In largeheartedboy.com’s Book Notes series, Will Self has created – and discusses – a music playlist that relates to his most recently published book, Umbrella, from the Kinks’ “Ape Man” to “Don’t Let it Die” by Hurricane Smith.
Introducing Ivan Self’s heavy metal blog (“A young rock music fan seeking his place in the world”) – ivanself.tumblr.com.
“Sometimes I think I may be losing … my incident room”
Listen to Bomb the Bass’s track 5ml Barrel, from their album Clear, featuring Will Self.
Will Self’s liner notes for Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon (2002):
What I do is this; I leave the city and go about 50 miles away to a town in the county of Wiltshire called Swindon. This place has a bit of a joke reputation in England; it’s our dinky version of Motown, with a Honda factory and no Berry Gordy – but that’s besides the point. I have a friend there who keeps my alternative identity stashed in the back room above his shop (which sells model trains, cars and aeroplanes to serious hobbyists; but that too is besides the point). It’s a small room with a tired atmosphere, the single bed covered with a quilted nylon spread that hangs down to the floor. From the window you can see a stack of car tyres piled up by a chainlink fence and two small boys poking a dead frog with a length of bamboo.
The second instalment of Will Self’s The Happy Detective will be released on Snow Patrol’s Late Night Tales at the end of the month. The first part is on Groove Armada’s Late Night Tales, released last year.
Spotted — an oddly geeky-looking Will, propping up the bar in Cave’s video filling in a crossword, though, according to this account, he was filling it in using his own answers: “Later, while I was aimlessly wandering around waiting for the lighting to be set-up or some such technical detail I took a look at Self’s crossword. He had filled it all in but with words that bore no relation to the clues. These were all proper words. In fact they were proper Selfian, or is it Self-ish words like: perfidy, carillon, phylum and quincunx. And they all slotted into the crossword grid perfectly. It was a revelation to me. Nobody I have now asked has ever seen a crossword done like this before.”
A passing reference to Will Self’s colloboration with Bomb The Bass in Dave Simpson’s September 2002 article.
“It is one of the most unlikely pop phenomena ever: a bunch of acclaimed authors teaming up with rock’n’rollers. Salman Rushdie has recorded with U2. Hunter S Thompson appears on the new Paul Oakenfold album. Will Self has worked with Bomb the Bass. And now it’s the turn of Iain Banks, who has lent his expressive tones to an album by chillout guru and Radio 1 DJ Chris Coco…