In this conversation, writer and activist Preti Taneja, along with journalist Tom Gatti and acclaimed novelist David Mitchell, delve into the transformative power of music. They share how albums like Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' and A Tribe Called Quest's 'Midnight Marauders' shaped their identities. Gatti confesses his obsession with Radiohead’s 'The Bends.' The trio explores the deep emotional resonance of music and its influence on their writing, illustrating the unforgettable connections between sound and storytelling.
54:40
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Joni Mitchell's Impact
David Mitchell bought Joni Mitchell's Blue after his last A-level exam.
It was the first album he saw as an artistic statement, marking the start of his adulthood.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Finding Voice Through Music
Preti Taneja discovered A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders as a teenager.
The album helped her embrace her identity and find her voice.
insights INSIGHT
The Walkman Effect
Walkmans create a private, personalized musical experience.
They enhance the emotional connection with music.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
This book is a captivating collection of essays where fifty writers share how specific albums have influenced their lives, identities, and creative paths. It spans a wide range of musical genres and eras, from vinyl to streaming, highlighting the profound impact of music on personal narratives.
We that are young
Preti Taneja
We That Are Young is a searing exploration of human fallibility, set in contemporary India where wealth and power collide with poverty and corruption. The novel follows the story of Devraj Bapuji, a billionaire who pits his three daughters against each other, mirroring the tragic dynamics of King Lear. Taneja's work masterfully weaves together themes of family, loyalty, and the fragility of the human heart.
Utopia Avenue
David Mitchell
Our favourite albums are our most faithful companions. We listen to them over and over, we know them far better than any novel or film. These records don’t just soundtrack our lives – they work their way deep inside us, shaping our outlook and identity, forging our friendships and charting our love affairs. They become part of our story.
In this special podcast for Intelligence Squared, journalist and music obsessive Tom Gatti – editor of Long Players, a new anthology of writing on albums – was in conversation with two of his contributors, acclaimed novelist David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) and writer and activist Preti Taneja, author of the prize-winning novel We That Are Young. They discussed the power of certain records to act on us like Proustian madeleines, transporting us back to a particular time and place – Gatti, by his own admission, has listened to Radiohead’s The Bends more times than is strictly necessary; Mitchell’s great formative influence is Joni Mitchell’s Blue; Taneja grew up with Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest. And they explored how music influences their writing – directly in the case of Mitchell’s latest novel, Utopia Avenue, the epic tale of a psychedelic rock band’s rise to stardom in the late sixties.
To find out more about Long Players click here: https://www.primrosehillbooks.com/product/long-players-writers-on-the-albums-that-shaped-them-tom-gatti/
To see the Spotify playlist that accompanies the book please go here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5bzkr33b38k4egE6laYQuC
Intelligence Squared 
