[ann ashtray]

Sonic Youth is gone, but still lasted thirty years , staying fit and productive

TM: Yes, I think so. It is not so common . And all this without the slightest hit or gold record ... But we have received good reviews . Not to mention a large core of loyal fans . Because even Lou Reed was in part due to its tube Walk on the wild side . But we do not have a title like that , as everyone knows .

By choice ?

TM: No, not at all. I would have loved to have a song that so marks the spirits .

When you have recorded The Eternal , you knew it would be the last album of Sonic Youth ?

TM:No, honestly . I was only aware that I did not know where I was, the future seemed very uncertain. My life was about to switch , nothing would be the same . A break seemed necessary ... Maybe it motivated me to make The Eternal the best album possible.


You also recorded this album in the wake of a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Daydream Nation as any group installed turning his past ...

TM: I think that is our Daydream Nation "tube" by default, in any case our classic album. We were lucky that it falls on him. That this album was to celebrate the point - it has even been selected by the Library of Congress as one of the key works of 1988 - assured us our integrity. I am very sensitive to any form of recognition. When Sonic Youth is referenced , it affects me personally. Sonic Youth was a profoundly democratic group in its operation, but I still claim credit . I am originally and, hence , I always feel like it 's my baby first. But it was essential to me that Sonic Youth is still a group where every vote counts , is worth . I never wanted to follow the example of Lou Reed or Mark E. Smith ( The Fall ), which perpetually changing musicians. Sonic Youth would not have been able to function




At the same time, nothing was as thoughtful. This has become quite instinctively. It was of course, as Lee and Kim had strong personalities, they were made to live together rather than compete. A group of three leaders, in short, which is still very rare. I think that's what made us so strong.

I remember in the late 1990s, I thought to want to separate credit the lyrics. I wrote much. But I resisted. Until the end, the common credit we kept "all music by Sonic Youth," and that's fine. I think Lee Ranaldo was very well explained. For him, the texts were inspired by the band's music. Similarly, Steve Shelley's drumming fully contributing to our style. The magic of a group, is this: give the best to the other to create a whole that is always more than the sum of its parts.

Take the MC5. The first two albums were credited with the MC5, but the third specified for each title, the name of his composers. And the band imploded. Wayne Kramer said it is this decision that has really caused the end of the MC5. Because, suddenly, the collective no longer existed, it was no longer a question of ego, who deserved to win more

Sonic Youth would be the most instinctive thought groups?

TM: I think it really started in instinct and, little by little, a concept is specified, refined. And it is this "refining" that always has divided fans. I remain marked by a comment I read after a concert of Sonic Youth in France in 1983 in Poitiers. We were the first part of Killing Joke and we were still out of control, especially on the song Making the natural stage. I thought we had achieved a great performance. And then I read a review that said that Sonic Youth had become boring and predictable that our sound explosions were now expected as planned ... And the guy was not wrong, because it was actually what was going on . We were trying, after two, three years of anarchy, to put some order into our chaos. Because the total improvisation lasts a time, that of youth and some incompetence. Sometimes born of chaos songs pretenses. But just as the musician, music grows and matures. Because we acquire a technique, a skill which in the best case, remains personal and original. The Eternal is an incredibly sophisticated and melodic drive to Sonic Youth. It is light years away from the noise we were doing at Poitiers. And for me, that's the beauty of what we've accomplished: to have evolved while remaining ourselves. The savagery of the beginnings can replicate indefinitely. It would be treading water.