American - Musician | February 3, 1956 -
Sonic Youth played one show before we even had a drummer. It was just me, Kim, and Thurston. The lights slowly went down, and the set was just 30 minutes of feedback.
Lee Ranaldo
MeYouthFeedbackDownLightsJust
We got our first significant pieces of press in the 'New York Rocker' from early gigs at CBGB.
New YorkEarlyNewFirstPiecesGot
My main pedal is the Ibanez Analog Delay, the AD9 or the AD80, whichever one it is. That's my go-to pedal for short delay. I don't think I could live without that pedal.
LiveThinkShortWithoutDelayMain
I'm very interested in the distance and the space between those two poles: very concrete, song-based stuff on the one hand and very improvisational, abstract stuff on the other. I don't see any reason music should exclude one or the other, and I think the pairing of them together makes for very interesting music in a lot of ways.
MusicTogetherSpaceThinkDistance
Like everybody else, I love a good pop song. You know, there's nothing like it. I also just really like music that goes off on extended forays of extrapolation into different areas. So it's kind of nice to be able to move between those two poles.
LoveGoodMusicSongYouNice
Sometimes, for me, lyrics are derived from poems that I'm working on, and they kind of cross back and forth between the two.
MeBackSometimesKindTwoWorking
Songs seem to always spring from improvisation.
SpringAlwaysSeemImprovisation
We'd been on Geffen for a long time, and I think we felt that we needed a change. I just don't think we felt very close to the people at the label after all this time or that they understood what we were trying to do. I don't have any regrets, because at the time we signed with Geffen, it was the right thing to do.
ChangeTimePeopleThinkTrying
I've been sort of writing sketches for songs on my own forever and putting them down on cassette tapes. Yet for years and years and years, my main songwriting outlet was as a member of Sonic Youth, and for most of our time together, our best songs were written in a group setting, where the four of us were getting together in a room.
TimeBestTogetherYouthWriting
Bands rise and surface in the British press so regularly that, for the most part, unless something really catches my ear, I feel like, 'Oh, if they're still around in two years, I'll see what they're up to.'
FeelRiseTwoYearsSeeUp
I absolutely love Las Vegas. I've been there a bunch of times on my own.
LoveVegasMy OwnOwnBeenTimes
It's easier to write about a celebrity, a personality, than it is to dig in and write about the music.
MusicPersonalityCelebrityWrite
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Lee Ranaldo quotes