We were going off the cliff: Kim Thayil on inventing grunge

Kim Thayil has long felt like an outsider. Although he has lived in Seattle for more than four decades, he only started drinking coffee during lockdown; his Indian heritage, he writes in his memoir A Screaming Life, made him “two-thirds Asian” in a scene that was largely white.

He and bassist Hiro Yamamoto formed Soundgarden in 1984, drawing on heavy rock, punk and Black Sabbath while rejecting the hair-metal excesses of the 80s. Early moves — from the satirical Big Dumb Sex to a doom-soaked cover of Into the Void incorporating a speech by Chief Sealth — helped shape a local sound that stood apart from mainstream rock clichés.

Chris Cornell’s voice quickly proved decisive: Thayil admits he underestimated Cornell at first, then watched him develop an “unearthly” high-pitched scream and extraordinary lung power.

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