2025 LOOKBACK– OF PRESENTS PAST
An overview of my writing in the past year – Here to Now
I had some great pieces come together in 2024, and I’m hoping to commit to more freelance writing alongside regular Substack exclusives into 2025.
THE WAY OUT IS THROUGH: NINE INCH NAILS’ ‘HESITATION MARKS’ AT 10
Written for POP MATTERS I worked on this longread exploration of Nine Inch Nails’ Hesitation Marks for several months, it was great to pull together so much information on one of NIN most accomplsihed but sometimes overlooked albums.
ROCK AND ROLL SAVIOUR
HAPPY MAG featured an extract from my Nick Cave book, Darker With The Dawn, a critical examination of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds discography, exploring his approaches to religion, love and loss. This extract takes a deep dive into the band’s famous early song ‘Tupelo’.
NEVER HEARD MARQUEE MOON – THE CULTURE WE DESERVE
I was quite proud of this one – an examination of a curious Twitter tag mocking uptight politicos who make unashamed power grabs hiding behind popular music. Featured on the excellent cultural criticism site – The Culture We Deserve.
NIN’S THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL AT 30 – SPIN
A major album for me, I was grateful to write an in-depth feature for Spin that involved exclusive interviews with a host people involved in the making-of The Downward Spiral, including engineer/producers, Flood and Alan Moulder.
LOUDER THAN WAR – Nico: The Marble Index and Desert Shore album reissues
A great opportunity to revisit Nico’s second and third solo albums, glacial, full of heart and challenging, Nico’s contribution to music aside from The Velvet Underground has long been neglected. John Cale as producer stated they were some of the best albums he had ever been involved in.
INTERVIEW — CARLOS ALOMAR On Bowie, Songwriting, Buddhism and Fighting Back The Fear
A joy to interview the great Carlos Alomar, rhythm guitarist mainstay for many of David Bowie’s greatest albums. Always a calming, amusing and dangerously charming interviewee, we managed to cover a range of topics. I also spoke alongside Carlos and DAM Trio Bassist George Murray at the World Bowie Convention 2024 this summer.
Check out my Bowie book, Silhouettes And Shadows: The Secret History of David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) to read more.
Purgatory Circles: Unpicking The Difficult Legacy Of ‘The Holy Bible’
CLASH magazine gave a good home to a very personal essay where I got to talk about one of my favourite albums, 1994’s The Holy Bible. A highly confrontational and provocative album that melds nostalgia with fears of the future, alongside reflections of body horror, genocide and self-harm. Nonetheless, it expressed feelings I experienced in some of my more ‘difficult’ teenage years. Long live Manic Street Preachers.
Photographing Nine Inch Nails – Jonathan Rach at Behind The Gallery - London
Jonathan Rach was there at the very beginning of NIN’s ascent into alternative rock stardom following the release of The Downward Spiral. This exhibition of his photography from the period of the Self-Destruct Tour 1994-95 shows a band simultaneously falling apart and coming together again every night, live onstage.
My book Into The Never goes into more depth on the creation of The Downward Spiral and Reznor’s progression from alternative musician who went on to sell millons of records and fill stadiums across the world. My favourite soundtrack of Reznor and Atticus Ross is (currently) The Social Network.
