A fresh TIMH 58th birthday wish to guitarist and Soundgarden founder Kim Thayil, one of the all-time great grunge guitarists and a stalwart of the Seattle music scene.
Born on this day in 1960 in Seattle to Indian immigrants who moved to the United States, Thayil grew up in a suburb outside Chicago and spent his formative years there. By his early teens his love of music led him to picking up the guitar and soon playing in a few bands through his high school years. Heavily influenced by punk music (the Sex Pistols and Ramones, to name two of his favorites), Kim moved back to Washington state to attend college, but soon started a band with bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer Chris Cornell - forming Soundgarden in 1984.
Thayil and Soundgarden spent the latter half of the decade developing their own sound among an evolving local music scene. By the release of their third studio album, 1991's Badmotorfinger, the band found themselves at the arrival of grunge, and took their place at the forefront of the genre and the Seattle scene along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains.
With distinctive punk and metal roots driven by cryptic lyrics, dynamic song time signatures, and a twin down-tuned guitar attack, Soundgarden became a critical and commercial success with 1994's SuperUnknown. Thayil was a primary songwriter in the band's beginning, but had begun to contribute less with an increase of creativity within the band through Cornell, bassist Ben Shepard, and drummer Matt Cameron.
Tension within the band grew from differing inputs and musical direction as the 90's unfolded, with 1996's Down on the Upside their final classic era release. The band did reunite in 2010, and released King Animal in 2012. However Soundgarden's second run was cut short with the untimely passing of Cornell in 2017.
Thayil, along with Cameron and Shepard, have made no future plans regarding Soundgarden. Thayil has remained active outside of Soundgarden, both in playing live and in session work.
Kim Thayil is one of the rare guitarists who you immediately when you hear it - he's there with greats such as Richards, Clapton, Iommi - he has such a distinctive sound. My journey with grunge started with Alice in Chains, quickly moving along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but I soon moved towards Soundgarden. For me, I heard the passing of the torch from Sabbath to them. The music hit hard, hit heavy, and resonated...still does, and Thayil played a huge part of that.
From Down on the Upside, music and lyrics by Mr. Thayil:
