1. NirvanaNevermind

I first heard Nirvana probably when I was 11 or 12. There was an older kid in my neighbourhood who used to listen to them on a boom box on the back of his BMX, but I didn’t know what it was. I remember it sounding like a car crash, like nothing I’d ever heard before, so violent and aggressive. Also this kid was pretty cool, he had a chopper bike and a jean jacket, he might even have had one tattoo. I just remember thinking ‘he’s a badass’, while I was on my neon bike and wearing shorts. I didn’t stand a chance.

I never spoke to him, I just asked his little brother what it was, and then later I was in a record store with my mum and we saw Nirvana Unplugged…, and I said ‘I love this band!’. I think she was so shocked that I had said I loved anything at all that she bought the album on cassette and it was what we listened to on the school run. It was then I first started truly caring about delivery, I’m less bothered about the actual songs. I’m interested in art, I consider myself an artist more than a musician because I can’t actually play an instrument. I nearly chose Bleach because that’s catharsis on tape, but everything about Nevermind is iconic, it’s got everything you could want from Nirvana.