Nia's DW

Heya, friends!
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Okay, I'll cease my rambling for today and hope you're all doing fine!
Love <333

Just finished a thing and because I'm exhausted and full of vims, I wanted to share some music recs. Most of them are old news, but does it even matter with good music?

The first two songs are curtsey of a fic soundtrack. I recced the fic, An Expected Journey by MarieJacquelyn, in my last rectober post. You can listen to this great soundtrack on 8tracks.
It contains some music, I just have to share here too.

Dear Fellow Traveler by Sea Wolf
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Why I love it: This song is just gorgeous. Tbh, the whole album, Old World Romance, is for the win. His voice reminds me a bit of Coldplay but not that tiring. You know, I love Coldplay, but can only listen to a few songs at a time. I don't have these problems with Sea Wolf. I could listen to him all day.
As a side note: If 'Dear Fellow Traveler' is a perfect song for the above mentioned fic, which is a story about Bilbo and Thorin, my next favourite song, 'Changing Seasons', is a perfect John and Sherlock song. It's a bit strange how I listen to music nowadays and sort it sometimes after the slash pairings I love. Well, it's fun, so I probably won't stop.

xox

Keep the Streets Empty For Me by Fever Ray (aka Karin Dreijer Andersson)
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Why I love it: I don't listen to many songs sung by female voices. Most of the time they are just to high for me. Why all singer try to reach the high 'e' is a mystery to me. I prefer lower voices. There can be a nice head voice, but please not all the time. That said, I do love this song. Even though the voice is sometimes high and it's a tad bit exhausting. Tbh, I haven't found anouther Fever Ray song I really love. In this song I love the rhythm and the refrain (see the voice is lower in the refrain) and, yeah, I think it's composition is a piece of beauty. Well, my friends, I'm married to a trained audio engineer, and even though he doesn't work in that branch anymore, he trained my ears quite a bit. So, I think this is a fabulous song.

xox

Now, a very different style in another language.
Est ce que tu m'aimes by Maître Gims
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Why I love it: It's quite awesome to realise how much my English skills have developed over the past years, but there is one big disadvantage. You know, I love to listen to music - even one with lyrics - first and foremost for the melody. And it's much easier to blend out utterly rubbish lyrics... Exactly, when you don't understand them (or not that good). Well, that's one of the reasons, I'm listening to much more French songs than ever. I do look up the lyrics to check, if someone wants to tell a message or not. But other than that, I don't bother. Gosh, that's so very relaxing. :D

Well, and Maître Gims' voice is so voluminous, I'm sure he'd would have been an opera tenor in another century. As it is he produces something akain to rap music and every once in a while that's fine with me. I can't listen to him all the time, but I tend to come back to this song because it's just lovely. Oh yeah, and the video is fun too. There you can see what the lyrics are about (love that isn't that wonderful anymore and where everyone asks themselves if they are still in love with this or that person).

xox

I could name a lot more songs, but think one more doesn't do any harm.

Another Love by Tom Odell
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Why I love it: I had a hard time to choose, which link to show. You know, there is a wonderful dance version of this song (this Zwette Edit). In the end I've chosen the original because I love the rough edges Odell's voice has. I know this song is old news, but I still love it to pieces. Every few months I'm in a situation where a desperately sad love song is just the right sing to listen to on repeat - though I'm thankfully far from living through a heartbreak. Autumn always makes me moody and then I have to indulge in sad songs. Most of the times they make me feel better. Sorrow halved and all.

Thanks for listening!

