, 'The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson' is out now, published by Simon and Schuster.  You can read my review here