A Screaming Life: by Kim Thayil

  A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond by Kim Thayil with Adem Tepedelen

 A Screaming Life book cover

Founding Soundgarden guitarist and author Kim Thayil 

Big thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond by Kim Thayil with Adem Tepedelen. Thayil was a founding member of Soundgarden, one of the bands of the late 80s and 1990s that helped to reshape punk, psychedelic, and hard rock. Although Soundgarden is often lumped into grunge music since they were formed in Seattle along with bands like Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, Soundgarden had been making music for several years prior to the year punk broke (1991) and had their own distinct sound that drew from 1970s hard rock, punk, and psychedelic influences. As the lead guitarist, Kim Thayil was one of the primary architects of Soundgarden’s sound. However, as someone who enjoyed the 1990’s output of the band, I didn’t know a lot about Thayil. While Chris Cornell is often seen as the face and voice of the band, Thayil’s distinct use of wah-wah peddles for solos in songs like “Black Hole Sun”, the chugging, rumbling riffs for songs like “Outshined” , and the screaming, feedback drenched guitars of songs like “Rusty Cage” and “Jesus Christ Pose” helped to establish Soundgarden as not just a unique voice in the Seattle scene, but a really heavy band that crafted great songs. Thayil’s memoir of his time in Soundgarden is a fun read, especially for someone who likes music memoirs, but also as someone who followed the band in the 1990s. Just as Thayil’s distinct guitar sound contributed to Soundgarden’s unique sound, his recollections and reflections on his time building the band, creating music collaboratively with his band members, and touring are also distinct. Like his music, Thayil doesn’t delve into the specifics for each song, discussing the meanings or technical aspects. Rather, his memoir is more about tone and feel, examining not just the events that led to work on Soundgarden’s albums and eventually chart success, but also his own experiences navigating the evolving dynamics of the band and his ambivalent feelings about success, recognition, and fame. While the book isn’t overly descriptive or literary, it does provide an amazing look into one of the prominent bands of the Seattle sound of the 1990s, often going behind the scenes to learn more about the challenges Thayil and his bandmates experienced as Soundgarden became more well known.

Thayil recounts his childhood, growing up as the son of Indian immigrants, and how forming a band was an unlikely path for someone like him. In fact, it’s interesting to learn that Soundgarden was started by two Asian Americans, and was probably one of the only bands in the 1980s to feature two Asian Americans. I really enjoyed learning about his early musical influences and how he had to beg his parents for a record player to begin listening to music. It’s an important reminder of how much radio and major record companies influenced what kids and others listened to. Thayil also talks about his adolescence and how growing up in the Chicago area of Forest Park enabled him to form bands and learn more about punk and hard rock. After graduating high school, Thayil was eventually kicked out of his house and kind of adrift for a bit. He stayed with friends, one of whom was the Pavitts whose son, Bruce, eventually formed Sub-Pop records. After trying a few colleges, Thayil and his band member Hiro Yamamoto eventually moved out to Washington State, visiting Evergreen State College in Olympia, where Pavitt attended and was a DJ. Evergreen was also the school where Kathleen Hanna and Carrie Brownstein attended later and formed bands Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. From reading their memoirs, Calvin Weston and Beat Happenings were also influential around Olympia, encouraging a DIY approach to making and releasing music. Nevertheless, Thayil and Yamamoto eventually ended up in Seattle, meeting Chris Cornell, their eventual band member. Reading about Thayil and Soundgarden’s formation and early days was exciting and interesting. Furthermore, I enjoyed seeing how diverse and different the musical influences were for the different band members.

In addition to reflecting on the band’s formation, Thayil examines the creative process of the band, discussing how songs often came about as a result of extended jamming and practice sessions. It was cool to learn more about this creative process and how it functioned more as a collective than an one individual taking creative control. Throughout the book, Thayil remains democratic in his approach to the band whether it involves finding new members, song writing, or even developing things like logos and fonts for the band. Although the band practiced a shared decision making, everyone in the band wasn’t always accepting or appreciative of the outcome. Thayil explores some of the challenges they experienced with founding member Yamamoto, who eventually left the band during their first European tour, as the band became more popular and were signed to a major label. Throughout period leading up to Yamamoto’s departure, Thayil notes that Hiro was becoming increasingly more difficult during tours and seemed disconnected from the creative process. Another interesting element of the band that Thayil noticed was how challenging Soundgarden’s sound was for record companies. While independent labels like SST had no issues incorporating a progressive and unique band like Soundgarden into their roster, major labels look for comparisons or genres, and Soundgarden didn’t easily fit into any of the categories, especially the popular hair and glam metal categories that dominated MTV and radios in the late 80s and early 90s. Thayil repeatedly returns to this point about how Soundgarden’s sound was so confounding for record companies. Nevertheless, record companies often tried to pair them with metal producers who may have also contributed to reshaping their sound.

