Infinite Soundtracks

12th April 2018

Posted by Christopher at 2:58pm

I've also had the pleasure of chatting about the book with Bex at Fun Kids Radio and Robin Ince for a Book Shambles Extra podcast. (I'm also thrilled to be appearing alongside Robin Ince at this year's Hay Festival on Monday 28th May - please come along to our event if you can make it!) 

Speaking of audio - seamless segue! - as you might know, I’ve got a bit of a thing about making soundtracks for the novels I write. There are soundtracks for The Many Worlds of Albie Bright and The Jamie Drake Equation and I’ve written about how to create the perfect book soundtrack for The Guardian, too.

So when it came to creating a soundtrack for The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day, one soundtrack was never going to be enough! When The Jamie Drake Equation was published on World Book Day last year, I had the chance to chat to BBC Radio DJ Chris Hawkins about the soundtrack I’d created for the novel on his 6 Music show. So when bound proofs of The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day rolled off the presses, I got in touch with Chris to see if he fancied reading this and creating his own soundtrack for the story. Luckily, he said yes and this is the message he sent along with his specially-curated soundtrack for the book.

“The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day is out of this world…a kid’s epic adventure to infinity and back. These are the songs that matched the story for me.” Chris Hawkins, BBC Radio

I really love the soundtrack choices that Chris has made – I knew from his 6Music show that he has brilliant and eclectic musical taste, but it’s been fascinating to see this reflected through the prism of The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day and be introduced to tracks by bands like dEUS and Dutch Uncles that I hadn’t heard before. I especially love the song he has chosen to close the soundtrack – One Day Like This by Elbow – as this really evokes for me the emotions that I hope readers take away from the story.

In terms of my own choices I could’ve created an infinite playlist for the book, but stuck to eighteen songs that for me soundtrack key moments in the story. You’ll find tracks by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Massive Attack, David Bowie and The Charlatans, to name but a few. But the one song that makes it onto both soundtracks is the mesmerizing Birthday by The Sugarcubes, whose eerie beauty captures for me the mood of the opening chapter.

You can listen to the Spotify playlist of my soundtrack here and Chris Hawkins’ soundtrack here, and find the chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the songs on my soundtrack below if you want to listen along as you read The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day.

And if you fancy making your own soundtrack for the story, let me know what songs you’d choose by tagging me on Twitter with the hashtags #MaisieDay #infinitesongs

The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day – the author’s chapter-by-chapter tracklisting:

1 Birthday by The Sugarcubes (Chapter 1)

2 There She Goes, My Beautiful World by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Chapter 1/Chapter 3)

3 If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You by Super Furry Animals (Chapter 3)

4 Way To Blue by Nick Drake (Chapter 5)

5 Pictures of You by The Cure (Chapter 5)

6 Space and Time by The Verve (Chapter 6)

7 Lazarus by The Boo Radleys (Chapter 7)

8 Black Milk by Massive Attack (Chapter 7)

9 3 a.m. Eternal (Blue Danube Orbital Mix) by the KLF (remix by The Orb) (Chapter 9)

10 The Private Psychedelic Reel by The Chemical Brothers (Chapter 9)

11 Midnight in a Perfect World by DJ Shadow (Chapter 11)

12 Where Are We Know? by David Bowie (Chapter 11)

13 Infinity by The xx (Chapter 11)

14 Two Months Off by Underworld (Chapter 12)

15 Inbetween Days by The Cure (Chapter 13)

16 Hymn (David McAlmont version) by Ultramarine (Chapter 14)

17 Where The Light Gets In by Primal Scream featuring Sky Ferreira (Chapter 15)

18 Hey Sunrise by The Charlatans (Chapter 16)

 

The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day – the Chris Hawkins soundtrack

1 In the Beginning by Mike Oldfield

2 Time by Pink Floyd

3 She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby

4 Birthday by The Sugarcubes

5 Close To Me by The Cure

6 Dreaming by Blondie

7 I Hear Voices by Kasabian

8 We Are All Made of Stars by Moby

9 Ball of Confusion by The Temptations

10 Little Arithmetics by dEUS

11 Hello Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys remix) by David Bowie

12 Television The Drug of the Nation by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

13 Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

14 Time Is My Everything by Ian Brown

15 Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles

16 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized

17 Particle Man by They Might Be Giants

18 Go To The Mirror! by The Who

19 Big Balloon by Dutch Uncles

20 Help The Aged by Pulp

21 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths

22 Never Tear Us Apart by INXS

23 The Universal by Blur

24 One Day Like This by Elbow