Title: A Perfect Denial
Songspiration: A Beautiful Lie - 30 Seconds to Mars
Prompter: your_insomnia
Prompt Number: #134
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, Hermione/Ron, mentioned Luna/Pansy
Summary: Harry was confused. Why the hell were they watching Muggle concerts? But before he could ask, the camera took a close-up of the stranger’s face. Harry saw huge grey eyes made-up with dark kohl, a classic jawline, a sharp nose, flawless pale skin, a sensual mouth– and it hit him like a punch to the gut. No stranger at all. Draco Malfoy.
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. All quoted lyrics herein are the property of 30 Seconds to Mars aka Jared Leto, Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s): Rock star!Draco, Auror!Harry, Harry Potter-MARS-fusion, switching, rimming, Draco’s style takes getting used to, author is such a fangirl
Epilogue compliant? EWE
Word Count: ~15k

A Perfect Denial

Actually, I hadn't planned writing a fic for hd_smoochfest. I'm not that good with long stories and for sure not the most talented writer on the planet. But your_insomnia's prompt was irresistable. It really was!

I had so much fun writing this story; To get lost in cities via google maps I've never been to (L.A.) or only as a child (London). To watch an hour long bike trip through the National Forest in the hinterland of L.A. on YouTube which wasn't important at that moment, yet I needed the damn bike later on. To sneak in some other musicians. To search for Mr J Leto's worst outfits ever and take them as inspiration (*giggles*). To search for a little flat in the centre of London (there really was an appartment next to The Strand which would have cost £ 25,000,000). Yes, I researched all the things and loved every minute of it. One of the best moments- when I played pick a straw with the song quotes because I had more than I needed and it was hard to pick my favourites here.

Just for the record: I love MARS, but am aware they definitely fall under the category of 'rock divas'. I mean, seriously, who talks about themselves like this?
"Some people ask us if this is a cult. I say this: It's something special. It's not for everyone – it's only for those who understand."
Who talks so bloody much about things not even music-related during a concert?
Who wears the worst clothes thought they are some handsome guys? (they do all three, but Jared's are always the worst)
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And all that was SO PERFECT for my Draco, I even got the nerve to make him his own brand. And, of course, Harry needed to rescue him from this delusional idea that he would be better of without even a single wizard around him.

♥ Thank you, all of you, who left me some brilliant comments!!! ♥

God, shame on me! I forgot to tell everybody about my wonderful 'save this fic crew'.
The ladies in question were:

candamira, who convinced me to skip some dearly loved parts about motorbike porn (I still think it's essential to [me] that Harry rode a black Yamaha VMAX 2010 in L.A.- but as it wasn't essential for the story...the wonderful thing had to go)

my_thestral, who dicussed with me the pros and cons of mosh pits versus stage dives. We picked the safer version, because we are so grown up now (and can only vaguely remember if we did some mosh pits in our lives).

iwao, my darling, who saved me from picking the wrong word for vest throughout a whole story. A 'Weste' in German would be a 'waistcoast' in English. And of course I picked the wrong one from the 7 options in the dictionary (I always do - LOL). I'm glad she still loves me, because it isn't easy to be my beta.

Well, today akatnamedeaster linked to a vid of Waiting for the Sun by The Doors. It put a huge smile on my face and I had a blasting good time to listen to a Doors concert while working (worked very well to keep my focus on the text about vitamins and other dietary supplements :D).

God, f-list, I had the most embarrassing crush on Jim Morrison as a teenager (yes, the man died before I was born). Tbh, I had more than one crush at that time- at least all others weren't on bones and humus. ;p
Guess who bought bootcut Levi's in thrift shops or on flea markets while Grunge style was in? Yepp, I had a good time embracing my inner hippie. Mr Kantorka is convinced that my choice of colours in clothes (very bright) is often a residue from that time. LOL

Ok. Bonus points to everyone who knows which Doors song is quoted in this post's title (no googling allowed ;P).
God, I had fun searching for this particular icon. :D

P.S.: Kat, I hope you'll read this and it gives you some positive vibes back. Have a wonderful Misti Con!

Yes, I've been as quiet as everyone else.
The excuse (this time)- I am really busy getting the first of my fest fics ready for submission and have started to think about the second. The first one was fun to write. Hope the second is too.

