The Crooked 45 are a new band made up of ex-members of Attention Thieves, Alex Green and James Harris, with singer-songwriter Sam C Harris. Elements of Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood combine to create anthemic, riffy rock with a swagger, which has already seen support from BBC Introducing. Here, Sam C Harris shares his love of one of the greatest bands to ever stalk the earth…Nirvana.

Why do I love them? Why wouldn’t I love them?!

They’re so raw, so unique and so fucking unreasonable that they’re hard not to adore. They’re everything in a band that I want. They’re in your face, they were unfashionable (which made them fashionable…classic), they were dangerous, they were excited and they just didn’t care and they said and did what they wanted which is something I’ve always wanted in my music. Plus, their songs are dope aren’t they? 

I first heard Nirvana when my mother showed me them when I was quite small. My dad introduced me to Guns N Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden etc and my mum had had enough and went “listen to this sunshine” and shoved their album ‘Nevermind’ down my gob…not literally but she is pretty crazy.  

Seeing Nirvana on Jonathon Ross was probably when it all clicked for me. He introduced them and told the audience that they were playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the camera panned to the band and they started playing ‘Territorial Pissings’ which is this angry, insane, fast paced punk song on the same album.

They played it by beating the shit out of their instruments and them smashed all their gear up, leaving the audience baffled and a little scared. I literally remember thinking “that’s what I want to do”. 

Their sound was just so real and unique in this horribly dark and twisted way that I’ve always been a bit obsessive over it. Being real and unique in a horrible dark and twisted way is what Nirvana fans are, I think..so that bleak, frantic atmosphere in their music and their attitude really inspired me to just create. Not even necessarily music but just to create.

They’ve influenced me in my creativity hugely. More than any other band or artist. I’m naturally always wanting to be in your face and obscene in my music but people always try and contain that and not let me go as loony (which I can understand). If I had it my way, my music would be like a mad-man escaping a mental institution with his deranged buddies. 

Their legacy lives on everywhere, man. You can clearly see their influence it in art all over the place. A trick only some can do. 

Some of my favourite songs from Nirvana include Territorial Pissings, You Know You’re Right, Breed, Something In The Way.

You can catch The Crooked 45 live in December:

• December  5th – Beyond The Download, Wokingham (hometown Christmas show)
• December 7th – The Finborough Arms, London, United Kingdom

The Crooked 45: Official Website / Facebook