There’s a lot of music in Seeing Colours: it’s a story about a teenager wanting to play the guitar and hunting for clues about his famous musician grandfather, so I guess this is to be expected. After I’d finished working on the book it was suggested to me that I compile a playlist of the music that’s mentioned in the book. If you click on the link below it should take you to the Seeing Colours Playlist.

YouTube Music

The list isn’t in any particular order, for instance it’s not in the same order each song is mentioned in the book. It’s quite possible I’ve missed some of the songs mentioned so if you notice a missing piece, by all means let me know.

Most of the songs in the list are specifically mentioned in the book however, a couple of them were used as creative inspiration for certain passages without having the performer or music mentioned.

The first of these is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana when Susan, Jay’s mum plays the song for her family. While the song itself and Kurt Cobain’s death play a role in the storyline I didn’t use Nirvana’s version of the song as my inspiration for the description of Susan’s playing in the book. For this I used the extremely talented Gabriella Quevedo’s Youtube video as the source material for my description of Susan’s playing.

The scene in Brisbane where Jay and Chloe see Jimmy D’Angelo perform is anther scene where the music, while important, doesn’t get named, primarily because Jay doesn’t recognize any of the music Jimmy is playing. In this instance I used the playing of the brilliant Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel as inspiration for the description of Jimmy’s playing in the book. In particular the song Classial Gas:

If you’ve read the book and want to understand why I used these particular musicians as inspiration I think seeing them play will help make things a little clearer.

I love all the music in Seeing Colours however, I do have mixed feelings about the Seeker’s Morning Town Ride. Listen to it if you must but don’t blame me when you discover what it has to offer the listener!