Music Behind The Story...HUSH IS BACK!

Greetings and Salutations Rock 'n' Rollers! I'm so stoked to have Summer of Hush back out in the wild! I had so much fun writing about the band Hush and their adventures on the last cross-country Warped Tour! And for the first time, Summer of Hush is available in Kindle Unlimited! It will be released wide in 90 days.

I've received such lovely reviews for this book and so many folks have reached out and said they love the band...it made writing Book Two exciting. Brains and Brawn will be out 8/24 and I can't wait for you to meet the brilliant drummer and his Navy corpsman savior.

I've written extensively about my inspiration for this series, but I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite songs that inspired some pivotal scenes...

First up is The Amity Affliction. Krish goes to see them do their set in the book and he recalls hearing their music with his brother:

"The music brought such vivid memories of Vivaan it was almost as though he were standing next to Krish. Music had been the brothers’ common language. Vivaan taught Krish all he knew and took him to shows as soon as their mother agreed they were old enough to go alone. Warped had been their favorite, and standing at the rear of the crowd watching the new generation of Warped fans screaming and ready to mosh reminded Krish of how it had felt all those years ago with his brother.

As The Amity Affliction ripped into their song “Pittsburgh,” Krish was taken back to the last show he and Vivaan went to before Viv was sent overseas. He ignored the tear that slipped down his cheek and recalled how he played the song over and over during his initial grieving period. His blog had just begun to take off, and many of his readers related to his posts about losing his brother and continued to follow him over the years despite what direction he took the blog. It was always music, but he wrote about grief, he wrote about being an LGBTQ man who happened to be a person of color, and he wrote about the responsibility all Americans had to preserve the rights of others."

One of the bands that's been a huge influence on me since my young adulthood is Judas Priest. They're not Warped Tour music, but they paved the way for so many bands in the metal scene, as well as LGBTQ folks in music. Lead singer Rob Halford came out in 1998 and it had a profound effect on me. I was proud that the metal community barely flinched at the news and Priest retained their status as the Metal Gods. The album Painkiller is one of my all-time favorites, and love for this album almost causes an issue for Krish:

Krish’s head jerked up, and he hurriedly shoved his phone into his pocket. “Hey. Mmm Priest. Painkiller is my favorite album, maybe of all time. That and Point of Entry.”

Silas beamed. I knew you were perfect. “Painkiller is their best album. The fact they wrote it when they were coming back from their darkest hour really inspired me while we were writing this current album. An angry comeback.”

Krish accepted Silas’s extended hand and linked their fingers. “I couldn’t believe what they went through with that court case. Did you ever see the documentary Dancing with the Devil? I can’t find it anywhere anymore, but it was about several artists accused of Satanic shit back in the eighties. There was footage from their trial and everything.”

An affinity for Judas Priest too? Either that was an incredible coincidence, or maybe he really was the Guru. Silas hadn’t come right out and asked, but he wished he knew for sure. He didn’t want to waste any more time worrying about it.

One of my favorite characters to write in this series is Ryan Wells, lead singer of Backdrop Silhouette. My inspiration for this character came from Falling In Reverse singer Ronnie Radke. He is wildly unpredictable onstage. Love him or loathe him, he's got that something that I can appreciate and the music he's been a part of sticks with me. I've seen the band several times and I would go again just to see what the hell he'll do this time. Check out this performance from Warped Tour.

"Backdrop Silhouette took the stage, and Silas and Krish stopped to watch them play. Ryan was in snarky form, strutting back and forth across the stage, engaging people in the crowd as he went. He shouted for them to get the circle pit going, and they obliged him. He mocked the people along the back, encouraging them to get a little dirty as they launched into their newest hit, “Dirty Work.” Then he slid off his black leather jacket and rubbed his stomach tattoo that said Alive and Kicking. He let his hand wander down to cup himself, sending the girls in the audience squealing with delight. Krish watched as Silas shook his head.

“You guys ever thought about adding a bass player? Free up your hands?”

Silas snorted. “So I can grab my dick onstage? Nah. I feel better having something to do with my hands,” he said, raising an eyebrow at Krish.

“You are good with your hands,” Krish said quietly, but Silas heard him, and they had a moment of electricity that went straight to his groin.

“Yeah, well, I think I might need to do some more practice later.”

“I like being your practice.”

Krish’s knees went weak when Silas licked his lips. That piercing was going to be the death of him.

“You’re dangerous,” Silas said. “My plan to get you away from horizontal surfaces is feeling like a bad one right about now.”

Krish laughed. “I know. But there’s time. I’m just happy to be here with you, watching… Ryan. Is he…?”

They looked up to find Ryan with his hand in his leather pants, and they both cracked up. Ryan was a bad-boy tractor beam for temptation of the worst kind. You knew after a night with him your heart would be torn out of your chest and stomped on, and yet you would let yourself get sucked in.

“Dude is a mess,” Silas said. “Hotter than hell, and he knows it.” He shook his head. “He’s so damned talented, though. He doesn’t need the show, you know? He could stand up there in a boring suit, and his voice and lyrics would stand on their own.”

I hope you'll check out the Summer of Hush series and fall in love on the Warped Tour...

A couple more items before I go...

I'll be joining Avery Flynn's Flynnbots on Wednesday and I'd love for you to join us! I'll be going live and talking about my latest adventures!

I've also got a freebie out right now as part of the August Romance Giveaway. Check it out and pick up some free reads for your Dog Days of Summer!

That's it for today's Music Behind The Story! Thanks so much to OtherWorlds Ink for helping to share my release today and for all of you who have supported this re-release! There will be an extensive blog tour starting on August 24th for Brains and Brawn. I will post links as they go up on the Summer of Hush page at www.rlmerrillauthor.com.

Stay Tuned for more Rock 'n' Romance...