I’m very interested in your musical background because it seems that your musical journey, (certainly in terms of the books you’ve written), very much mirrors my own – I mean, one of the first records I bought was In Utero, which changed my world to some degree… Offered with an apology for the monumental delay, read on and meet Nick Soulsby. Nevertheless, this fascinating interview serves, for me at least, as a wonderful addendum to an enthralling book, and Nick’s anecdotes regarding his experiences in putting it all together, provide a clear insight into the challenging, yet exciting world of music journalism. Nick has subsequently written and released “ Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over: A Companion To The Film By Beth B”, a highly recommended text that once again shows his passion for that fascinating period in American music that ran from the 1980s into the late 1990s. Unfortunately, for reasons that were entirely my own fault, the interview has long languished in the SonicAbuse vaults predominantly finished but unedited. Fortunately, Nick is a courteous and eloquent interviewee (as anyone who has read his work might well expect), and I was happy to find that we shared a great deal in common musically, both of us having grown up on a diet of US alternative, punk and no wave. Quite aside from the book being fascinating in its own right, I was more than a little curious about the process of producing such a work, so, when Nick agreed to an interview, I was not only excited but also a touch daunted as I’ve had few opportunities to interview authors and it is by no means certain ground. A painstakingly researched and sequenced collection of interviews, it charts the tumultuous history of a band that has proved to be one of the most influential and thought-provoking acts of its time.

The Oral History” (as reviewed here) is a remarkable achievement. The book, “ Swans, Sacrifice and Transcendence. It was sometime back in September 2018 that Nick Soulsby got in touch to tell me about a book he’d been working on.

Cobain on Cobain by Nick Soulsby