This initially appeared as a guest blog on the blog Mission To Read, on September 29th.

While I know that some authors prefer silence when they write, I need music, and I create playlists for each book to help invoke in the mood. For my Tens List, I thought I’d list ten of the songs that featured prominently in my head while I was writing VARIANT.

The Rabbit Will Run, by Iron and Wine

While there are some very literal lines here that relate to the Variant (like “I’ll jump over the wall and I’ll wait for you there” or “we’ve all found a reason for hiding a gun, we’ve helped out a few if we’ve hurt anyone. So be it, I’ve done what I’ve done.”) But I like this song more for the inevitability of it: a rabbit will run, because that’s a rabbit’s nature and you’re not going to stop it (which, I think, is representative of Benson). I also love the line “good dogs together go wild,” implying the mob mentality—that even if a dog is good, if you get it in a pack, it’ll do some pretty bad things. And that’s the whole crux of the school: if you cram otherwise-good people together in bad circumstances, there’s going to be trouble.

Going On, by Gnarls Barkley

This is perhaps the most literal of the songs that influenced me. “You can stand right there if you want, but I’m going on, and I’m prepared to go it alone.” And I also love the sentiment “Anyone who needs what they want and doesn’t want what they need, I want nothing to do with.” I think that sums up Benson’s attitude really clearly: he’s not content with simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

A Change is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke

This one might seem a little out of place, because it the oldest of the bunch, and it sounds the oldest—a sound that doesn’t seem to really fit with the rest of this music, or the tone of the book. The song was a huge part of the civil rights movement, so I hesitate to put it on this list, because I don’t want to trivialize the point of the song. But on a superficial level, it reflects a lot of the hopeful/hopeless sentiments in the book. “Oh there are times that I thought I couldn’t last for long, But now I think I’m able to carry on. It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.”

Family Business, by The Fugees

On a completely opposite note is Family Business, a song about gangs, drugs and poverty. This song influenced me a lot while I was contemplating gang life, both in the school and Benson’s street life before he ever got to the school. “Just walkin’ the streets death can take you away. It’s never guaranteed that you see the next day.” (Warning: language.)

Mad World, by Gary Jules

This was more of a mood song than a literal one. It expresses utter hopelessness, where not only is it sad that “the dreams in which he’s dying are the best he’s ever had”, but it’s actually funny. “Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow. No tomorrow, no tomorrow.”

The Bourne Movies Soundtracks, by John Powell

I don’t have much to say about these other than that they’re awesome. I have the soundtracks to all three movies, and I listen to them while I write to evoke a kind of eerie, fast-paced intensity.

Trouble, by Coldplay

This is also more about mood than anything literal. He talks about being caught in the middle of a spider web, so he’s obviously in a terrible, dire situation, but the entire song sounds like an apology—that he’s done something to someone else that means more to him than his own danger “I never meant to cause you trouble, I never meant to do you harm.”

Sympathy for the Devil, by The Rolling Stones

This song is interesting historically—it sparked a lot of outrage at the time it was released, changing the face of The Rolling Stones from just one of those terrible rock and roll bands to Satan worshippers who are trying to destroy our children. The song is written from the perspective of the devil, and he describes all of the things he’s been involved in: “I was ‘round when Jesus Christ had his moments of doubt and pain”, “Killed the czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain”, “I rode a tank, held a General’s rank, when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank”. But the thing that I find interesting, and why it influenced VARIANT is because of one line: “I shouted out ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ When after all, it was you and me.” When asked about the song’s meaning Keith Richards famously said “Everybody’s Lucifer.” In other words, they’re saying we should have sympathy for the devil, because we all have the capacity to do terrible things. And that unleashed inhumanity is a big part VARIANT.

Grey Street, by Dave Matthews Band

Man, the further I get into the list, the more I realize how much hopelessness played a part in VARIANT. I hope if doesn’t read as hopeless as this music makes it sound. Grey Street isn’t so much about a person thrust into a terrible situation, but about a person who is trapped in the hopelessness of normal life. “There’s an emptiness inside her, and she’d do anything to fill it in, but all the colors mix together to grey, and it breaks her heart.”

Saint Judas, by Natalie Merchant

And, because I apparently can’t pick a single upbeat song, we’ll end with Saint Judas by Natalie Merchant, a song about the racial lynchings in the southern United States. But the part that really influenced VARIANT was the self-righteousness of the killings. “Saddle up your horses and wear your Sunday best, Sing your sacred harp, you’ll be holier than the rest as you shout your praises to the man who kissed the Lord, to the back-stabbing brother who betrayed all of this world.” In my mind, this is really The Society’s role—they’re doing horrible things, but they think themselves to be completely pious and correct.