Fifteen Quickfire Questions for . . . Thurston Moore
By Faber Editor, 7 October 2024
Get to know Thurston Moore, the author of Sonic Life: A Memoir, who kindly humours us with rapid responses to fifteen entirely frivolous questions.
The Sonic Youth frontman takes us from a 1960s childhood rock ’n’ roll epiphany, through the subversive world of 1970s punk blasting forth from New York City, to traversing the globe with a band who changed the sound of modern alternative rock music and opened the minds of a generation of artists.
What is the best song to wake up to?
‘Judy is a Punk’ by Ramones.
What one meal could resurrect you from the dead?
Scones/strawberry jam/clotted cream, a watermelon and succotash.
Who or what has most influenced your career?
The imagining of a dinner party with Darby Crash, John Waters, Joanne Kyger, d. a. levy, Mark Stewart, Anne Waldman, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Colson Whitehead and Ian MacKaye.
What song do you wish you wrote?
‘You Forget to Answer’ by Nico.
What would you change about yourself if you could?
I would learn how to navigate a boat and assist on Banksy’s migrant rescue ship.
What is your most valued possession?
A macaroni art piece my daughter Coco made when she was a child (she just turned thirty!)
Which artist would you most like to bring back to life?
Eva Hesse.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Patti Smith’s guitar tech.
What are you most fascinated with?
Coral Morphologic reproduction.
What was your first job?
Selling seeds door-to-door.
Where would you take an alien to teach them about life on Earth?
To the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics summer writing workshop at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
What do you splurge on?
Post war poetry mimeos, first generation hardcore seven-inches and early seventies free jazz cassettes.
How do you pass time on a long flight?
Best time to hunker into a book with earplugs firmly in place, as well as writing poems in a small notebook as the muted chaos buzzes around the seat. I would say the airport is my least favourite place to be.
How do you like to celebrate success?
By taking a walk along the Thames with my wife Eva and our two dogs Vinkenoog and Apollo.
From expensive candles to bowls of brown-free M&Ms on demand, the artists rider is a key part of their mystique: what would yours be and why?
A locally curated second-hand book, record and ephemera fair with at least two dozen stalls, with Harry Smith resurrected as on-site DJ. And a veggie juicer, I suppose.
Sonic Life: A Memoir is out now in paperback.
A Sunday Times, Telegraph and Irish Times Book of the Year.
Thurston Moore is an American musician, poet and activist, best known as a member of American rock band Sonic Youth, with whom he recorded sixteen genre-defining albums including 1988’s Daydream Nation, which was chosen by the US Library of Congress for historical preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2006. Since the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2011 he has recorded several solo and group albums, most recently Screen Time in 2021. Moore is included in Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’ list. He runs the record label Ecstatic Peace! and the publishing company Ecstatic Peace Library. He lives in London.
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