Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil says the band still love their first official release, 1987's Screaming Life EP.
He believes it’s one of their best two works to date – but he doesn’t take 1988 follow-up Fopp seriously.
Thayil tells Songfacts: “There’s a cool sound with the songs. There’s a freedom that’s not present on Down On The Upside or even parts of Superunknown. There’s a kind of looseness and freedom to it that’s a lot of fun to play live and fun to listen to for us. I love the album Superunknown, as well.
“We consider Screaming Life to be our debut album. Even though it wasn’t a full length, it was a collection of our original songs – it’s our album, it’s our original material.”
By contrast, Thayil thinks of Fopp as a maxi-single. He says: “We got Steve Fisk to do a little humorous club remix of the song Fopp. We threw in one original for the fuck of it. We threw in a cover of our buddies Green River.
“The Fopp EP is not piece of serious or creative work by Soundgarden. It has a novelty component; it’s definitely for humour’s sake.”
He reflects: “Screaming Life will always in our hearts be our first record, our first album. It has a different sound than all the others. It’s the first collection of our original stuff. So as far as we’re concerned, it’s a mini album.”
Soundgarden return to the UK to play the opening night of this year’s British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4.
