I didn’t realize until after making soundtracks for them, but “Welcome to Wespirtech” is about leaving behind a place that doesn’t fit and “Beyond Wespirtech” is finding where you actually belong… which makes it kind of bittersweet to me, ‘cause I still haven’t really found it…
I guess I wrote “Beyond Wespirtech” as a sort of an aspirational collection of stories, still believing in the idea of finding a place that fits… even if it’s only been in my imagination so far.
The first story in “Beyond Wespirtech” — “Rekindle the Sun” — was written during one the loneliest parts of my life… and it blends a lot of the things I was feeling with that wish-fulfillment hopeful quality. I think the song captures it pretty well.
“Life with the Tumblers” was one of my first big sales — to Baen’s Universe. They made me rewrite it twice which involved a lot of compromise… but it always kept the cool plant-alien core, which I think the song captures pretty nicely.
My story “Summers on Sylverra” turns the world from “The Genetic Menagerie” around and looks at it from the granddaughter’s point of view when she visits her mad scientist grandfather. The shoegaze sound turned out really lovely and dreamy.
The saga of the two conflicting insect alien races in “The Parable of Two Queens” started as an idea I had back when I was like eleven. I kept returning to it for years before I wrote the story.
The song absolutely had to be done in a rock opera style.
“Apples in Aruba” is a phrase that came from babbling noises my first kid made as a baby experimenting with ‘A’ sounds. It led to one of my shortest stories (only 100 words!) and now this ridiculously fun and silly 80s-style do-wop song.
Sometimes my husband has an idea for a story and because I love him very much, I will write that story. Thus exists “Emmanuel and the Cannibals,” the only story I’ve seriously considered outright retiring… twice. Anyway, it makes a weirdly okay ska song?
“For the Sake of Mushrooms” is a story about finding something to keep yourself holding on, even if it’s ridiculously trivial. But of course, in the most space opera way possible. And then the song gives it an 80s shoegaze spin.
I had concerns about how “The Ambi-Cognitive Man” would convert into song… it was a challenging story to write, balancing not only the conjoined brothers’ points of view but also how that clashed with the conjoined colonists’ points of view…
But lightning struck, and the “living in stereo” refrain is just so fun.
“The Girl Who Could Hear the Stars Sing” took my breath away when I first heard it. I wanted to capture a piece of how Brian Wilson’s music makes me feel in a space opera story…
The song sounds nothing like his music, but it does sound like how I feel.
“Little Sandy Starstrong and Her Faithful Robot Dogs” is about a girl, two robot dogs, and an actual dog being dragged around from star to star by her parents, and the song is so, so bubblegum fun.
So, yeah, if you want space opera bubblegum, there ya go.
My dad’s family fell apart fighting over a piece of timberland when I was ten. I put some of those feelings about family chaos and loss into “The Promise of New Heffe,” except you know, all space opera-y. The song turned out really sweet and comforting.
My story “Harvesting Wishes” is a piece of space opera about dandelions, multiple realities, genies, and quantum hyper crystals. The song turned out so pretty; it’s a perfect end to the album, being about choosing to live in the reality you have.