Regardless, Soundgarden would eventually become one of the biggest grunge/alternative bands of the 1990s with their mid-90s releases Superunknown (1994) and Down on the Upside (1996). It’s weird to think of these albums as “classic rock” now, but they are more than 30 years old now, and as Thayil notes, many classic rock radio stations continue to play these songs. Although the band experienced both critical and commercial success, making these albums was a challenge since the band had to adapt to more imposed control from the record labels and their producers, as well as the challenges of frequent touring and other requirements for band promotion. I appreciated how Thayil took us into the control room to learn more about the process of working with a producer, and how that can impact a band’s sound, for better or worse. Thayil and his bandmates seemed to be committed to their founding ethos and were strongly rooted in punk, so even though the producer challenged their creative approach to making music, they had enough integrity and awareness to fight for their own sound to come through the albums. As Thayil notes, this didn’t always come naturally and it was a repeated challenge to battle with producers and record labels about their sound. However, Thayil details how his more philosophical approach allowed him to be more critical and thoughtful rather than being reactive like other band members. That was something else that came across in this memoir- how Thayil, who has a degree in philosophy, is always willing to learn more about a situation or consider the various sides before drawing a conclusion about events or situations. His thoughtful and considerate approach to music and his career is somewhat different from more traditional rockers’ lives and careers. One of the more relatable aspects of this book is how Thayil experiences common issues like struggling to communicate his feelings after a break-up of a 10-year relationship or eventually buying a house and learning more about caretaking (like with HVAC filters). While I loved learning about the experiences of recording and touring with his band, these other revealing moments from his life had me empathizing with him.

The later chapters focus on Soundgarden’s eventual break-up due to Chris Cornell’s interest in pursuing a solo career (and eventually joining corporate-created supergroup Audioslave) and their eventual reunion 15 years later. Thayil details his attempts to continue to make music and work with other artists, but he also appears adrift at these points. Nevertheless, he has some interesting stories about working with Krist Novoselic and even Jello Biafria for a project that was meant to challenge the WTO meeting in Seattle that eventually led to riots in 1999. Thayil also explores the challenges of maintaining Soundgarden’s legacy at a time when digital media wasn’t really existent and there was no real support from the record label. As he documents, it became like an uphill battle as the record label was focused on Chris Cornell’s solo career, so Soundgarden gradually drifted from record shelves and merch stores. After Audioslave broke up, Soundgarden got back together, recorded a new album and toured for a few years. As Thayil describes it, Chris Cornell was changed. Thayil implies that it could have been various factors, but ultimately it seemed like not having his Soundgarden family to take care of Cornell led others to be a negative influence on him. It is interesting that some other Seattle bands had drug issues and lost members due to addiction, but Soundgarden wasn’t known for drug use or excessive partying. They were really into the music. These later chapters lead up to Cornell’s tragic death in 2017 while the band was on tour. While the reunion was bittersweet, it allowed Thayil to continue to work on compilations and rarities releases since there was renewed interest and support for Soundgarden. Thayil ends the book detailing the band’s battle with Cornell’s estate for vocal tracks, which the band eventually won and used to finalize their last album.

Screaming Life is a fun read, especially for 90s music fans. I loved hearing from one of the distinct bands from my youth, and especially from one of the quieter band members. Thayil not only takes fans behind the scenes to learn more about the creative process that helped to birth some of the greatest rock albums from the 90s, but also his shares some of his formative experiences and philosophies, which make him out to be even cooler than I imagined. The one thing I missed about this book, though, was that Thayil didn’t discuss his involvement with one of my favorite albums from the 2000s- Boris and Sunn O)))’s Altar, which I was really surprised to see that Thayil was involved with and also wrote the liner notes for. While there are some other Pacific Northwesterners who contribute to the album, Thayil remains probably the most well-established musician on the record. At the time when the album was released, I was perplexed and captivated by this drone and doom-soaked dark album that rumbles and quakes with Sunn O)))’s low frequencies. After reading Thayil’s book, I can see how he would be drawn to bands like Sunn O))) and Boris who are willing to experiment not just with sounds but use sounds to shape the tones and emotions of their albums. That was one aspect of Thayil’s approach to music that comes across throughout the book. However, he doesn’t talk about this collaboration at all. Maybe it’s because the liner notes share details about the project, but I was really hoping to learn more about their collaboration, how it came about and whether he keeps in touch with anyone from the album. Regardless, this was a fun and engaging book to read. Highly recommended!