Song for a Scene – FALLING SLOWLY cover by Chester See & Savannah Outen

Before I even get into the song for my scene today, I want to give a shout out to the ORIGINAL creators of this song. Falling Slowly was originally done by The Swell Season (which consists of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) and was featured in the movie Once.because it is super awesome and I love it to death. Oh, and it won a Oscar for best original song, so it’s pretty good
And Candace Callihan (minus the sleeve tattoo):
Music has and always will be a huge part of my life, but when I started writing Keep Your Eyes on Me, I never really planned on the characters connecting through music. It was just one of those magical moments where you get the spark of an idea while you’re writing and it makes so much sense for the message of the story and for the characters in it.

As the story progressed, it became very clear to me that each of them did have a passion or a level of curiosity with music and the more I built that up, the more I saw how much deeper it brought Candace and Roland together.

Candace is struggling to lift herself out of the shadow of her famous mother who writes best-selling novels. Though she attempts to write stories like her mom, she always finds herself writing more in verses and things more fitting for song lyrics than actual prose. She’s intrigued by the baby grand piano that collects dust in her house but it’s been out of tune for so long that no one really touches it

Roland, on the other hand, has always had a passion for music, but when he’s involved in a horrible car accident that leaves a twelve-year-old boy dead, his passions fall away from him because he blames himself for the boy’s death.

The two eventually work out a song together, and if I could pick any song to be dropped into my movie version of my book, it would definitely be this one. I went on a search of cover songs to see if there was a couple that reminded me of my characters more. Savannah Outen reminds me greatly of Candace in this video so I was drawn to her immediately. And although the guy in this video, Chester See, is not the sandy haired, blue eyed Roland that I picture, he still has the general build and definitely has the cuteness level I imagine Roland having, so I think it still works.

Also, although I think they both are great singers, I think it feels like there is a small sense of vulnerability in the way they both sing, like they are a bit shy on doing it, until the song builds up more and the feed off of each other’s passion. I like to think of my characters feeling the same way, not being professionals or even really knowing what they are doing when working through a song together, but helping each other through it and becoming more confident as it goes on.

Lastly, there seems to be a natural chemistry of the two in the video that I hope I can accurately display in my novel of Roland and Candace. Even the lines that they trade off singing fit directly with the different elements of my book and what each one is going through. This version and video definitely inspired me as I wrote the scene where they finally open up and help one another through music.