RIDING THE MUSIC WAVE No. 4: JOE HOLT
A few years back I had a weekly radio show called North Star Nugs, on which I played jam bands, jazz, and improvisational music. In preparing this playlist for River Styx, I went back and looked at my spreadsheet from the show. It had lots of typical jam band songs (sample titles: “Schwagtown USA,” “It’s 4:20 Somewhere”), but for this playlist I chose some folksier tracks. Although they aren’t jammy or jazzy, I played them on my radio show anyway. I had no evidence that anyone was listening, and hey, I was making the rules.
Boy do I love music, but I can’t listen when I’m writing creatively. The goal is flow state—good luck!—and I am too easily distracted. These days when I write, I’m in a cabin in Interior Alaska, burning incense, sipping coffee, looking out occasionally at the snowy field and spruce trees. Am I bothered by the shrieks of ravens or the howling of far-off sled dogs? No, because I wear foam ear plugs when I write. It’s how I try to block the other sounds and achieve my own musicality.
Joseph Holt is author of the story collection Golden Heart Parade. His writing has appeared in The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Sun. He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where he also directs the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series. He is a mentor for the AWP Writer to Writer program.