Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Ben “Books” Schwartz ’13 is a Linguistics major and an English minor. Most of his free time is spent writing stories, telling stories, and enjoying stories. He hopes to someday make the transition from novelist to published novelist (an oft-overlooked distinction). Here is some of his favorite writing music.
For me, one of the most important stages of crafting any story is assembling the soundtrack. I need to have the perfect music to set the tone before I can put down a single word. Sometimes it’s just one song looped over and over, and sometimes it’s a sprawling playlist. It all depends on the story and scene. This playlist is just a quick sampler of some of my favorite writing songs from the last few years.
1. “Rutten” – Skream
2. “One of Our Submarines” – Thomas Dolby
3. “Ghost Hardware” – Burial
4. “Transgenic (Rust Mix)” – Trifonic
5. “Theme from Voltaic” – Jack Wall
6. “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” – Florence + The Machine
7. “I Talk to the Rain” – Kajiura Yuki
8. “Demise of the Ritual” – Kow Otani
9. “At the Very Beginning” – Sagisu Shirou
10. “Savior of the Dreaming Dead” – Malcolm Brown/Homestuck
11. “Fear of a Blank Planet” – Porcupine Tree
12. “Stutter” – Lake Trout
13. “L’Via L’Viaquez” – The Mars Volta
14. “Signal to Noise” – Peter Gabriel
15. “The Antikythera Mechanism” – BT
“Campus Mixtapes” is a new feature highlighting the musical tastes of different people at Swarthmore. To nominate someone for inclusion, please email Kat Clark ’12 (kclark9).
