[kristin angelique]

Interview questions for Thurston Moore
By Kristin Angelique, autumn shade fanzine

This interview took place via e-mail around December 2004.



1. Where were you born and where did you grow up as a child?

Born in Coral Gables, Florida - kinda lived there then upstate Florida and then northwest Tennessee and then back to Florida, this time south Miami all this before I was even ten - and then to New England - Connecticut until I moved to NYC in 77. My dad was a school teacher that's why we moved around.

2. What are some early musical experiences that you consider significant - for any reason, but for example - one which made you first think, "Music is cool"?

Hearing Louie Louie by The Kingsmen and then hearing about the Beatles and then hearing about the Monkees - they were probably the most exciting cuz they had a TV show and we kids in the neighborhood related to them more cuz they were more like USA fun and , hell, they had a TV show every week - cool songs.

3. What was the first record you remember buying?

I had my mom buy it for me - it was the In A Gadda da Vida LP by Iron Butterfly - there were a couple of singles before that like Get Together by the Youngbloods and In the Year 2525 by Zager & Evans.

4. Please list, in any order, some of the bands you have especially liked when you were first really getting into music.

I like the Dave Clark 5 cuz I'd see them on this show called Where the Action Is and they had outfits and were rocking and having fun. I dug the Monkees as I said. I was into The Archies too even though they were fake. I liked the fake bands like them, the Hardy Boys (they had an LP) and the Harlem Globetrotters (awesome). When I got older I got into more heavy stuff like the Beatles and the Guess Who and then of course Kiss and Iggy and the New York Dolls and then forget it...

Since I was at least 6 - I've had this record by The Archies, "Everything's Archie" (I think). I used to sing to it all the time; it has "Sugar, Sugar" on it - which is a great song - but I also really liked "Bicycles, Roller Skates and You."
I couldn't hear so great, but that night at Northsix when we were both watching To Live and Shave in L.A. - I think you said, "This is better than The Bay City Rollers." I used to watch their show every Saturday. They were cool and fun, too. I never knew The Hardy Boys had a band; sweet.

5. How did you come to play an instrument and what was your first instrument? When did you first begin playing guitar?

I played flute in grade school and got an A+ but I quit when they said I had to wear a bow tie at the concert - I got a guitar but couldn't figure it out but my brother did so I learned watching him. I really got into playing electric guitar after hearing Sex Pistols and Ramones and I could actually sound like them and I totally dug the way they sounded.

6. When did you start writing music? What was the first song that you remember writing - lyrics and/or music - and how old were you?

I started writing about 1976 - 77 when I got into punk and some of the riffs were used in the first band I was in called the Coachmen

7. Were you in any bands before Sonic Youth and/or were you doing any solo stuff before Sonic Youth?

Yeh the Coachmen - we existed downtown NYC in 1977 - 80. Then I started playing with Kim and this other girl named Ann and we had a couple of different names before SY.

8. As briefly or at as great a length as you are willing - please tell me about the history of your band - how and when you first got together and when and where you played your first show and made your first recording and who all the members have been...


Omigod - I've done this so many times - I think maybe you can crib this off some SY site somewhere - I don't have the sanity to type it out right now...


9. How would you describe what Sonic Youth were doing musically when you first started?

We just wanted to play the most avant-garde rock because that was the scene we were way into in NYC but we also wanted to not get too far from classic rock ideas like a lot of the artist bands had been doing

10. Was experimentation part of your vision from the beginning or is this something that you just found yourself doing and it evolved from there? Please describe - at any length - how you came to love guitars and experimenting with noise.

After the Coachmen I had the idea that the guitar could just be a wild sounding tool and songs could be anything you say they are - it was a weird epiphany and I started to employ it by just crashing around the guitar - it was confusing to people I was playing with at the time - but it turned into SY.

(full interview: http://www.myspace.com/autumnshadefanzine)

i'll post the rest here in a second, hopefully...