Always nice when you meet a fellow denim head innit? In Jamie’s case we bumped into one another on Twitter via our mutual appreciation of Hiut with both of us having recently written glowing articles about the Welsh wonder jeans here and here. Impressed by this selvedge synchronicity, Jamie’s combined love of facial hair/axes and the fact he writes for a well good rock magazine I took the bold steps of getting a favourite five off him to really put our clothing based cyber-relationship to the test.
Item of Clothing
The one thing I’ve fallen head-over-heels for this year has to be my Hiut Denim jeans. I’ve always kept an eye on what co-founder David Hieatt gets up to, and so was properly excited a few years back when I found out that he was planning Hiut. I must have gone on about it a lot, as out of the blue my wife bought me a pair of organic denim Hack@s – yes, she is that awesome! I’ve been wearing them for months and did the not washing thing for the first six. It was a great experience, and I’m loving wearing them in. They really are the best jeans out there.
Music
I’ve got to put Machine Head in here as they’re my favourite ever metal band, that I’m also lucky enough to also know as friends – many years ago we bonded over the myriad usage of The Word of Dude and have stayed mates ever since. I’ve been going through their back catalogue again recently, and my favourite song is still ‘Halo’ – to give you some extra context, frontman Robb mentions me in relation to that track on his fine blog here. They’re currently in the studio working on some new material which frankly I just can’t wait to get my ears wrapped around!
Book
My all-time favourite single book is the 1975 novel Shōgun by James Clavell – I’ve never read anything so good at transporting you away to another time and place. Arriving in feudal Japan in the 1600s as a westerner, with no prior knowledge of the culture, must have been mind-blowing and Clavell captures the awe and fear of this superbly. More generally, my preferred genre is historically based fiction, at which Bernard Cornwell has proven himself to be the master of time and time again. I’m enthralled with his Warrior Chronicles series – the seventh volume The Pagan Lord came out recently – which deals with the formation of England from the segregated land it once was when war-torn with Danish Vikings, itself a culture which has fascinated me hugely for years. Leading neatly to…
Art
The editor of Metal Hammer magazine, Alexander Milas just turned me onto this musical project called Wardruna, a Norwegian group founded by a guy called Einar Kvitrafn Selvik who drafted in Gaahl, the vocalist from black metal band Gorgoroth. It’s a project based around Nordic spiritualism and the runes of the Elder Futhark. They only play really old Nordic instruments and record outdoors and so on – it’s awesome! They’ve released two albums from the planned trilogy so far, but you probably won’t find yourself singing along to it in the car, unless you have a strong grasp of the Old Norse tongue!
Something Else
Motorbikes. I’ve recently started learning how to ride, and it’s blown my mind with how good it is. The sense of freedom on a motorbike is unparalleled, which in these times of rules and government traps is something truly worth pursuing. I also love the custom bike subculture that is blowing up right now and there’s some amazing bikes around – owning one of which is my eventual goal! Check out Spirit of the Seventies to see what I’m on about.
