Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - Thurston Moore interview by michael azerrad August 23, 2007

jico. · 08.28.2007, 07:29 AM

The Spin Interview: Thurston Moore

By: Michael Azerrad
August 23, 2007
With a stripped-down solo album and an unlikely partnership with Starbucks, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore -- the perpetually boyish elder of underground rock -- embraces the new reality: "I don't care if it's Dunkin' Donuts, those guys are selling CDs."

Photograph by Alex Hoerner

Thurston Moore has got a lot on his plate: He writes and edits books (the latest, Punk House: Anarchist Interiors, comes out in October); he runs Ecstatic Peace! Records; he jams with countless ad hoc improv groups; and, oh yeah, he has played guitar and sung in Sonic Youth for nearly 25 years. The band -- which also features drummer Steve Shelley, singer/guitarist Lee Ranaldo, and Moore's wife, Kim Gordon, who sings and plays bass and guitar -- has been hitting the festival circuit lately, performing their 1988 double album, Daydream Nation, in its entirety. Next year they're putting out a compilation, Hits Are for Squares, through Starbucks, of all places, with celebs like Beck, Dave Eggers, and Michelle Williams picking their favorite SY tracks for the caffeinated masses.
But on this humid summer morning at his airy SoHo loft (now largely empty, since he, Kim, and their daughter, Coco, lit out for the leafy environs of Northhampton, Massachusetts, a few years ago), Moore, 49, is sifting through graphics he created for his upcoming second solo album, Trees Outside the Academy -- photos lifted from old magazines, each paired with the lyrics to a different song. There's Brian Eno in his mulleted glam phase, Allen Ginsberg sporting an Uncle Sam hat, '70s rocker Suzi Quatro oozing blow-dried ennui. But there's no way he'll be able to afford the rights to every picture. "Maybe I should package it with the CD, but put NOT FOR SALE on it," he says. "You're buying the CD, and this is just a free thing that comes with it. I wonder if I could get away with that. There's always some way of getting around these things."
Both of your solo records are sweeter than a lot of your Sonic Youth stuff. Why is that?
Probably they're more personally naked because I know that [the solo albums] are not a shared game. I don't ever want people to say, "Oh, there's Thurston singing his song with Sonic Youth." And I don't think people ever get that impression. I consciously, at some point in the '80s, decided to put myself on the side of the stage, instead of in the middle. Because I never wanted to be the focal point. I tend to be the focal point anyway, because I'm, you know, whatever.
Speaking of nakedness, the backbone of Trees Outside the Academy is the acoustic guitar. I'm reminded of that old cliché that it's not a real song unless you can play it on acoustic guitar.
I never thought about it that way. Of course you didn't. I'm talking to probably the person who least believes that in the entire world!
[Laughs] Yeah. On the last two or three Sonic Youth albums, the songs I brought in were generated on an acoustic guitar. Also, I would do a solo gig on acoustic guitar and get a good response. There I was with an acoustic guitar, but I was still tuning it to Sonic Youth-y tunings. At some point, I was like, "I'm gonna make an acoustic guitar album." Everything was constructed on acoustic guitar, and then I decided to use a violin. I asked Samara Lubelski, who I had seen play throughout the years. I was thinking of different instrumentation, to bring in piano, horns, anything. But for the sake of economy, and the time I had to record, it basically came down to the core trio of me, Steve [Shelley], and Samara.
