Eric Brown asked Nicholas Eames:

Love it! Since I play drums as a hobby, I find myself gravitating toward a variety of musical genres as well. Classic rock, prog-rock, big band, fusion, and jazz to name a few. Do you listen to music when you write? I have found instrumental music (symphonies and movie soundtracks) to be inspiring.

Nicholas Eames I do, yeah! It use to be movie soundtracks or just one of those "epic music" playlists on youtube, but that's changed since starting The Band series. For KotW I could listen to a lot of 70's music and progressive rock (Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, etc) without getting too distracted, but with Bloody Rose, which is based on 80s rock/punk/glam, etc., that wasn't possible, as the songs got a lot shorter and more...attention-grabbing, let's say. Instead, I resorted to synthwave music, which still has an 80s vibe without being too distracting--and some of it gets very epic as well.

Now, writing book three of the series, it's much the same. Outlaw Empire is inspired by early 90s anti-establishment music, chiefly grunge, hip-hop, and a whole lotta Rage Against the Machine. And while this music is MASSIVELY inspiring, it's also difficult to write to, so I rely on lo-fi playlists instead, which have a similar vibe to a lot of the hip-hop and are very easy to zone out to while working.

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