LIBRARY BLOG
A Soundtrack with Vampire Vibes
A playlist for the necks time you read Anne Rice
Happy Halloween Month! What better way is there to celebrate the spooky season than by creating a soundtrack for one of South Louisiana’s most famous horror novels, Interview with the Vampire, by New Orleans native Anne Rice? You know how movies have soundtracks that set the mood and personify characters? This is exactly that, but with a book instead! When you inevitably start reading Interview with the Vampire in preparation for Halloween this year, rest assured that we have a playlist of jams for you to continue feeling spooked even after you’re done reading. Whether you listen while reading or after is up to you—but beware the scare of getting way too confused from your brain imputing too many words at once.
Do we have to put a spoiler alert on this? The book is old enough to have a wife and kids.
1. “Thoughts that Breath” by Set it Off
An encompassing song: This instrumental is less than 30 seconds long, but the pipe organ and drums give me a spooky, Victorian Gothic story vibe.
2. “Blown-out Joy from Heaven’s Mercied Hole” by Silver Mt. Zion
A character and plot song: This song captures Louis’s despondency over his brother’s death in the beginning of the novel both with its somber chords and opening lyrics (the only words in the whole song, making them pretty important) “Don’t tell me that I am free / Don’t tell me that I am free / Because I have not been well lately.” The lyrics call to mind Louis’s desperate pleas of, “I want to die. You have the power to kill me. Let me die.”
The composition slowly becomes more and more frantic around the six-minute mark just for a minute, resembling Louis’s short but dastardly introduction with the vampire Lestat. The whole song requires some definite commitment to listen to its nearly ten-minute run-time, but the overall length also speaks to how long Louis is lamenting in his depressed state.
3. “Mephistopheles” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
A plot song: This is one of the only non-instrumental songs in the soundtrack. While “Mephistopheles” is clearly about ya boy Faust (you know, from Faust), the lyrics can also be taken as a dramatic revisioning of Lestat turning Louis into a vampire and taking on the role of the manipulative teacher.
4. “Boy Like Me” by Barns Courtney
A character song: Courtney’s lamenting that he “can’t believe / there ain’t no love / for a boy like me” and brooding over how lonely he is sounds like what Lestat would tell himself while staring at his own face in the mirror in the morning (you know, while pretending he has a reflection in the first place). Lestat’s paralyzing desire for literally anyone to love him drives all of his actions in the novel, and I can’t hear this song without him coming to mind.
5. “Be My Doll” by Adrian von Zeigler
A plot song: This song supplies the perfect ambience for when Lestat, in an attempt to stop Louis from leaving him, turns five-year-old Claudia into a vampire to be their child companion. The bells and tinkling piano throughout the instrumental evoke the images of the quintessential creepy child. “Be My Doll” specifically reminds me of Claudia’s love of acting like an inanimate doll and tricking the adults around her.
6. “13 Angels Standing Guard ‘Round the Side of Your Bed” by Silver Mt. Zion
A plot song: The eerie and absolutely disenchanting choir of angels give me a church-y vibe. Imagine these little “angels” shrieking in the background as Louis tries to see a priest for confession and ends up killing the poor man.
7. “Toccata & Fugue in D minor” by Johannes Sebastian Bach
A plot song: Is there a score better suited to play in the background of a vampire’s dramatic entrance than the first minute or so of what is the classic vampire song? Not one that I can uncover. This song is always in my head when Lestat finds Louis and Claudia when the two think he’s been dead the whole time.
8. “Overture” by Black Veil Brides
A plot song: Louis and Claudia’s ship ride to Europe at the beginning of Part II acts as an intermission of sorts. The optimistic theme exuding from “Overture” matches the air of hopefulness Louis has ruminating over finally being safe from Lestat and the prospects of starting fresh in a new country as he leaves New Orleans behind.
9. “Human Frailty” by Peter Gundry
A plot song: Something about the trilling piano just reminds me of a theater, so this gives a quite fitting ambiance when Louis and Claudia are watching Armand and the other Parisian vampires’ play. It just sounds like it’d be in a production. you know?
10.“One Man’s Grief” by Peter Gundry
A plot song: For some clearly inexplicable reason the vibes of this song about a man grieving makes me think of Louis greiving over Claudia’s death. But seriously, the violins are so mournful they sound like they’re crying.
11. “Requiem (The Fifth)” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
A plot song: You know when you’re out with the gals and have to burn a theater down? Here’s your hype song, and it was probably Louis’s, too, when he did exactly that to avenge poor Claudia. The song just calls the image of flames to mind. (Note: Don’t burn a theater down with the gals. That’s arson, and arson is illegal.)
12. “Esquimalt Harbor” by Set Fire to Flames
A plot song: Listen to this song and tell me you don’t imagine walking down a dark street and seeing someone you recognize. I think this song sums up events when Louis returns to New Orleans and sees the once charming, powerful Lestat is now withered away from his desperate need to have companionship.
13. “Steal Compass / Drive North / Disappear” by Set Fire to Flames
A concluding song: The eerie yet bittersweet sound of this song pairs with the novel’s ending of the unnamed interviewer demanding to be turned into a vampire (because all the trials and tribulations Louis just told him about wasn’t enough to put him off immortality—what an optimist). If books had credits, this song would fade out of the ending scene and into those. Just think of this score whenever you get to the Acknowledgments page. That’s the best we’ll get for credits.
We have more book playlists for you to browse at your leisure!
YA Novels with Compatible Vibes to Various All Time Low Songs
-Lillian LeCompte, Reference Department