This interview of SONIC YOUTH dates back july 1992. In Paris to promoting their most accessible record : Dirty, the world was in the middle of the grunge explosion and the triumph of Nirvana. The american alternative scene, born in the eighties was at its height and Sonic Youth were the godfathers of them all. Since their beginning they followed a perfect path with each album better than the previous one until Dirty produced by Butch Vig, the man who polished the Nirvana sound. 10 years later, Dirty is still their most obvious record, containing many of their best songs and it's still their best album so far. Scared of being The Rolling Stones of a generation, they got radical and showed their "avant-garde/contemporary music" influences taking the risk of being elitist.
Their new album is released in june 2002, it's the perfect time to listen to a kind and talkative Steve Shelley and a caustic Lee Ranaldo.
You could find in PDF the scan of the interview that came out in the fanzine Hyacinth. Finally, i want to thank Marie Remy for her active participation in this interview. This is some of the questions asked during this interview :
differences between Dirty & Goo , the song : 100 % about joe cole, how do they preserve the need to play, do they still learn with the open tuning, the butch vig production with no hit single,
PART2 : helping other bands, the raymond pettibon video "syndrom, nirvanification, richard hell.