The Soundtrack to Raye and Jax
Every book has a heartbeat, and for me, music sets the rhythm. While writing and editing The Last Heir of Xenia, I built a playlist that carried me through the battles, heartbreaks, and love stories.
I listen to music while I write and edit for a few purposes. I definitely want to set the mood, there’s nothing better to get your head into a fantasy land than instrumental music. I also listen to help me focus. Putting my noise-blocking headphones on, I dial up my Raye + Jax Playlist on Apple Music and I write. It helps set the scene and mood, and oftentimes giving each character their own anthem has even helped me flush out their character.
The Songs:
Emerald Princess by Two Steps from Hell and Thomas Bergersen
This is a mood-setting track to put you into the world of Xenia. If my story were to become a movie, this would be playing at the very beginning credits as we follow a threadbare Raye through the streets she has become a stranger to.
Ice of Phoenix by Audiomachine
This track gets me amped to write battle scenes or those hard-hitting emotional moments. It helps me decide who to kill and who to spare. Who will win, and who will lose it all.
The Night We Met by Lord Huron
This song is all Jax in all his feels about Raye. I brought this up during a lot of his chapters to encapsulate the moody yearning attitude I was trying to achieve with him. They may have met with her knife to his throat, but damn, he cannot get this woman out of his mind. This song is his heartbeat.
“I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you / take me back to the night we met / I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, haunted by the ghost of you / oh take me back to the night we met”
Breathe Me by Sia
This song is all Raye. She just cannot stop messing up, but it never stops her from continuing to try and reach out. This song is her cry for anyone to break this curse. I used this song to write a lot of the scenes of Raye going back and forth with herself on trusting Jax. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
“Ouch, I have lost myself again / lost myself and I am nowhere to be found / yeah, I think that I might break / lost myself again and I feel unsafe / be my friend / hold me, wrap me up.”
I Get to Love You by Ruelle
This song is Raye and Jax’s magnum opus—their great love theme, the song that would play when everything finally comes together.
& 7. Would That I & Work Song both by Hozier
These songs are all Jax vibes, speaking to his golden-retriever energy. He will never let our girl down. The very definition of a man written by a woman.
8. & 9. Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron & Walk Through the Fire by Klergy and BELLSAINT
These are the anthems of Raye’s survival, her promise to Jax, and the people of Xenia.
10. Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos
This is just a fun song that really gets me in the mood for editing/writing–-especially with the fantasy theme of the song.
BONUS: Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls
This song was playing on the radio as a 13 year-old version of myself sat in the back of my mom’s car, scribbling in the notebook on this story. I didn’t know a whole lot about love, but to me, this song was the epitome of it. I know that may make me seem like a dork, but I had just finished reading Twilight, and my views on romance were very limited, okay?! In a way, this is the song that started it all.
Music carried me through this story, and now I can’t hear these songs without thinking of Raye and Jax. Do you ever connect songs to the books you read or write? I’d love to hear your own story soundtrack!
