When someone asks me about my musical inspirations first to mind comes The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, AC/DC, Janis Joplin, and Nirvana to name just a few. But if anybody wants to know the album that changed my entire life and made me who I am now, that has to be Nirvana – Nevermind.

My life can be divided into pre- and post-Nevermind times. The times where I thought all the good music was already written and I looked at my dad with envy, thinking his generation was privileged to get the best possible musicians and songwriters that changed music for decades to come. In the era of New Kids On The Block and Depeche Mode, a kid like me, listening to The Doors and Motorhead was viewed like a total weirdo.

I still remember the very first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was on the radio late at night as a music discovery. The DJ said he had a feeling this will change everything. And it was mind-blowing. Suddenly my music fascinations become more current and within few months music that was labeled as underground become mainstream.

It was everywhere and sounded like nothing before and as time has shown, nothing after. It was that album that gave me the courage to stand up to reach out and start my journey with journalism, volunteering and later working for Polish National Radio. It was the album that made me grab a guitar and form a band and believe that everything is possible. And it is the album that survived the time. It still sounds fresh and current, even twenty plus years after.

Nevermind by Nirvana, 1991. Chosen by photographer Edyta K