Behind the Scenes of “Don’t Date the Haunted,” Bonus Soundtrack

Now might be a fun time to share the soundtrack of this trilogy. I’m addicted to music (maybe because I was raised by a violin teacher and her office was below my bedroom). Seriously, it’s cheaper for me to pay for a music subscription than to buy all the music that I want. I don’t have any annual TV memberships/subscriptions, but I do have a YouTube Music subscription.

As I mentioned on my “About” page, I play the harp and listen to heavy beat music. I sing along to vocals (don’t judge), so I need non-lyrical music while writing (or I will write the words to the song). While writing the first drafts of “Don’t Date the Haunted” and its following books, I listened to one of three playlists, titled: “Calm Classical,” “Haunted Classical,” and “Intense Classical.” I spent most of the time in the “Haunted” playlist, which included soundtrack music like Hans Zimmer’s “Inception,” “Chronicles of Narnia” by Harry Gregson-Williams, pieces from the various Harry Potter composers, and even the soundtrack from Total Annihilation (the computer game).

This playlist also included classical music such as “Dance of the Blessed Spirits,” “A Night on Bald Mountain,” “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” “Notations IV,” “Fur Elise,” and “The Planets: Neptune.”

In this same playlist, I also had random non-lyrical heavy beat music like the slow pieces from “Tron: Legacy,” covers by Apocalyptica, even “Introduction,” by Panic! At the Disco, and “A New Beginning,” by Good Charlotte. (Yes, I’m a 90s kid).

I stayed with that playlist for the first couple drafts, until my husband introduced me to Audiomachine. I listened to their “Chronicles” album while in the early stages of revising and drafting “Don’t Marry the Cursed.” This was how I discovered that I’m less distracted by the music if it doesn’t accompany a familiar movie.

THEN I discovered that one of my favorite pop artists had taken a couple years off to compose 11 albums of soundtrack-style music. It was perfect. Not only did I want to support the artist because I loved everything he produced, but it was a large variety of intense and moving music that didn’t have movies to distract me. I’ve linked his album of “Omaha Beach” because I listened to it the most.

If I could have everything I wanted, “Don’t Date the Haunted” would be filmed with the score by Adam Young, and the end credits song would be sung by Night Argent (from the Tri-Cities of WA).

Not to be forgotten are the songs that inspired individual scenes or chapters, such as “Ode to Sleep,” by Twenty-One Pilots for chapter 2 and Pansy’s shower rap, and “Crystalize” by Gentri for the “toward” comment–you can read more about those in my BtS post of Chapter 2. Also, the theme song of Chapter 19, as mentioned in the BtS post.

Pansy’s Theme Song

Before I get into the theme songs for the characters, you should probably know that I chose these AFTER writing the books. Also, these songs are specific to the characters’ states in “Don’t Date the Haunted.”

So, if Pansy had a theme song, it would be “Survivor,” specifically by 2WEI. This specific version would also make good background music for a movie trailer.

Some runner-ups to Pansy’s theme song include:
“Demons,” and “Monster,” by Imagine Dragons (I kept going back and forth between “Survivor” and “Monster” on her number 1).
“Bird with a Broken Wing,” by Owl City
“Miss Independent,” by Kelly Clarkson
“MONSTERS,” by Shinedown

I’ll include a YouTube Music playlist of all these songs at the end so you won’t need to look up the runner-ups all on your own.

Theo’s theme song: “The Fighter,” by Gym Class Heroes
His ideal theme song would be more folksy/Celtic, but I chose these theme songs based on their lyrical concepts, not their tones.
Runner-ups: “I’ll Fight” and “Start of Something Good,” by Daughtry
“Deer in the Headlights,” by Owl City

Oz’s theme song: “I’ll Be There,” by Runaground
Runner-ups: “Never Gonna Be Alone,” by Nickelback
“Follow Me,” by Muse

Here are some sweet and innocent love songs for
Heather’s theme song: “Rainbow,” by Colbie Caillat
Runner-ups: “Call Me Maybe,” by Carly Rae Jepsen
“Love Story,” by Taylor Swift

Emma’s theme song: “Me Too,” by Meghan Trainor
Runner-ups: “Hey, Soul Sister,” by Train
“Teenage Dream,” by Katy Perry

Thanks to my roommates, I have some country songs for
Hank’s theme song: “Kiss a Girl,” by Keith Urban
Runner-ups: “Storm Warning,” by Hunter Hayes
“Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

None of these are perfect, but hey, Mr. E’s a hard person to describe.
Mr. E’s theme song: “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers
Runner-up: “Help!” by The Beatles
“What’s Up,” by 4 Non Blondes

A fast song for the masquerade: “Learning to Fly,” by Shepperd
A slow song for the masquerade: “Here for You,” by Peter Fenn
Theme song for the land of Horror: “Bleeding Out,” by Imagine Dragons
Theme song for the land of Contemporary, Romance: “Sweet Serendipity,” by Lee DeWyze

. . . Yes, I like a peculiar variety of music.

Here’s the YouTube Music playlist with all of the lyrical music (in order of mention from above) and the playlist for all of Adam Young’s non-lyrical music (that I use for writing).

PS. I don’t own the rights to any of these songs or videos.