Hi, I’m Tim Loud, an acoustic punk/ antifolk musician from Leeds, I’m delighted to have been asked to say 10 of my top punk influences as I love talking about myself from an autobiographical perspective. This isn’t a definitive top ten, I’d probably give a different list if asked at a different time. But for now, here goes…
Bob Dylan
I realise he is probably not considered to be a punk act. But for me, punk has always been about an attitude, a desire to protest and do whatever the fuck you want, regardless of what anyone else says. And that’s what Dylan does, for me; he embodies that attitude and that state of mind.
Offspring
A lot of the music I got into when I was younger filtered down to me from what my brother listened to. I remember hearing Smash When I was 10, and apart from the swearing which I obviously thought was great, I found the music really accessible, I liked the fast rhythms and the hooks, I think at least one song off my latest album is overtly influenced by them as I’ve started getting back into the music of my youth in a bid to try and avoid feeling old.
Green Day
Again, Dookie came out when I was about 10 and I liked the nihilistic, defeatist lyrics (although I didn’t know what nihilism was at age 10). And the references to drugs and sex I thought were cool, because I was 10. I don’t really care that much about what they’re doing now, I’m not into stadium rock shit, but the first few albums were, and still are, great to me.
Pennywise
Fucking fast drums, political lyrics, big chanting singalong shit. I’m sure everyone can relate to Bro Hymn. Not much else to say, I just like it.
Billy Liar
I first met Billy through a stage I ran at Strummercamp festival, I thought his recordings were OK and I put him on under the recommendation of the guys from TNS. I was amazed and enamoured as soon as I saw him live - you can’t put into words the energy and aggression he has until you’ve seen him live. He’s taught me a lot about stage craft and that shit as well. He’s just great.
Kultur Shock
I used to play in a band that did all Balkan, pirate, diddly shit. I always hoped we’d eventually get round to sounding like Kultur Shock, but we never did, but that’s Ok, because there is still Kultur Shock to sound like Kultur Shock… Kultur Shock. They have a healthy balance of self-awareness, political anger and self-mocking and they have some fucking great melody lines and themes in their songs.
Elliott Smith
This is another choice that may not be considered punk in a traditional sense. But he did a lot of DIY shit at the start of his career and I just like his stuff. I like the idea of being able to record entire songs where you play everything on it and the song-writing is so complex and yet complete and natural sounding because it’s the vision of one individual person. He made me focus more on harmonies and using the voice as an instrument. It’s good.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
This is the band that made me want to play music. The first CD I ever bought was Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic and I had to sneakily remove the parental advisory sticker without anyone seeing because I’d been into the shop the week before and the guy had refused to sell it to me because it wasn’t suitable for an 11 year old. That album is a masterpiece and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. They put up with some serious shit in their early years, the 15/20 years before they were the stadium rock band everyone loves to hate now, and it gives me hope that if you keep doing what you love then it’ll come good in the end.
Nine Inch Nails
Just fucking love it! Seen them a few times, it’s another case of one man’s vision coming through the music. I love his attitude to his fans and the music industry as well, good shit.
Cypress Hill
I was well into hip-hop when I was about 13-18 and this stuff has stuck with me. I loved the Bones album and how it fused together the rap and metal thing in a far more convincing way than any of the Nu-metal bands of the time ever did.
Tim has a new album coming out which you can buy here: https://timloud.bandcamp.com/
Like Tim Loud here: https://www.facebook.com/LoudTim
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