Blue Noise
Blue Noise
Blue Noise is about people letting you down, how to survive your family and the amazing thrill of making music with your friends.
Debra Oswald's introduction to music was as a teenager lying on the bedroom floor listening to records and occasionally sneaking into French's Wine Bar in Oxford Street. Her first experience with writing about music came from writing the iconic 80s ABC show 'Sweet and Sour' about a young rock band.
Years later her connection to music resurged when her son Joe was 12 and dug out her old vinyl blues records from the cellar. From there he learnt harmonica from legend Jim Conway and formed a band with friends. Now her house has become what she had always dreamt about, full of teenager musicians, amps, instruments, tangled leads, pizza boxes and loud music.
Together with her husband, ABC presenter Richard Glover, the family travels to music festivals that allow under 18s and hold gigs in their lounge room. She wrote Blue Noise because she believes that live music is a thrill that she recommends to anyone, especially teenagers. She says, 'Nothing compares to going to a live gig with friends (or even your parents) and feeling the bass thumping in your ribcage and the musicians making the music a few feet away from you.'
A Boy. A Girl. A Band. It'll Never Work…
Ash and Erin are unhappy. Ash's family is like a black hole and playing guitar is the only escape. Too bad he'll never afford his dream guitar; the Butterscotch Blonde Fender in Guitar Heaven. Erin is an insecure chronic overthinker with well-meaning but grade-obsessed parents. She doesn't go to parties. You can't be graded on social skills and she can never think of what to say anyways.
When Ash has a spontaneous blue jam session with weird new boy Charlie, he is persuaded to join Charlie's band, even though he thinks that the band will fail- they always do. Charlie shanghais Erin into joining as well, but she thinks the band will fall apart. Beside, what will she tell her parents? But maybe Ash and Erin are wrong. Maybe being in a band together and playing blues is just what they are missing.
Debra Oswald is a writer for film, television, stage and children's fiction. Her novels for teenagers include Getting Air and Blue Noise, and her children's novels include The Redback Leftovers, Me and Barry Terrific, The Return of the Baked Bean, The Fifth Quest and several Aussie Bites titles. Debra's plays include Gary's House, Sweet Road and The Peach Season, which were all shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award. She has written several plays for teenage audiences, including Dags, which has been performed around Australia, in Britain and the United States. Her recent play for young people, Stories in the Dark, won the 2008 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play.
Debra's television credits include Police Rescue, Palace of Dreams, Bananas in Pyjamas and The Secret Life of Us. She is currently writing a pilot for a new TV series for Network Ten. Debra lives in Sydney with her husband and two sons.
Blue Noise
Random House Australia
Author: Debra Oswald
ISBN: 9781741663754
Price: $18.95
