The Throbbing Gristle musician and writer answers your questions on everything from squat life to societal outrage and the best music for striptease
Your ultra-radical art projects during the COUM Transmissions era [in the 1970s] shattered every conceivable boundary – from the ethical to the bodily. Even now, viewed through the lens of history, it feels as though you broke through everything that could be broken, before crossing over into pop culture. Has society become any freer? Has art become any less commodified? Dmitry_S
I think it has become more commodified. Nothing comes to my attention that would make me think that art has become anything other than a business. That’s down to people wanting a career. I can understand that in today’s economic climate, as opposed to in the 70s, where there was nothing – you could squat or get very low rent, so you just did what you wanted. You don’t have those opportunities now. But I think about art being about self-expression before thinking: can I sell it? That’s why what Kneecap are doing is uncomfortable for people. There’s such power behind them because the motivation is true and honest. That’s the difference. If your art or music is true and honest, it does hold a power and strength that some people might find uncomfortable, and therefore it gets hit.
I sometimes get the impression that there were times when you just wanted to do normal stuff and not be transgressive 24/7. Is this the case? ArthurCatRIP
I think it would be exhausting to be transgressive 24/7. How do you go from A to B?! We used to go back to Beck Road [squat in Hackney, London] and have hot chocolate. People have lives to live. I don’t remember thinking: I’m going to push some boundaries now. That’s not the way I look at it. Everything I do is just about following my own intuition and my own interests.
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