I started drinking when I was 14. It was how we’d have fun as kids in Aberdeen – I didn’t come across any youth clubs or anything particularly productive. You drank beer or alcopops in some shady lane, and you drank so quickly that you’d get drunk but then be sober enough to get home at 11pm so your parents wouldn’t notice anything. It wasn’t drinking for pleasure: binge drinking was just what everyone – regardless of social groups – seemed to be doing.
During my teenage years I worked at a newsagent and I would read Kerrang! every week, which was extremely formative for me in discovering music. It’s incredible how many new bands I was introduced to, and just how my music taste evolved – from nu-metal bands such as Korn to Rage Against the Machine and, most influentially, Fugazi.
