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April 9, 2020
David Moloney's Playlist for His Novel "Barker House"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
David Moloney's novel Barker House is an auspicious and important debut, both striking and compassionate in its views of mass incarceration through the perspective of prison guards.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"Moloney's taut, haunting, and surprisingly hopeful debut takes an unblinking look at America's criminal justice system. . . . An indelible look at how people respond to extremes and fight to hold on to their humanity in dire conditions.”:
In his own words, here is David Moloney's Book Notes music playlist for his novel Barker House:
When I first starting writing Barker House, I was really into the idea of writing short vignettes. The content was heavy, being a book about a jailhouse, so I was concerned with burdening the reader with the content. The vignettes would be short enough to be consumable. But as I began writing the book, I couldn’t contain the characters. I wasn’t being honest or fair to them. And it is true that the kinds of stories and novels I enjoy are difficult and dark. Instead of worrying about the reader, I decided to just write the damn book for me. I hadn’t published a thing at the time, so I was worried about a problem that hadn’t existed yet.
When I began considering this playlist, I was excited to treat it as I had with my Napster and Limewire burned CDs, the ones I meticulously constructed, played for passengers in my Mercury Topaz, shooshed them when they laughed over a song I wanted them to particularly hear. There would be a theme. Start strong, with a quick hitter. A couple of the favorites front loading the CD. Then, a quiet track for song five, the mid-way palette cleanser. And so forth. And then it hit me. This is exactly how I shuffled and ordered the stories/chapters in Barker House.
So, my playlist may follow along with the chapters in the book. This isn’t a compilation of songs about jail. Because when I worked at the jail, then wrote about the jail, I didn’t consider the music I was listening to to be informing my attitude or writing. It was just good music. Plop into the Topaz with me. Sorry about the bad shocks. The Playboy bunny seat covers came with it, and either I sort of like them or am too lazy to remove them. Oh, and you need to hold the Discman or the CD will skip:
1. An Horse - “Scared as Fuck” from Rearrange Beds
I first heard An Horse while at the gym, trying to lose the stress weight I put on while working at the jail, but also trying to slap some muscle on. I used to walk around in a created persona---shaved head, chest puffed---because I wanted to prove I wasn’t scared. But there were days I was scared as fuck. This song portrays that conflicting sentiment perfectly. If you tell yourself you aren’t scared enough, then maybe you can convince yourself, and everyone else, you aren’t.
2. Frightened Rabbit - “My Backwards Walk” from The Midnight Organ Fight
This song is both sad and hopeful. I like the way there’s a struggle between wanting to be with someone, but also knowing it is wrong. Or not being able to move on. Or being ghosted. Scott Hutchinson, the lead singer of Frightened Rabbit, wrestled with his demons, and eventually they won. But his death brought me back to their early music, and I’ve been listening to it through a newer lens.
3. Modest Mouse - “The World at Large” from Good News for People Who Love Bad News
There’s always been something about this song I loved, not only the way Isaac Brock spoke to me in my early twenties, as I was a loner and drifter, but how there’s a sense of promise in his music. There’re characters trying to start over towards the end of the book, and a change of scenery doesn’t always fix what’s broken.
4. Explosions in the Sky - “Wilderness” from The Wilderness
This song, and album, played in the background during many writing shifts. It undulates gently and then explodes, like my favorite stories.
5. Band of Horses - “Dull Times/The Moon” from Why Are You OK
“What’s your life like with all that you’ve done?/You’ve done, you’ve done.” A big question in the book, and my life, deals with this question. I tend to think about dull times as just that, but then I envision myself on my deathbed pleading for the dull times back. All of them.
6. John K. Samson - “Select All Delete” from Winter Wheat
Again, the song title’s action was something I did quite often to bad drafts, but also what I wanted to do about hundreds of my yesterdays.
7. Dirty on Purpose - “No Radio” from Hallelujah Sirens
My shoegaze phase has never left me, nor do I believe it ever will. This song reminds me of the times I was excited about something in life but it didn’t come to fruition, yet the upbeat feel keeps me hopeful someday it will.
8. Japandroids - “The House that Heaven Built” from Celebration Rock
This is a bit of an “F you” song, which I love. There’s also the play on “house,” as I play with in the book. Same as the next and final song.
9. We Were Promised Jetpacks - “This is My House, This is My Home” from These Four Walls
Sometimes I felt like the jailhouse was my home, but I never wanted to be there, nor call it home. I know the people incarcerated there don’t want it to be their home. This song infers something happened in the house, and the inhabitants don’t want to shed light on it. Living with secrets. Something, on either side of the jail doors, we all have in common.
David Moloney is a writer, teacher, and facilitates classes for the bibliotherapy program, Changing Lives Through Literature. He holds an MFA from The Mountainview Low-Residency Program at Southern New Hampshire University, where he was awarded the Lynn Safford Memorial Prize. He lives in Lowell, MA. with his wife and two children.
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