ern Renaissance Man?
Sure, why
not? he says: “I’ve worked 40 years to get
as busy as I am today, and it feels just
great.”
IE: Whether you’re pursuing a parallel
career as a DJ, doing studio production, or
launching yet another specialty label,
you’re rarely at home in London.
YOUTH: Yes. And I just spent a month in
gonna keep that going for a year through-
out this tour, so we’ve got a lot going on
right now — I take care of a lot more
things than just playing the bass in Killing
Joke.
IE: There has been nothing like those first
two albums, which were practically road
maps to the industrial sounds.
Y: And I think the work still sounds fresh.
06•2019
Africa, all the way to Nairobi, and I’ve just
come back from two weeks in Berlin,
where I gave a solo exhibition that incor-
porated improvised drones, plus a panel
talk on recording within the straits of ana-
log, modular equipment. In Berlin right
now, everyone is either an artist or an
activist, a hacker, or a DJ. They’re just tak-
ing over the city. If I were in my twenties,
I’d be living there, for sure.
IE: So you have no real romantic relation-
ship, then?
Y: Ha! Not only that, I’ve got two kids
who are just now coming out on their own
terms, so they’re quite impertinent. And
yes, I am single, which has allowed for all
these new travel vistas. So my life is actu-
ally quite crazy because I’m really devot-
ed to the work. But I’m finding a balance,
as well. I still spend a lot of time chilling
out, and I do a lot of other things besides
music, like painting, writing. I just started
a journal, kind of like a diary, and I'm
10 illinoisentertainer.com june 2019
By the time of our third album, Jaz had
said, “Let’s get more experimental, let’s
get a bit more Canine,” and everything
got murkier and darker. Then Jaz wanted
to do away with choruses altogether, but I
was taking too much LSD, and everything
got murkier, and I was just too weak to
put up a string fight. But I’ve noticed on
this tour that our sardonic, gallows humor
has become even more relevant. We are
living in dark times, most definitely.
IE: So how’s that cure for cancer coming?
Y: Ha! There is a new Blue Pearl album
coming — and I’ve been working with my
old college professor Vivian Goldman,
who was friends with Bob Marley, wrote
all these great books about music, like
"Revenge of the She Punks," but never got
to scream out her feelings and frustrations
behind a mic herself. So I gave her the
proper musical backdrop.
Tom Lanham
newreleases
June 7
Gloria Gaynor Testimony
Jonas Brothers Happiness Begins
Neil Young TUSCALOOSA
Pelican Nighttime Stories
Perry Farrell Kind Heaven
Peter Frampton All Blues
Santana Africa Speak
June 14
Baroness Gold & Grey
Bastille Doom Days
Pelican
Bruce Springsteen Western Stars
Iron & Wine + Calexico Years To Burn
Madonna Madame X
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood Servants Of The Sun
Two Door Cinema Club False Alarm
X Ambassadors Orion
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Black Star
June 21
Hollywood Vampires Rise
Hot Chip A Bath Full of Ecstasy
Mannequin Pussy Patience
Mark Ronson Late Night Feelings
Prince Originals
Richard Reed Parry Quiet River of Dust Vol. 2
The Raconteurs Help Us Stranger
Titus Andronicus An Obelisk
The Allman Betts Band Down To The River
Hellyeah Title TBA
Baroness