Benjamin Sobieck's Writing Soundtrack

Fun fact:

"John McCain dropped a Sharpie on the floor, and I picked it up and handed it back to him. He was in town for a campaign fundraiser, and I was covering the event for the college newspaper. This marked the high-water point of my political journalism career." - Benjamin Sobieck 

Benjamin Sobieck talks about the soundtrack for writing The Writer’s Guide to Wattpad.

Scheherazade: The Story of the Kalendar Prince (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)




This gets me into the right state of mind for a deep dive into a manuscript. Whatever I was doing before gets washed away. This is a perennial one that goes back to when I was a wee tot, but it especially came in handy for The Writer’s Guide to Wattpad.

Derelicts (Carbon Based Lifeforms)



World of Sleepers (Carbon Based Lifeforms)



It’s challenging for me to work in complete silence. I got into ambient music as a way to keep the white noise interesting. I like to stick on either of these albums from Carbon Based Lifeforms to keep me “in the zone.” It’s given me an appreciation for electronic music. Outside of the writing process, this is the exact opposite of what I enjoy. I like hard, bombastic rock.  

Orchard (Windhand)



This is technically doom metal, but it rests somewhere on the ambient spectrum, too. Windhand uses these long, slow, simple riffs that feel like Nirvana’s long-lost ambient effort. Windhand follows the same formula with each of its songs, but Orchard is the best. If you haven’t caught on yet, ambient music and writing fit very well for my productivity.  

Interstellar Theme (Hans Zimmer)




Time (Hans Zimmer)



Are these two clichés? If they are, they’re well-deserved clichés. I can’t not listen to these and feel the creative itch. They make me want to drop everything and go make something profound. These are like Whistle While You Work for the 21^st Century creative.  

Jesus Built My Hotrod (Ministry)



At some point, all that ambient music yields a nasty case of ear exhaustion. That might apply to my brain, too. When you need a kick in the ass, you need a kick in the ass. I can’t think of a song that hits harder than this one. Whether it’s late at night or in the middle of working through a knot, this will cure what ails ya.

 

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