Music is a huge cre­ative dri­ving force behind my writ­ing. HUGE. Music con­stantly inspires me and helps to cre­ate some­thing out of noth­ing. It adds emo­tion and res­o­nance, it stirs up mem­o­ries from deep inside and makes me look for­ward to the writ­ing process — if I had to give any­one a co-author credit in the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror series, it would be music itself. In fact, it’s rare that you’ll find me writ­ing with­out music play­ing in the back­ground or crammed in my ears.

And it’s not just any music either. The spe­cific music show­cased below fea­tured very heav­ily in the cre­ation of Dark­house. So much so, that some songs con­jure mem­o­ries of actu­ally sit­ting down and writ­ing the novel. Rob Dougan’s “Clubbed to Death” reminds me of work­ing in a dark study, writ­ing the scene where Dex and Perry approach the light­house for the final time. Or “101 North,” by the under­rated rock out­fit Tom­a­hawk, recalls the first time the duo hits the road together, bond­ing (sorta) over their sim­i­lar music tastes.

The major­ity of the music below can be a lit­tle exper­i­men­tal for some read­ers and runs on the heav­ier side of rock and metal (Dex and Perry approved!), but if you’re brave and want to get a taste of what inspires me, please click on the links so that you may pur­chase the songs or albums (or search www.soundcloud.com to stream them for free). I am firmly against pirat­ing music — remem­ber, artists need to get paid too so they can con­tinue to make music that moves us, and in turn, moti­vates me to write.

OK, I’m off my soapbox!

Dark­house Playlist

Tom­a­hawk — Tom­a­hawk
Cru­cial songs: “Flash­back”, “101 North”, “God Hates a Cow­ard”, “Laredo”

Depeche Mode — Vio­la­tor
Cru­cial songs: “World in My Eyes”, “Halo”, “Pol­icy of Truth”

Faith No More — Angel Dust
Cru­cial songs: “Smaller and Smaller”, “A Small Vic­tory”, “Jiz­zlob­ber”, “Malpractice”

Mas­sive Attack — Col­lected
Cru­cial songs: “But­ter­fly Caught”, “Inter­tia Creeps”, “Angel”, “Risingson”

Fan­tomas — Director’s Cut
Cru­cial songs: All of them

Mr. Bun­gle — Mr. Bun­gle
Cru­cial songs: “Quote Unquote”, “Carousel”

Rob Dougan — Furi­ous Angels
Cru­cial songs: “Clubbed to Death”, “Furi­ous Angels”, “Left Me for Dead”

Tom­a­hawk — Mit Gas
Cru­cial songs: “Bird­song”, “Rape This Day”, “When the Stars Begin to Fall”, “Cap­tain Mid­night”, “Hare­lip”, “Harlem Clown”

Led Zep­pelin — “Kash­mir”, “Ten Years Gone”

Nine Inch Nails — The Frag­ile
Cru­cial songs: “The Wretched”, “Pil­grim­age”, “The Way Out is Through”, “The Mark Has Been Made”

Elton John — “Some­one Saved My Life Tonight”, “All the Girls Love Alice”

Faith No More — Album of the Year
Cru­cial songs: “Paths of Glory”, “Help­less”, “Last Cup of Sor­row”, “Stripsearch”

Muse — “Knights of Cydo­nia”, “Assas­sin”, “Apoc­a­lypse Please” “Stock­holm Syn­drome”, “Map of the Prob­lem­atic”, “But­ter­flies and Hurricanes”

Faith No More — The Real Thing
Cru­cial songs: “From Out Of Nowhere”, “Zom­bie Eaters”, “Sur­prise! You’re Dead!”

Billy Joel — “Scenes from an Ital­ian Restaurant”