When it comes to music in my novels, I am always very cautious what fits best: Do I incorporate an existing artist, or do I invent a band? “Suicide Hotel” is my first novel featuring both. My invented band JENNY HAS TRAFFIC I already introduced earlier on in this blog series. Time now for the real musician!
MAX WUERDEN is an ambient musician based in Cologne, Germany. And yes, we know each other, and more than that, we are friends. Now you may think, well, that's not a biggy, featuring a befriended musician in a novel, but it sure is for me. I never did that before, because not only has the music to be outstanding, but it also has to fit the story! If I wanted to, I could have written him into 15 novels before this one. I didn't—although we worked on many film- and audio projects (band and radio plays) together. This is the novel.
So who is MAX WUERDEN? Everybody starts with bands, so did he; eventually he played in a formation called AURICULARIS, while I performed spoken word, and again and again I was approached by my audience, if I heard of them, and finally met him on a camp ground, we hit it off and became A&N. We toured Germany and had a lot of fun rehearsing with the other band members. Then I moved to Canada, and Max moved further into ambient music.
Last month he played at the ambient festival in Paris, France, and his albums you can buy at Kompakt Records, in Cologne, or by Oigovisiones, Spain, or by A Strangely Isolated Place, Los Angeles ... on opaque purple vinyl ... if not sold out ... okay, by now I bet you can guess, what I want to say: He. Is. Good.
And that's why in the year 2112, his music is played everywhere in public: it's either Max or Mozart.
Thank you for your time.
credit for photo/design/cover art on Max Wuerden bandcamp homepage