The Douglas Fir

The Douglas Fir can be read on my personal Substack here

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Kristen Pfaff biography: representation for it, my TEDx talk, its first chapter and who has become a part of it...

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Now being at the point where the first chapter of this book is finally out in the world it is remarkable to think I was first inspired to write a book about Kristen Pfaff from Hole when I read her mother Janet's book about her daughter's life (available  here ) and it contained excerpts from Kristen's diary. An entry in which she describes as a young girl having a conversation with the sea was perhaps the most beautiful piece of writing I've read and it probably began all this work. I have been working on it with Jason Pfaff after I got in touch with him. Jason gives his side of how we decided to work together on  this  podcast. One reason the book has taken longer to write than anyone might have expected is revelations about Pfaff from people who knew her are still being offered to me. However much I know about Kristen the more news about the book comes out the more people come to Jason and me to talk and open up about their recollections of her. Jason Pfaff and I h...
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Synthesisers, Swimming and Catsuits- An Interview With Ladytron Singer Helen Marnie

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Helen Marnie might have made her name as the singer for the internationally acclaimed synth-pop band Ladytron, but in June 2012 she released a solo album, Crystal World, through Pledge Music. The album confounded expectation and quickly cultivated a passionate and devoted following, with many (including The VPME and Polari) giving it flawless reviews. In contrast to her work in Ladytron work it’s an album in which nature constantly pulses and throbs. In it Marnie undertakes a set of startlingly emotional journeys, drawing what some have described as ‘a map of the heart’- quite an achievement for such a pristine electro record. I caught up with Helen to try and dig a little deeper into the record, in a conversation that took in everything from the Piscean gift for swimming to her striking choice of outfit for the video to ‘The Hunter’.   In previous interviews you’ve talked about the state of transition you were in when you wrote ‘Crystal World’. Did writing the album help...
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This is the first chapter from  ‘I Know How To Live’: The Life of Kristen Pfaff  by Guy Mankowski  (with an afterword by Jason Pfaff). It’s 1993, and a teeming English summer afternoon. A crowd sways in front of the stage. The singer wears a guitar over her grey trench coat. Smoke flows through her hair as she waves her lit cigarette at the crowd. A man in the crowd shouts, with contempt, ‘she’s dyed her hair!’ There’s a woman next to her in a black miniskirt, carrying a black bass with the confidence of one who treats it as an appendage. The black hair that obscures her face is somehow more convincing than that of the singer, who doesn’t look at her. The singer strums, her singing inaudible at first and the woman to her right winds her mike stand, plectrum in her mouth. There’s a sense of growing conviction about her. Ear-splitting feedback. A sense of occasion, the clenched body language of a band determined to prove themselves to this huge crowd at The Phoenix Festival...
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