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Steve Albini on the future of music, funny cats and the death of fashion
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 6 October 2010
Last month, Shellac made an ultra-rare festival appearance at the Jim Jarmusch-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in New York, and GQ caught up with the band’s frontman, Steve Albini. If awards were given out to interviewees, Albini would win one for this.
In the interview, the musician and studio engineer discusses why Shellac hate playing festivals so much, why Sonic Youth “cheapened music quite a bit” when they signed to a major label “in order to become a modestly successful mainstream band – as opposed to being a quite successful independent band”, why now is “a terrific time to be in a band”, funny cat videos on YouTube, the future of radio, the power of the internet for musicians, John Peel’s work ethic, and more. Basically, he said quite a lot.
But GQ is a fashion magazine, so eventually talk turned to that subject. Though it turns out Albini isn’t much of a fan of either fashion or GQ.
He told the magazine: “I think fashion is repulsive. The whole idea that someone else can make clothing that is supposed to be in style and make other people look good is ridiculous. It sickens me to think that there is an industry that plays to the low self-esteem of the general public. I would like the fashion industry to collapse. I think it plays to the most superficial, most insecure parts of human nature. I hope GQ as a magazine fails. I hope that all of these people who make a living by looking pretty are eventually made destitute or forced to do something of substance. At least pornography has a function”.
Read the whole interview in full here.
