Raelke Grimmer has specially curated a Spotify playlist to accompany her debut Young Adult novel White Noise. Read below to find out how 'Hey You' by Joshua Radin sparked a stream of inspiration for White Noise and find the playlist link below to listen along while reading.
"White Noise began with an image of two characters running East Point Reserve together, but it also began with a song: Joshua Radin’s ‘Hey You’. I’ve long been a fan of Joshua Radin’s music, but I first heard Radin play this song live acoustically on a podcast not long after I started writing the first draft. As soon as I heard it, I realised that it matched the tone I was trying to create in White Noise. The song juxtaposes melancholic lyrics with an upbeat tempo.
While White Noise is about the complexities of grief, it’s also about the joys of being a teenager within all the challenges of changing friendships and growing up, and I wanted all of these emotions reflected in the tone. I listened to ‘Hey You’ exclusively on repeat for weeks, walking Darwin’s coastlines, thinking about the stories and characters, and as I wrote early drafts. It was the song that inspired me to create a White Noise playlist while I was writing, and the first song I added to it.
As the narrative continued to take shape, I kept adding songs to the playlist that reflected the tone and characters. It's an eclectic mix of 90s, 2000s and late 2010s/ early 2020s songs, mirroring the myriad of emotions, highs and lows protagonist Emma experiences throughout the novel."
