Today, having a sense of daring is something anyone who chooses a life in rock and roll must possess in large quantities. There are few fast tracks to the top, and “the top” is difficult to locate or define. But even when it was easier to find a way to establish a commercial viability in rock, exploring its creative boundaries is something few had the courage to test. Thurston Moore and his bandmates in Sonic Youth did, and they struck a balance between building a big base of fans and creating art that was fresh and focused on always digging deeper.
Since Sonic Youth disbanded in 2011, Moore has pursued a very eclectic professional life. In addition to test-driving participation in black metal bands like Twilight, he engaged in projects that were entirely experimental, like 2012’s Moore and Kim Gordon collaborative album with Yoko Ono, Yokokimthurston. He also started a publishing imprint, launched a record label, and has taught songwriting at various universities here in the United States and abroad. He’s also released a series of solo records.
Thurston Moore. Courtesy of Vera Marmelo.
Moore has just released his ninth solo album, Flow Critical Lucidity, where he enlisted the help of many. Laetitia Sadier, a founding member of Stereolab helps with vocals, Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine contributes on bass, Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly) delivers electronic parts, Jem Doulton is on percussion, and multi-instrumentalist James Sedwards plays everything from guitar and piano to glockenspiel and organ. Lastly, the lyrics on all but one track are credited to Radieux Radio, an alias of Moore’s wife, Eva Prinz.
The record delivers an interesting collage of much of what Thurston Moore has explored across his career. The songs sit in a sonic realm that is spacey and fluid. The songs are hypnotic is many ways, and his guitar parts offer the listener a rich collection of sounds to explore. In fact, this is a record for audiophiles.
We caught up with Moore and talked about the making of the new album, and about how technology helped him discover a vast world of music and how that continues to this day.
Thurston Moore, Flow Critical Lucidity, album cover.
Ray Chelstowski: The new record is a highly collaborative affair. How many contributors are too many?
Thurston Moore: I have always liked working collaboratively in the context of a band. Sonic Youth was always collaborative, even though I’d bring a lot of structural ideas forward. I always thought it was most successful when everyone created their own thing around whatever I brought in. It created more of a group dynamic. That’s the only way it would work in that band because we came up as a democracy.
It maybe was most interesting when nothing was brought in by any of us, but we were there in a circle creating in the moment, together finding ideas that we thought were strong. So I think about that when I do solo work, because it doesn’t often happen there. I tend to write the songs and I share them with musicians that I’ve chosen to play with. It’s usually because I’ve admired their work and trust that they will come up with something that’s interesting without me having to force it. But it’s not like being in a band [when you’re] in your early 20s where everyone is kind of feeling their way toward what will become their musical vocabulary.
I do like to somewhat control what I present as songs. It would be rare for me to tell the band to do whatever they want with them. Many times, I’ll demo the songs myself on a digital recorder and when I bring them to the band I can get pushback to try something different. So, allowing the musicians to be expressive and creative turns out to make things better.
RC: Your wife Eva Prinz wrote most of the lyrics. How much if any direction did you give her?
TM: I have always enjoyed singing lyrics that weren’t mine. I started this band in London and at first I started writing [the] lyrics. But Eva is a writer as well, and I would see some of the stuff she’d write and it was great, and I’d use it. For this record we worked even more closely together. We were in an artist’s residency, and as I was composing on guitar, every once in a while she’d drop a piece of notebook paper in front of me with words and lyrics on them. And things became incredibly collaborative.
It’s very much like the bass or percussion elements and allowing others to bring something forward that has a shared aesthetic in terms of the voice. On this record that was very prevalent, and in that sense Eva becomes part of the vision and part of the band. It’s very much like Robert Hunter with the Grateful Dead or Bernie Taupin with Elton John. It’s not like I was trying to equate it to that at the time, but the approach is less uncommon than most would think.
RC: Sonically, no pun intended, the record really resides in a sort of dream space. Is that a creative decision you made before any other?
TM: There was a lot more material [that we had recorded for the album] and a number of songs that had a rougher edge. I put some of them up [on digital platforms]. [But] when we went to sequence the record, we were looking for it to have a thematic narrative. Sometimes you hear records that are just too long because the artist thinks everything is of value, and sometimes it works. But I wanted to step away from that approach. So, the sequencing was a little challenging, and I have to give Eva credit here as well because she thought it all worked better with just the more “dreamlike” music, and gave the record a more consistent sonic theme. I agreed. It plays better and it’s more accessible.
RC: Piano plays a prominent role in the songs and it feels like the most consistent part of the album.
TM: Our guitar player James Sedwards is a very high-tech musician. He also knows his way around piano. Eva, knowing that and knowing the music, thought that a piano would be a really wonderful addition. It’s something I’ve never really utilized at all [in the past]. But a piano has always been a part of my world. My father was a great pianist and studied piano from his mother, who was a society pianist. The piano was a sound source that was always part of my world. But I never thought of bringing it into my songwriting; I sometimes almost thought it was a lazy decision to do so, the instrument is so big. So on this record, we decided to try having James not only play guitar, but keyboards on a few songs, and it created a whole new sound for me.
RC: I have read that getting a transistor radio on your birthday when you were young was transformational. Do you think radio can return as a driving force of discovery, and what do you turn to most as a way to listen to music today?
TM: I don’t think the radio is going to return to what it once was. I think technology has moved too far away from that. Streaming is certainly the most popular format of the day, and I personally don’t find that I have time to go beyond what I enjoy, which is the physical interaction I have with records, CDs and cassettes. I hardly stream at all unless I have to source or monitor something.
RC: What excites you about the future?
TM: I’m really excited about the future. I have always believed in the power of creative energy that happens in the community of artists and musicians. I think it’s important for the entire world to have that energy of intrigue and inspiration, as opposed to anything else.
I’m always listening to what 15-year-olds are listening to, to hear what is happening musically at the margins along with new experimental ideas. I find that there are so many incredible recordings being made and the one platform I like for discovery is Bandcamp, because I think it’s like an open record store that for the most part is artist-friendly, [and] focused on equal values for everyone. I like that.
Header image of Thurston Moore courtesy of Shore Fire Media.
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