Sound Advice: Life Lessons from 80s Pop with Alan Green

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Hi, I’m Wayne Kelly, a writer, podcast host and coach. I love to help writers develop their skills and get their books and stories out into the world.

In this episode I’m joined by Alan Green, debut author of Sound Advice, a fascinating book that digs into the hidden life lessons of 1980s pop music. Alan shares how redundancy after nearly three decades at a law firm sparked a complete life reset and gave him the time to explore his idea. We talk about the joys of music as a catalyst for change, the conservatism of traditional publishing, and the creative routines that transformed his Mondays from something to dread into his favourite day of the week.

Alan also opens up about keeping himself out of the book so readers could focus on their own lives, the tricky business of copyright and song lyrics, and how rejection letters ultimately helped him find the perfect publishing home at Salt.

As always, we cover our regular segments including The Book That Saved Your Life, where Alan highlights Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life, and his admiration for Bill Bryson’s writing.

Whether you’re a music lover, a writer, or someone in need of a little sound advice of your own, this is a really inspiring conversation.

Episode Highlights

• Using 80s pop as a prism for universal themes like love, work, ageing and worry
• Why Alan deliberately left himself out of the book
• How originality can be a tough pitch in publishing
• The power of small daily habits in building a creative life
• Alan’s book choices in The Book That Saved Your Life

Wayne Kelly offers self-publishing packages and mentoring for writers at wkwproductions.co.uk/selfpublishing.