Chuck is a big fan of Radiohead, NIN, and Prodigy. All of these bands played instrumental parts during his writing process of his last few books.

Chuck is a big fan of Radiohead, NIN, and Prodigy. All of these bands played instrumental parts during his writing process of his last few books. But rather than going out and buying music, he usually gravitates to what people recommend or send him.

I use music like a drug. For this non-fiction writing, I like “chill” music – with “Chill Factor Audiotherapy” playing right now. But for editing, I’ll listen to the Chopin Nocturnes that Tiffany Wong sent me. And for the first draft of my next angry story, maybe… Pink Floyd. Other stories, Country and Western. What can I say? I’m a mess.

But for editing, I’ll listen to the Chopin Nocturnes that Tiffany Wong sent me.

God bless Panic! At The Disco!

God bless Lagwagon!

Radiohead

And after that I was listening to “The Frail” and “The Fragile” a lot. But, it was definitely Trent Reznor, anything by Trent Reznor.

And after that I was listening to “The Frail” and “The Fragile” a lot. But, it was definitely Trent Reznor, anything by Trent Reznor.

Boy, I just discovered Nine Inch Nails, and somebody had given me a bootleg tape of Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine. And after that I was listening to “The Frail” and “The Fragile” a lot. But, it was definitely Trent Reznor, anything by Trent Reznor.

Boy, I just discovered Nine Inch Nails, and somebody had given me a bootleg tape of Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine. And after that I was listening to “The Frail” and “The Fragile” a lot.

Right now, I'm secretly addicted to the Taylor Swift song, "I'll Write Your Name." Is that the name of that song? It's one of those, what they used to call, patter songs -- where they tell a very short, choppy, very clever lyric, as opposed to a very repetitive melodious lyric. And so, I'm addicted to kind of ballads and patter songs because the lyrics tend to be a lot more clever.

The last song is the monster: It's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. And when you are 13 years old, washing dishes three days a week in a roadside diner like I was, it is a song that is on the radio constantly.

It is "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits and, again, it's one of those songs that I listen to a thousand times at work in high school, late at night, that kind of taught me that adulthood was not going to be as wonderful as everyone seemed to think it would be and that there would be a lot of lowered expectations as I grew older. But, it wasn't a bad introduction.

"Baker Street" played on our tape of Muzak, our endless Muzak cassette. Hearing "Baker Street" in the middle of the night when I knew I was up later than everyone I knew, and that I was working, that always just kind of carried the weight of what being an adult would be: this grand disillusionment, this grand constant striving towards something that you will never really achieve, this grand burnout. I love that about "Baker Street."

"American Pie", which is a lot of people's favorite song and a lot of people's least favorite song, but I love it!

It's one of those songs that is maybe not the greatest music, but it's associated with a time of life that was so simple and, in comparison, so much nicer than the current time, that still love this song because of the association.

In the summer of 1986, I’d just graduated from college and had gotten an apartment one block away from the Civic Stadium in Portland, Ore. One afternoon, while I sat on the building stoop drinking beer with my neighbors, we listened to the first few minutes of “Young Americans.” Bowie was appearing that night at the stadium, and they did sound checks all afternoon, playing that one song. The song would start, then stop abruptly, then begin again. It played over and over, blasting the neighborhood. I remember the sunshine, the song, and how everything in the world seemed possible with a college degree.