The Songs of SSTL: 7 Musical Inspirations for my Debut Novel

I wanted to share some music that inspired and accompanied me along the journey of writing SSTL. Music is a huge part of everything I do. Throughout the day, I sing and sound and move to music (other people’s and whatever comes through me intuitively). I don’t always write ‘to’ music, but it does play a role in helping me understand each character’s energy and voice, and convey the felt sense of certain scenes. 

Even though as a teenager I spent waaaaay too much time on songmeanings.net, I am not going to claim that I know, with any certainty, what any of these songs are ‘about.’ That is for the artists to know. I’ll just share what comes up for me when I hear them, and how that impacted my writing process. This is not an exhaustive list (or to be more specific: the full Spotify playlist I made for this book) but it’s a little sampling of the tunes that moved me somewhere along the way in creating Somewhere Soft to Land. If you’ve read the book, I’d be interested to know which songs you’d put on your playlist for different characters, scenes, and themes. 

1. Thank You by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul

This delightfully snarky song was very much present when I wrote the prologue for SSTL. I adore this album, this band, and this song in particular. On one level, I experience this song as an affirming piece for any artist dealing with the more aggravating business aspects of their profession. While I was writing SSTL, though, Thank You helped me conjure the bizarreness of being a black woman in a PWI (predominantly white institution), contending with these really frequent, weird microaggressions that at some point, you stop having the energy to even respond to directly. When we meet Dzifa in college, she’s still got a little bit of fight left in her in terms of outward responses to being othered. She’s enmeshed in an environment which is supposedly all about diversity and inclusion, yet it’s also a place where she feels both like she sticks out like a sore thumb and is completely unseen–until she meets Tatiana. Thank You was exactly the kind of vibe I felt both Tatiana and Dzifa would have needed to cope with the peculiarities of their college experience. 

2. Famous Last Words by James Blake

This whole album (Friends That Break Your Heart) was a wonderful companion given that SSTL centers on a friendship that is fraying at the edges. This song was a valuable portal into the struggle that Dzifa and Tatiana go through to retain and, at times, reevaluate, their friendship. I really appreciate there being an album, to begin with, of love songs to/about friends. It reminded me that it can be worthwhile to write stories where a friendship is the focal relationship. And Famous Last Words speaks to that dynamic where you are not on the same page, values-wise, as a dear friend, but you find yourself trying to justify the friendship anyway.

3. Black Synagogue by Angel Haze

There were actually two Angel Haze tracks on my SSTL playlist; this one helped me connect with the theme of religion and spirituality in the book. Each character, especially Dzifa and Tatiana, has a very different experience and expression of spirituality, and among other themes, the book explores how our experiences of belonging (or non-belonging) can be impacted by our experiences with and feelings about religious institutions. The book itself does not take any particular position on what is ‘right or wrong’ as far as what any person does or does not believe in (and for the record: neither do I), but each character has a pretty clear position. Since Dzifa is the narrator, it was important that I could drop into her experience of spirituality, which is informed by growing up around a version of Christianity that perpetuated white supremacy. Listening to Black Synagogue was my ‘key’ to dropping into that aspect of her experience. 

4. All Apologies by Sinead O’Connor (Covering Nirvana)

This song helped me connect with Dzifa’s relationship with her mother. The quiet rage of Sinead O’Connor’s rendition is sublime, and perfectly reflected the anger, the vitality, the power that Dzifa has under the surface but feels unsafe expressing. I see Dzifa as a character who actually does know who she is, which is powerful in and of itself–but she is convinced, for reasons that I think become clear throughout the story–that it is not safe to be fully expressed. Mrs. Quartey (Dzifa’s mother) is a formidable character, and although some readers may understandably view her as a villain, I saw her as a catalyst, a person whose presence carried extraordinary potency. She’s not on the page for much of the story, but her impact is felt throughout. All Apologies connected me with Dzifa’s attempts to withstand and find her way out of the wreckage of her experiences with her family.

5. Could Deepen by Them Are Us Too.

This song draws me into the abyss and, right around 4:28, re-births me right back out of it: Every. Single. Time. It’s a whole journey. For me, Could Deepen surfaces the beautiful agony of letting go of conditioned versions of yourself that you became in order to belong, in order to connect or stay safe, and the heartbreak that can be involved in becoming who you truly are. That is very much a Dzifa journey in SSTL, but many of the characters are going through it, in their own ways. Tatiana, as a mother, Esther, as a daughter trying to figure out how to deal with her mother…they’re all on the road to becoming themselves in the face of pressures to be somebody more convenient/palatable/ultimately not quite ‘them.’ This whole album, by the way, is gorgeous.

6. Introvert by Little Simz

I swear I didn’t include this one just for the title, although it is definitely very on-brand for Dzifa. This song is also, to me, about reclaiming your energy, your peace, your purpose, amidst a whole lot of noise, chaos, disintegration, amidst both personal wounding and collective inequities. And boy is that a theme in this book. Also, the line “I’m a black woman and I’m a proud one,” is a public service announcement I personally needed, and thus Introvert continues to play in heavy rotation on my Spotify.  Oh, and the music video? Please watch the music video.

7. Move by Sol Seppy

There are so many more songs I could mention, but I’m closing out this post with Move. To me, this song brings forth that epic quest for self-sovereignty, even as we remain tender, emotional beings who long to love and be loved. Whether it was Tatiana considering her choices around motherhood, Dzifa considering her choices around her future, B considering his choices around whom to prioritize in his family, or even Mrs. Bishop’s reflections on her own motherhood journey, Move helped me in the editing process, to offer readers a window into these key characters’ choice-points, the moments where they face decisions about whether to roll with the program they were born into/expected to follow, or make their own way. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about these 7 songs that inspired me while I created Somewhere Soft to Land. What role does music play in your creative process?