I'm out of town this weekend and visit some friends in Munich. It'll be so great to see them both and to spend a weekend on my own in a city I really grew to love when I lived there. As the hotel has free wifi I'm probably still lurking around at nights or early mornings. I'm not sure I'll be able to have a lie in- as I got used to around 6 hours of sleep at all times. But I'll try. :D

Living in a town with a natural reserve (an untouched part of the river passing through our city) has a huge advantage now that spring has come. I see storks flying around when cycling along said river to pick up our little one from nursery school. Just think about it; when I was young storks were endangered in our country and now lots of them are flying around. Seeing them makes me smile. I tried to take a picture, but flying (moving) animals and mobile cameras didn't work well- so I spare everyone the blurry, far away blots of 'evidence'.

Oh, and there is this song our little one and I fell in love with (it's from last year but we don't care ;p). The singer, Rea Garvey, is Irish but is living since the late 90ies in Germany. He's met his wife here and had a German band. I'm not sure that band, 'Reamonn', is known outside of our country. Well, he still makes music, published an album last year and there is this song.
And now I have a little one singing 'I can't say no' at all times. She only knows the title line but sings or hums big parts of the melody.

I have the album, I also have a Juke account, nonetheless I'm watching and listening as often as I can to this lyric version vid of City of Angels. It's awesome; the sunset, the lights of the city and the darker hills and that voice - when he sings "I'm home" and later the "One life, one love, live" - Jesus, IT'S PERFECT. And there's an owl flying through the shots and it took me ages to see it. But, yeah, finally I did. I've never been to LA, but it looks beautiful from that hill. And I'm sure we all can relate to that feeling, the one when we are where we want to be. :D
This song makes me happy in a very grounded way.

Yeah, I know, everybody knows Radioactive by Imagine Dragons (and a lot of people can't hear it anymore). But did you ever watch them perform life? One can watch a lot of concerts from their Night Vision tour and everytime I do so, I get goose bumps at that part when they are all playing drums during Radioactive (3rd to 5th min). It's fucking fantastic. I've chosen this vid because of the great atmosphere at Lollapalooza Brazil- the whole concert is a treat as well.

Just wanted to ask, if I'm the only one obsessed with music while writing? If so, what music do you listen to? Should the music match with your story? Or quite the reverse, like a good contrast to your plotline? Or should it fits your mood? What are you listening to at the moment? Is there some music you don't like?

For the record.
Music is absolutely necessary for my writing. I couldn't put a single sentence together without some background sounds. Neither at work, where I'm working as a medical editor and sometimes as a journalist too, nor at home during my blog posts, writing reviews and lately fics.

Which kind of music.
Depends.
Sometimes I need music that fits to the story. For writing sweet scenes listening to Passenger can be quite productive and for angsty stuff The National does the trick for me.
I chose my house music playlists when I need to get in a better mood or (totally different thing) work out plotlines and during editing. Don't know how often you read your draft, but I'm re-reading it all the time and therefore editing is a never ending process.
Lately I'm listening to some good old gothic music from my teenage years (long time ago), for example Deine Lakaien. Yes, both have an horrible German accent, but you would never believe that they are just two making all these wonderful arrangements. Oh, and Sisters of Mercy and Shock Therapy of course.

And I have a playlist called 'cool stuff' which is the weirdest tracklist ever but I love it, especially while writing:
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye
Stolen Dance - Milky Chance
Hollywood - Marina And The Diamonds
Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
Royals - Lorde
Familiar Feeling - Moloko
Sweet Nothing - Calvin Harris
Sea of Love - The National
Kids - MGMT
A Horse With No Name - Amercia
Magic - Coldplay
Am I Wrong - Nico & Vinz
Daniel - Bat For Lashes
Rose Tattoo - Dropkick Murphys
Riptide - Vance Joy

Don't like.
I can't listen to off-beat, so no Jazz music for me (philistine, I know).
And I don't like classic music for writing though I love it for breakfast on weekends.

You see. I'm obsessed :D.

Pic by Music Doodle.