Favourite Music Thursday - Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

To buy this song and Keane’s other music, visit Keane’s homepage or iTunes. 

Favourite Music Thursday: Blind Guardian - Skalds and Shadows

Blind Guardian is a power metal band from Germany. The first of their music which I heard was the album Nightfall in Middle-Earth (songs based on JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion and, yes, it's as awesome as it sounds). Their lyrics are almost all rich in mythology, folklore, and fantasy.

Now I won't act like I listen to a lot of metal - this is basically it - so I won't go into a deep discussion. About their musical style Wikipedia has to say:

"Blind Guardian's first two albums, Battalions of Fear and Follow the Blind, were more in the style of speed metal than their following works. Beginning with their third albumTales from the Twilight World, Blind Guardian gradually began to write more complicated compositions focusing less on speed. As of their sixth album, Nightfall in Middle Earth, Hansi stopped playing bass to focus on singing. At this point the band began to incorporate large amounts of orchestral arrangements, and utilized the technique of overdubbing, heavily influenced by the English rock band Queen."

"Skalds and Shadows" has been in my head this whole week, so I thought it would be a good choice for this week's Favourite Music Thursday. Trust me, you want to hear their music. And then go and listen to their other songs...

Music Thursday – Musiek Donderdag: Toe vind ek jou

This is a new song by Francois van Coke and Karen Zoid, called “Toe vind ek jou” (Then I found you) that I fell in love with when I heard it on the radio for the first time.

Camp Nanowrimo and Music Thursday

And, just like that, April has come to an end and with it April’s Camp Nanowrimo. I put my word count at 10 000 in March as I knew I had quite a month in front of me. I pushed it to 15 000 when I reached my word count goal and then ended up doing double what I thought I’d do! (This is already a good sign for November’s Nanowrimo.)

One thing I have been working on a lot during this month is cutting down a bit on pantsing the stories, and, therefore, spending a lot of time on outlines and timelines. I’m still keeping options open, though, as I know I can’t work from just an outline.

Writing music

I’ve also found out during this month that Audiomachine and Two Steps From Hell is the perfect music when you’re writing (or planning) some epic stories. Spending time to create playlists have also helped me to get into “writing mode” after working the whole day.

View image | gettyimages.com

Favourite Music Thursday - "In the End" by Linkin Park

This is still one of my favourites - not to mention the absolutely awesome music video.

Favourite Music Thursday: Stay On These Roads

“Stay On These Roads” (1988), by a-ha, remains one of my favourite songs. I grew up with a-ha and to still love a song after listening to it hundreds of times over more than twenty years goes to show what staying power it has. (The lyrics are below the video.)

The cold has a voice
It talks to me
Stillborn, by choice
It airs no need
To hold

Old man feels the cold
Oh baby don’t
‘Cause I’ve been told

Stay on these roads
We shall meet, I know
Stay on – my love
We shall meet, I know
I know

Where joy should reign
These skies restrain
‘Shadow your love’
The voice trails off again

Old man feels the cold
Oh baby don’t
‘Cause I’ve been told

Stay on these roads
We shall meet, I know
Stay on – my love
You feel so weak, be strong
Stay on, stay on
We shall meet, I know
I know
I know, my love, I know




Morten Harket / Magne Furuholmen / Paul Waaktaar-Savoy

© 1988 Warner Chappell Music Ltd.

Favourite Music Thursday – The Mute by Radical Face

I only recently discovered Radical Face’s music on Noisetrade and was intrigued by the concept behind the music. On his website, Ben Cooper says:

“I just wanted to write a family saga. It's something I'd wanted to do for a long time. But I was timid at first. Family is a big topic from me, being from a large and atypical one, and I was hesitant to start for fear I'd do a shitty job of it. But once I started writing for it, it all kinda poured out. I started writing for it in 2007. I came up with a fictional family tree -- a Frankenstein of random genealogy charts, my own family history, some of my personal experiences and plain old fiction -- and used that as the basis for the songs. When I started organizing the record in 2009, I had over 45 songs to work with, even after ditching the ones I wasn't so sure of.”

The songs Ben Cooper wrote, are poignant, bittersweet, dark and sometimes very sad. But there is such a quality to them that I can’t stop listening.

For more about Radical Face, click here for the website, here for Noisetrade, and here for SoundCloud. In SA, the albums are available on iTunes.

The one I especially keep returning to is “The Mute”. The song is haunting and beautiful, and I adore the music video. I hope you enjoy it as well!