And you've got some arty guests.
But those people are just, like, people who live in my house. Christina Carter [from Texas psych rockers Charalambides] lives on my third floor. Andrew MacGregor, who records as Gown, was also living on my third floor. He recently relocated to Canada, and now John Moloney from Sunburned Hand of the Man lives there. We were recording at [Bisquiteen Studio in] J Mascis' house, and J just happened to be around, so whenever I'd say, "This would sound really fucking good if there was a shredding lead right here," I'd get on my cell phone and call downstairs. "J, you still there? Can you come listen? It would sound good if you were playing on this thing." And he'd say, "Hey, maybe in a minute." He'd come up, and while we were playing him the part, he'd already plugged everything in, and he's sitting on the couch just kicked back, and as soon as the song starts, he starts killing on it. And John Agnello, the engineer, and I would just look at each other and say, "Okay, thanks, buddy, we've got it!" And then he'd go back downstairs and play guitar all day.
On the last track, "Thurston at 13," you say, "Listen to the sound / Here's something for your ears to taste." Even then, 36 years ago, you're experimenting.
"Here's the sound of a rubber band." But you don't hear anything, because there is no sound! There I am in Bethel, Connecticut, in my bedroom -- I don't have any friends, but I do have a tape recorder!
And then you say, "Why the fuck am I doing this?"
Yeah, I guess that does kind of say it all. Maybe that was my ultimate statement -- at 13. [Laughs]
You've been playing loud electric music for over 25 years. Maybe you're picking up acoustic guitar because your ears are ringing?
Not so much because my ears are ringing, but maybe because it's as extreme as doing the very loud thing. And doing it with similar intent: The idea of making really quiet music became something really radical. I like that it's considered extreme to play acoustic guitar.
Some might say you're mellowing. You're coming up on 50. How long can you rock?
I don't know, I'm playing with Yoko Ono, and she's well past 70 and she rocks. Neil Young still rocks. We wrote a song a couple albums ago called "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style," which is all about how the radical young rock people of the old days were, like, Yoko Ono and Neil Young -- and the radical rock people of these days are...Yoko Ono and Neil Young. It's certainly not John Mayer and Avril Lavigne. Those people don't rock. If that's the young generation in the culture, then fuck it. So, in a way, the radicalized rock culture of the past is the radicalized rock culture of now. And the radicalized youth culture of now, at least in the mainstream -- it's so commercialized. In the underground, it's not ageist. In the underground, the old guys are cool. I like the fact that the older we get, the more we can rock.
Your 1988 album Daydream Nation -- which you've recently been playing in concert in its entirety -- was a big statement. Even the title is a political, cultural statement. And here you are, these marginalized artists, saying these things.
Yeah, it was statement-oriented, but we didn't think, "This is gonna blow minds." We knew that it was a pretty audacious record to put out at the time. But we didn't realize what the feedback was gonna be. And I don't think we ever did, until the [Village Voice] Pazz & Jop Poll put it at No. 2, below Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions. All of a sudden, it became real to us -- that people were appreciating the record in a way that was beyond our expectations. That was as big as it could ever get for us.

