We're with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore.
Come on get in the car. Lets go for a ride somewhere. Carney's headed down the Holloway Road. Here he comes now. Stick to your guns and let him through. We've loaded up the kit and sent the captain down to North London with Malcolm Boyle to interview the legendary Thurston Moore.
Moore has often spoken about his admiration for British bands like Wire, The Pop Group, The Raincoats, The Slits, and Public Image Ltd and their influence on his music tastes. Interviewed about Sonic Youth's first visits to London whilst at Liverpool's Sound City in 2014 he said "I used to have these fantasies in the 70s about leaving New York and coming to London to hang out with Public Image."
There's a mutual comparison to enjoy. In a recent review of Wire's new album Mind Hive, Clash Music's Eori Holi wrote "the previous 16 studio albums have cemented their status as heroes of rock music, carrying a similar clout to other heavyweights such as Thurston Moore, Robert Smith and Steve Albini."
Carney and Malcolm are adding Thurston to the people of People In A Film, the definitive Wire documentary. For the first time Wire are collaborating on a film, working with seasoned director and producer Malcolm Boyle and award winning writer and producer Graham Duff, to create a film that has the humour, the unpredictability, the surrealist edge and creative agility of a Wire song. Carney, Fleur and Ed have been honoured and educated during their involvement in the production
Sonic Youth began in 1981 in downtown New York City with Thurston Moore on guitar and vocals, Kim Gordon on bass, guitar and vocals and Lee Ranaldo on guitar and vocals. Lee and Thurston were witness to the original 1976-77 NYC CBGB/Max's scene of Television, Patti Smith, Suicide, The Ramones, etc. Kim was in Los Angeles at the time studying as a visual artist. She came to NYC, met up with Thurston, and they started playing together during the era (1978-79) of what is termed No Wave
- harsh, challenging and abrasive music informed by rock, noise, jazz and modern composition/experimentation. Through the mutual acquaintance of Branca - then known as a remarkable iconoclast of the new radical rock composer scene - they joined forces with Lee, who was playing with Branca's ensemble. With cheap guitars tuned to various hot-rodded tunings, they wrote songs like no one else. The vibe was fresh and, though mirroring the nihilism of No Wave, had notions of forward positivity.
Thurston's most recent work Spirit Counsel is a collection of three extended compositions recorded between 2018-19. This collection represents a period of reflection on spiritual matters, collective musical friendships, and a time and space universally, without words or languages to distract from meditation.