Matthew Ward and The InkWalker Collective

The InkWalker Collective was born when Adrian Walker (The End of the World Running Club, The Human Son, etc) and myself got talking about how music influences our writing. We decided to set out on a writer’s side quest, gathered a group of fellow authors, and collaborated on a series of themed playlists. We’ve been releasing these to the writing community one by one.

In the meantime, I’ve been chatting with our fellow collaborators to find out more about how music influences their work.

I met Matthew Ward last year, when John Jarrold offered me representation. While waiting for other Agents to get back to me, I asked John if I could talk to any of his clients, and he put me in touch with Matthew. It was a Thursday when the request went out and he got back straight away, offering a zoom call the next evening. We chatted for, I think, over an hour, and meandered through a series of subjects, mostly literary and heavily nerdy. 

Naturally, I wanted that nerdiness for the I.W.C, and his contributions have been excellent.

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So, Matthew, do you listen to music while writing? 

It comes and goes. Sometimes it’s just the thing to take the edge off environmental sounds (I’m a bit jumpy, so very easily distracted when writing. At others, the music itself becomes too distracting. I’m trying to finish a sentence, and then there are all these trombones, bagpipes or whatever blaring in my ear.

So I’m guessing songs with lyrics are out then?

Yes, if I’m listening it’s mostly instrumental – at least while I’m writing, writing. Editing’s a bit more forgiving, but there’s still always the fear of discovering I’ve put Steeleye Span or Queen lyrics in the middle of an earnest conversation about the moral case for rebellion.

I don’t know, I can think of a few Queen lyrics that would be great in that kind of dialogue! But maybe that’s a subject for a different interview... 

Maybe!

Do you find your choice in music changes depending on what you're writing?

I mainly look for something I know well enough that it slides into the background of my brain. But it’s not just familiarity. There are some soundtracks I know note for note (Star Wars) but I just can’t write to, for some reason. I don’t really do mood music at all – in part, I suspect, because I’m worried I’ll end up mimicking the scene that the music brings to life, rather than writing my own scene.

I can sympathise there! I planned a moody, pensive scene once that became a fight because I was listening to Uprising by Muse. I had to go back and dial it down! Can you tell us about the music you listened to while writing Legacy of Steel and Legacy of Ash? Did the music choices change between books?

Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino tend to be my ‘go to’ for most scribbling. Lots of bombast, but plenty of quieter moments too. Music changes more on my mood than setting and ‘oh God, I can’t listen to that yet again’ We’re talking Pirates of the Caribbean (films 2-4), Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Strange, John Carter, Star Trek (2009) and … oddly … Tron: Legacy (which is about the only film on this list that shares any kind of theme with my Legacy books. Must be the name.)

If you could share one track that sums up your main character, what would it be and why? 

I’d be most remiss at this point if I didn’t plug the wonderful theme Will Musser scored for Viktor Akadra, but that would be cheating, as the inspiration works the other way around.

Oh well now that’s cool, and what a beautiful track! 

It is. It suits the character really well, which is good because apart from that track, I don’t think I associate any with Viktor specifically. Other themes already belong to their characters, be they Jack Sparrow, Stephen Strange, Quorra or whoever. 

The InkWalker Collective has quite a few themed playlists, do you think it's missing any? And if so, what playlist would you add? 

I think there’s definitely an opportunity to split things out by tone a little bit – epic Sci-fi and epic Fantasy have a very different feel when pushed towards their strengths. Howard Shore’s Ringwraiths theme compared to the End of Line track that plays when Flynn arrives at Zuse’s bar in Tron: Legacy are both epic compositions, but they speak to very different moods. 

Other than that? Maybe a Whimsy++ style playlist that borders on ethereal. There’s a lot of Jesca Hoop and Dead Can Dance that gets into that space, and they definitely open up different worlds.

I can see both of these options working. Not for the first time, I’m considering an InkWalker Collective Season 2! Can you tell us anything about your current project…?

Which one? There’s a lot going on at the moment.

All or any, I’m not fussy. 

Okay, I have a couple of novel proposals and I’m pulling together, as well as the three video games I do creative consultancy and writing for – Vermintide being the main one, and two others I can’t really talk about in any detail at the moment. We’ve just started an ongoing blog series for Vermintide (Franz Lohner’s Chronicle) which is a blast to plan and write, and a little bit more light-hearted than my novels – you can find them over on Vermintide.com. I’m also looking at maybe reissuing one of my self-published books with a new cover and a bit of new content, but we’ll see how that goes.

Suffice to say there’s plenty happening, and it’s going to be a very busy couple of months … 

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Well on that intriguing note (pun intended), I think we can leave it there!

You can find Matthew’s books through links on his website: www.thetowerofstars.com

And you can follow him on social media:

www.facebook.com/thetowerofstars

www.twitter.com/thetowerofstars

Find out more about The InkWalker Collective and links to all the Spotify playlists here.