08.28.2007, 07:29 AM	#1
jico. expwy. to yr skull Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,417	The Spin Interview: Thurston Moore By: Michael Azerrad August 23, 2007 With a stripped-down solo album and an unlikely partnership with Starbucks, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore -- the perpetually boyish elder of underground rock -- embraces the new reality: "I don't care if it's Dunkin' Donuts, those guys are selling CDs." Photograph by Alex Hoerner Thurston Moore has got a lot on his plate: He writes and edits books (the latest, Punk House: Anarchist Interiors, comes out in October); he runs Ecstatic Peace! Records; he jams with countless ad hoc improv groups; and, oh yeah, he has played guitar and sung in Sonic Youth for nearly 25 years. The band -- which also features drummer Steve Shelley, singer/guitarist Lee Ranaldo, and Moore's wife, Kim Gordon, who sings and plays bass and guitar -- has been hitting the festival circuit lately, performing their 1988 double album, Daydream Nation, in its entirety. Next year they're putting out a compilation, Hits Are for Squares, through Starbucks, of all places, with celebs like Beck, Dave Eggers, and Michelle Williams picking their favorite SY tracks for the caffeinated masses. But on this humid summer morning at his airy SoHo loft (now largely empty, since he, Kim, and their daughter, Coco, lit out for the leafy environs of Northhampton, Massachusetts, a few years ago), Moore, 49, is sifting through graphics he created for his upcoming second solo album, Trees Outside the Academy -- photos lifted from old magazines, each paired with the lyrics to a different song. There's Brian Eno in his mulleted glam phase, Allen Ginsberg sporting an Uncle Sam hat, '70s rocker Suzi Quatro oozing blow-dried ennui. But there's no way he'll be able to afford the rights to every picture. "Maybe I should package it with the CD, but put NOT FOR SALE on it," he says. "You're buying the CD, and this is just a free thing that comes with it. I wonder if I could get away with that. There's always some way of getting around these things." Both of your solo records are sweeter than a lot of your Sonic Youth stuff. Why is that? Probably they're more personally naked because I know that [the solo albums] are not a shared game. I don't ever want people to say, "Oh, there's Thurston singing his song with Sonic Youth." And I don't think people ever get that impression. I consciously, at some point in the '80s, decided to put myself on the side of the stage, instead of in the middle. Because I never wanted to be the focal point. I tend to be the focal point anyway, because I'm, you know, whatever. *Speaking of nakedness, the backbone of Trees Outside the Academy* is the acoustic guitar. I'm reminded of that old cliché that it's not a real song unless you can play it on acoustic guitar. I never thought about it that way. Of course you didn't. I'm talking to probably the person who least believes that in the entire world!** [Laughs] Yeah. On the last two or three Sonic Youth albums, the songs I brought in were generated on an acoustic guitar. Also, I would do a solo gig on acoustic guitar and get a good response. There I was with an acoustic guitar, but I was still tuning it to Sonic Youth-y tunings. At some point, I was like, "I'm gonna make an acoustic guitar album." Everything was constructed on acoustic guitar, and then I decided to use a violin. I asked Samara Lubelski, who I had seen play throughout the years. I was thinking of different instrumentation, to bring in piano, horns, anything. But for the sake of economy, and the time I had to record, it basically came down to the core trio of me, Steve [Shelley], and Samara. And you've got some arty guests. But those people are just, like, people who live in my house. Christina Carter [from Texas psych rockers Charalambides] lives on my third floor. Andrew MacGregor, who records as Gown, was also living on my third floor. He recently relocated to Canada, and now John Moloney from Sunburned Hand of the Man lives there. We were recording at [Bisquiteen Studio in] J Mascis' house, and J just happened to be around, so whenever I'd say, "This would sound really fucking good if there was a shredding lead right here," I'd get on my cell phone and call downstairs. "J, you still there? Can you come listen? It would sound good if you were playing on this thing." And he'd say, "Hey, maybe in a minute." He'd come up, and while we were playing him the part, he'd already plugged everything in, and he's sitting on the couch just kicked back, and as soon as the song starts, he starts killing on it. And John Agnello, the engineer, and I would just look at each other and say, "Okay, thanks, buddy, we've got it!" And then he'd go back downstairs and play guitar all day. On the last track, "Thurston at 13," you say, "Listen to the sound / Here's something for your ears to taste." Even then, 36 years ago, you're experimenting. "Here's the sound of a rubber band." But you don't hear anything, because there is no sound! There I am in Bethel, Connecticut, in my bedroom -- I don't have any friends, but I do have a tape recorder! And then you say, "Why the fuck am I doing this?" Yeah, I guess that does kind of say it all. Maybe that was my ultimate statement -- at 13. [Laughs] You've been playing loud electric music for over 25 years. Maybe you're picking up acoustic guitar because your ears are ringing? Not so much because my ears are ringing, but maybe because it's as extreme as doing the very loud thing. And doing it with similar intent: The idea of making really quiet music became something really radical. I like that it's considered extreme to play acoustic guitar. Some might say you're mellowing. You're coming up on 50. How long can you rock? I don't know, I'm playing with Yoko Ono, and she's well past 70 and she rocks. Neil Young still rocks. We wrote a song a couple albums ago called "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style," which is all about how the radical young rock people of the old days were, like, Yoko Ono and Neil Young -- and the radical rock people of these days are...Yoko Ono and Neil Young. It's certainly not John Mayer and Avril Lavigne. Those people don't rock. If that's the young generation in the culture, then fuck it. So, in a way, the radicalized rock culture of the past is the radicalized rock culture of now. And the radicalized youth culture of now, at least in the mainstream -- it's so commercialized. In the underground, it's not ageist. In the underground, the old guys are cool. I like the fact that the older we get, the more we can rock. Your 1988 album Daydream Nation -- which you've recently been playing in concert in its entirety -- was a big statement. Even the title is a political, cultural statement. And here you are, these marginalized artists, saying these things. Yeah, it was statement-oriented, but we didn't think, "This is gonna blow minds." We knew that it was a pretty audacious record to put out at the time. But we didn't realize what the feedback was gonna be. And I don't think we ever did, until the [Village Voice] Pazz & Jop Poll put it at No. 2, below Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions. All of a sudden, it became real to us -- that people were appreciating the record in a way that was beyond our expectations. That was as big as it could ever get for us.
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