The Bad Penny (beta)

“Americans and the British, we really struggle to understand and put ourselves in the feet of Russian leaders who truly, truly believe that if they’re not seen as an equal great power, their state will collapse.”

-Struck a Nerve guitarist and Russian foreign policy expert Nathan Sadd

If you’re a thrash metal fan, what are you doing when you’re not windmilling your long hair or gesticulating air guitar riffage till you fall through the makeshift box spring “bed” in your parents’ basement? Perhaps reorganizing your CD collection yet again, indecisive over whether it should start with albums by the Big Four or strictly abide by alphabetical norms by putting Acid Drinkers’ releases before Anthrax’s? Get a job, son!

Like Nathan Sadd, for example, who holds the unusual status as a guitarist in maybe the most exciting British thrash band of the moment – Struck a Nerve – all the while maintaining the pride of his parents and the respect of academics as an expert on the topic of Russian foreign policy as proven by the PhD he received in international relations from the University of Oxford. Yeah, that’s a mouthful, but an overachiever like Sadd deserves it.

When we posted most of our interview with the guitarist late last year, we reserved a side conversation about Russia’s war against Ukraine for a future edition of On Tyranny. Seven months later, one would think we missed our opportunity to post the chat due to outdatedness. But, oddly enough, the chat is still relevant thanks to a turn of events in Ukraine that can only be compared to very, very rare foreign entanglements – like, as Walter Sobchak would say, “our current situation” in Iran … or one of the “visits” we’ve paid to the country to which he was referring in The Big Lebowski, Iraq … or Afghanistan … or Russia’s own past quagmire in that same land.

Here’s how our exchange went: