Years ago when DNA was going on, I produced a record in Italy but I didn't think I'd do another one.- Arto Lindsay
We were really interested in music from all over the world. We realized that what we were doing was very close to contemporary classical music because of the lack of tonality in the guitar- the fact that I play guitar the way I play.
We were interested in this notion of compression- a lot of the songs were really short so that you would absorb them in memory rather than when you are actually hearing them.
We recorded that trio and it's out on the Knitting Factory label. I have got another record in the can with that group and Marc, which I will hopefully finish some time before next summer.
We deliberately used elements from Brazilian music and from African and Asian music. Now people can hear that but then it sounded so abstract, they couldn't hear it.
To some extent at that time, we injected rock and roll into that scene- we played loud and that was a huge turning point for that scene. We were involved in playing with all those people.
There was some conflict there over Saturday nights because we were all really broke in those days- all the money you had in the world was in your pockets. Nowadays when you are say you are broke, it's not the same thing.
There was a generation of people who moved here to make something of themselves. They had to really struggle and created really something on their own apart from a lot of attention. It was a really exciting time here.
Then the early punk rock period with Television and the Ramones. That's what I loved- that is what I was listening to immediately prior to when I started to play.
The period right before punk rock where people like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop were really strong.
The Lounge Lizards were relating with a tradition and it was like I was playing within a musical context. The guitar playing stood out as being different in some way. That was a real education for me.
Playing with Kip I definitely learned a lot playing with these incredible guys and hearing them.
My parents were missionaries - I was born in the States but I grew up in Brazil.
It was very interesting for me because DNA made music without much technical knowledge at all.
It was a turning point in the sense that as a scene, we can up with a lot of new ideas.
