Lee Ranaldo - A journey in search of the perfect sound

A journey in search of the perfect sound. A journey into experimentation, both electrified and acoustic. Lee Ranaldo, former Sonic Youth member, has never stopped moving, sometimes in opposing directions at once. Often at the very same time. From the noise experiments of his youth, from the mass audience that crowned him a living legend alongside Thurston Moore, he's ended up playing in front of a handful of people. With no great pretensions, but with the same eagerness to put himself on the line. Above all, though, free from any pressure.

He has fun, no beating around the bush about it. He gives himself to the audience during and after the show: a kid trapped in the body of a nearly 60-year-old. Young at heart, young in his music, even when song-form takes over and the comforting sound of the acoustic guitar carries you toward a much more classic-leaning rock than the one he's accustomed us to over 30 years of a dazzlingly versatile career. And with his recent tour of Italy and Switzerland, following the album "Acoustic Dust", Ranaldo chose to perform in a set stripped down to the bone: no drums, no band. Just a chair and a microphone, his six guitars and a bare-bones pedalboard. A new journey, in which the madness and excess of Sonic Youth echo constantly throughout. A sonic reverb sometimes hidden, sometimes more overbearing.

We met him at the end of his show in Lugano on March 10th at Studio Foce. Sipping a glass of good Aglianico from Irpinia (a land of great wines, where the Ranaldo family's roots run deep), accompanied by local cheese, he retraced all the steps that led him to decide to release an acoustic record. Then came his Italian origins, his friendship with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, that first Beatles record that changed his life, and his conviction that the future of music lies in the hands of small bands searching for new paths and forms of expression.

From New York to Barcelona. From America to Europe: why did you choose to record your latest album in Spain?

I don't consider it my latest album (laughs). The Spanish promoter asked me for an acoustic tour, so together with my band I took the opportunity to record it right there in Barcelona. It all came about very simply.

Great bands have emerged from the New York scene, from Velvet Underground to Sonic Youth. Can this city still be considered a source of inspiration? In the world, which other cities or countries have held a particular fascination for you?

Yes, it's still a huge source of inspiration. My family lives there, and so much is always happening in New York. Of course, it's not an easy city to live in: if you're there all the time, it can become overwhelming. Luckily, I travel a lot, and over the course of my life I've had the chance to see many different realities and meet a huge number of people. That kind of experience is essential for me. During my travels, I've felt at home especially in Paris: it's a city with an incredible cultural buzz. It's not the same as New York, but in some ways I find it very similar. Another 'super amazing' city is Tokyo. But even small towns offer interesting encounters and experiences.

Do you ever look back at the past, at the years you spent in Sonic Youth? What do you miss most about those 30 years?

Sometimes I do find myself thinking about the past, but honestly I don't miss anything, because everything I did was an experience. And that experience is still ongoing today, even though I'm not playing with Sonic Youth anymore and we're not recording albums. They're still here, just as our fans are still here.

Your career has been marked by sonic experimentation. Which genres today do you think are best suited to carrying that path forward?

There are lots of bands out there improvising and doing interesting things. Today what you hear on the radio is mostly pop... but there are actually small bands playing not to become famous or make records, but purely for the pleasure of making music. Those are the bands that interest me.

As a listener, which genres and bands do you prefer?

That's a hard question to answer. There's a band from New York, Parquet Courts, who've put out two or three albums: they really impressed me. They blend the sounds of Sonic Youth with those of Pavement and other bands. They're really good.

From sonic extremes to a more intimate, classic kind of rock. How did that shift happen?

Playing acoustic shows feels very strange to me, it's never really been my natural territory. I spent so many years chasing a certain kind of sound out of my electric guitar, and yet it's only in these last few years that I've discovered what a wonderful experience making acoustic music can be. It's an opportunity, a kind of ongoing journey in constant search of new and different sounds.

Acoustic and electric are two sides of the same coin. Why did you decide to give your latest work a different character?

Very simply, it came down to changing my mindset.

Your family ties to Italy are clearly important. Has your parents' home country influenced you musically?

Definitely. There was always music playing at my family's house, and sometimes we'd listen to Italian songs too. My grandparents came from Benevento, and my family's roots have been fundamental for me. I got to know Italian culture right there at my grandmother's house in Brooklyn, when we'd all gather around the table: I remember big lunches and lots of people sitting around that table.

Italy has had, and still has, some great rock bands, but they've always struggled to make a mark abroad. What do you know about our music scene?

There are several bands I like, like my friends from Turin, My Cat Is An Alien. Over the course of my career I've had the chance to listen to a lot of Italian bands, though I haven't always been able to keep up with what they've done since.

If you could go back to your beginnings, when you weren't known yet, whose concert would you like to open for?

I don't know, sure I could pick some very famous names like Neil Young, Iggy Pop or someone else of that caliber. Honestly, at the start I never really thought about opening for anyone: the ambition was to become the headliner myself. Which is what ended up happening with Sonic Youth.

In Italy there are a lot of economic problems and political divisions. What differences do you see with American society?

Everyone in the world has these problems, including the United States: economic problems, issues with the justice system, not to mention corruption. The internet, though, has changed things, and today everyone can find out what's happening everywhere. The leap nations need to make now is to work side by side and support each other.

Let's talk about Italian food and wine…

There's no place in the US where you can enjoy things the way you do in Italy. For instance, I discovered some really unusual dishes in Puglia during a family vacation. I'm a wine lover, though not an expert. Above all, I appreciate red wines. Italy is a fantastic country — wherever you go, history is all around you.

Can wine be compared to music?

The experience of flavors is an experience too, but that's a rather strange question. Honestly, I've never thought about it.

What was your favorite song when you were a kid?

I never really had one.

And the first album you bought?

My first record — not bought, but one we had at home — was the first Beatles album: it shaped the history of rock'n'roll, and I was very lucky to have had the chance to hear it. When I asked my drummer Steve, who's seven years younger than me, what the first Fab Four album he ever owned was, he answered: "The red one or the blue one?" He meant the compilations… That right there says a lot about the difference between getting to hear the early Beatles and discovering them through a compilation.

Let's close with something current: what do you think about listening to music through dedicated apps?

Hmm… Any medium that lets you listen to music is always a good thing. But I remember how much time I used to spend with a vinyl record, and that gave you the chance to really get to know what you were listening to. With apps, on the other hand, everything moves so fast: you jump from one track to the next way too quickly.

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