‘I had so much fun’: Holly Brickley on creating Deep Cuts, the pop-culture hit of the moment

It’s the pop-culture story of the moment: debut novel about music, love and unhealthy relationships gets snapped up for a mega-name movie. Now, meet the woman behind Deep Cuts.

‘This song just destroys me, every damn time’ … a Taylor Swift track is among red-hot Deep Cuts writer Holly Brickley’s own deepest cuts, which she shares below.

Why are musicians so annoying?

Because we wish we could be them.

I do, anyway. And I don’t think I’m alone. There’s something so visceral and powerful about music that makes it more enviable than other forms of expression. Sure, I can write, tapping my little letters onto a two-dimensional page – but musicians can change the energy in a room, filling it with absolute magic. It makes me love and hate them all at once.

This dynamic is what I set out to explore in my debut novel, Deep Cuts. It tells the story of an obsessive music lover, Percy, and her friendship/romance/collaboration with a singer-songwriter, Joe, whom Percy envies as much as she loves.

‘Moody swagger’ … Austin Butler.

‘Perfect Percy’ … Saoirse Ronan.

If that sounds like an unhealthy foundation for a relationship, you are correct. Their love is fraught, and we watch it ignite and explode over the years as Percy struggles to find her own creative power.

Along the way, Percy uses music to make sense of her life — including both the fictional songs she creates with Joe, as well as real songs that readers will recognise. She analyses the lyrics of Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading; she sweats on a dancefloor to OutKast and Pulp; she has quiet epiphanies in the audience of Joanna Newsom and LCD Soundsystem shows. (The book is set between 2000 and 2008).

I had so much fun writing Deep Cuts that it may have actually cured me of the envy I set out to explore. Then, as if this wasn’t enough, I sold the film rights to A24, who are making a Deep Cuts movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler, directed by Sean Durkin. To say I am elated by this news would be an understatement.

‘I had so much fun writing Deep Cuts’ … now Holly Brickley, pictured at home in Portland, Oregon, is seeing her debut novel have a pop-culture moment.

Ronan is the perfect Percy — full of fiery intelligence, yet vulnerable — and Butler has all the moody swagger I envisioned for Joe. Most thrillingly, for me, the fictional songs I wrote for the book won’t be fictional anymore!

A “deep cut,” if you aren’t familiar with the term, is an obscure, under-the-radar song. But in the book, Percy gives the term her own definition, based solely on the song’s impact on the listener: “How deep does it cut? How close to the bone? How long does it last?”

Using this definition, here are four of my all-time deepest cuts:

Couldn’t Call it Unexpected No. 4 by Elvis Costello. A beautiful waltz about death that manages to be both devastating and optimistic. For extra emotional punch, look up his performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991 on YouTube.

Mirrorballby Taylor Swift. Maybe it’s because this song came out during a low point for me in the pandemic. Maybe it’s the lyric, which is the raw, honest confession of a pathologically good student. This song just destroys me, every damn time.

‘Epic, engrossing’ … big-name writers are praising Deep Cuts.

Heartbeats by The Knife. This is the quintessential song of the Deep Cuts era, for me, and yet it remains eternally fresh. I swear this song could be played on a dancefloor in the year 2075, when the club is staffed by robots and you need a hazmat suit to go outside, and it’ll sound just as exciting, just as arresting and full of promise, as it did when our century was new.

Hey Yaby OutKast. This cuts deep in its own way, by instantly yanking me back to a time when nothing mattered but the fun I had on a Friday night. A song that is fun — truly, maniacally fun — is just as profound as a sad one: I will die on this hill!

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley is out now, published by HarperCollins. Is it on your TBR pile? Share your recommendations at THE SUNDAY BOOK CLUB on Facebook.

Originally published as ‘I had so much fun’: Holly Brickley on creating Deep Cuts, the pop-culture hit of the moment