COLLAPSE BOARD

Another ancient interview with Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This one was their first ever cover story. Thought you might enjoy reading this as well.

“You ain’t no baby no more/Baby/You ain’t no bigger than before/Baby… So take a swallow as I spit/Baby” – “Bang”

Why did you start playing the guitar?

Nick: “Honestly?”

You can say “honestly” and lie, I don’t care. I understand the pressing need to bare your soul to some person you’ll never meet again.

Nick: “I played violin as a kid. I was a little prodigy. And then I became disillusioned with my teachers.”

Brian: “My mother had an acoustic guitar, she’s an old hippy. I started playing it, just my favourite records, it was very natural for me, at the age of seven.”

Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter, the illusion is enough. Rock’n’roll is all about illusion. Right – tell me a story.

Nick: “OK… give me three things, three random things.”

Alright – an awning, a watch, and a lump of flesh.

Nick: “OK, one day a lump of flesh was walking down the street and it slithered over a watch and, because it was three o’clock, the lump of flesh flew up into the air. It wanted to go up as far as it could go but it hit an awning so it couldn’t go that far. It’s a story about the human condition.”

You’re very small, aren’t you?

Nick: “I am.”

I like that.

Brian: “Do you feel safe with him?”

Only because he’s smaller than me.

Brian: “Do you feel safe with Karen?”

No – I’ve already spoken to her. Not with the stories I’ve heard. What do you aim to do on stage? Give me a definition of punk.

Nick: “A punk is somebody who takes it up the ass.”

“She was a primal institution/She was a danger to herself… Mystery girl, mystery girl/Keep on faking your mystery world” – Mystery Girl

Tell me about the mischief, I want to hear about the mischief.

Nick: “The mischief? That’s Karen’s…”

Brian: “Tell him about last night.”

Tell me about South By Southwest, and trashing Clinic’s dressing room.

Nick: “Karen and Chris and Joy, who design all of Karen’s outfits, took over this room, both physically and psychically, to the point where there was this line of terrified men standing outside, all motioning not to enter this room… Karen should tell the story.”

K: “Basically, we trashed that room. We got bored because we were in there for hours. Clinic’s room was next door. It had like a table with all their equipment on it. I peeped in to see if they were hanging out in there and no one was. That really pissed me off. So I motioned to my girls like, ‘Girls, come on – Clinic’s not in here.’ So we ran into the room and the next thing I know my friend is tearing records off the wall and breaking them on her knee. So I start to do it. Then I spy the Clinic masks and there’s, like, three boxes of them. We grabbed them and walked into the hall, stuffing them under our shirts so no one sees us, into the room we’d already trashed, stuffing them under sofa cushions. That’s when we were asked to leave.”

Nick: “Then you walked out into the hallway wearing the masks…”

Karen: “Oh yeah. We were asking for it, we wanted a reason to leave because we were so bored. I pushed Courtney Love into the food table… I don’t think I did that. But that’s what everyone claims.”

Nick: “She was later heard complaining, ‘One of those bitches from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs threw me down’. And they were like, ‘Who? Which one?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know because they were all wearing masks’.”

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An ancient interview with Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Thought you might enjoy reading it.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2012 at 9:35 am. It is filed under Interviews and tagged with Brian Chase, Careless Talk Costs Lives, Courtney Love, Everett True, Karen O, Nick Zinner, The Slits, Will Oldham, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.