[sonicl]

MS : Do you remember how you felt when you first heard Bad Moon Rising for the first time?

PS : I feel I have a total recall of that moment, the time of day, light, smells and the effect of the sound... I was ABSOLUTELY sure that I was experiencing a future music... a music of my own generation... with all the zeal of a new convert, so very unaware of how long and how much effort it was going to take to get the rest of the world to see it too.

MS : How did you come up with the name Blast First?

PS : It's from (painter / writer / nasty person) Wyndham Lewis's Blast poetic manifestos for the Vorticist art movement (a great source of inspiration for Mark E Smith too it turns out). Vorticism was arguably Britain's only 20th Century indigenous art movement. A first line reads "Blast First (from politeness) ENGLAND" (hence cat no BFFP...), and talks about how Britain is kept mild by the winds from America, which amused me in terms of what Sonic Youth were sort of about at the time...

MS : As a label, BF was undoubtedly the primary mover in bringing some of the most subversive bands to the UK. I've been reading Our Band Could Be Your Life, and it strikes me that the operations in the US for a label like SST were quite ramshackle. Was it a logistical nightmare co-ordinating releases with bands in the States?

PS : Subversive...? Hmmm don't know about that ? Depends what you are saying they subverted...

From the very first Blast First record, Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising, which was released in the USA through the Dutch East India label, A&R'd by Gerrard Cosloy (later Matador) the americans were in general paranoid about release dates, regardless of the exchange rate, or any amount of assurances.

It seems to come from the the commerciality and therefore competitive nature of american culture, even in the so called Alternative Culture. The punk / indie distribution system born in the late 70's in the UK and Europe came far more from an aesthetic root. The countries are all physically so much smaller so it is easier to communicate and to some degree control.

US independent label have far more to cope with, distributors just declare Chapter 13, cease trading and also cease being responsible for their debts, move over a couple of states and restart under another name, leaving the labels and artists fiscally endangered and legally powerless. Screw up in the UK and within days (even pre-email) everybody in the indie community would be aware of it. If you need to get paid, an eight hour drive gets you from one part of Britian to the other and knocking on the appropriate door. SST seemed to me pretty efficient - they had grown from three cars parked on a corner that had a couple of phone booths to a full grown label with their own warehouse - but their 'politics' and belief system at that time was so strict, to me almost fascist, which is strange considering they were supposedly against The System.

For Sonic Youth's Sister I flew to LA from London just because the Youth were fielding calls from both labels and SST didn't trust us to send them the metalwork (this was back in the day when vinyl was still king). I met with Chuck Dukowski and Greg Ginn - the main SST dudes - in some diner. Chuck was just really obnoxious and Greg never spoke as I recall. From the moment I sat down at that diner table... it just grew to the same distance I just flown, no communication at all, no trust, no understanding... 'You limey, you're gonna screw us anyway 'cos that's what people do in the record biz...' That's what they wanted to believe, full stop.

But I did meet the great Ray Farrell there, then doing PR for SST. He'd been there since the start, he's good man, and eventually came to Blast First USA, then over to Geffen. He was the town cryer of every main street and several side roads of the USA for Sonic Youth, a real music man.

I know for someone like Thurston he really couldn't believe how a label run by, for him, inspirational musicians, (ex Black Flag chaps) would be so able to turn round and screw so many other artists and friends. The main characters all got big houses and BMW's out of it, having previously espoused that most bands were pussies 'cos they couldn't or wouldn't tour on a dollar a day for food and sleep in the van for eight to ten weeks at a time. I know the Youth had to employ a lawyer to get their masters back and try to get paid... so far we've always managed to find a reasonable way to settle any differences. I've never been in court...

Increasingly these days band's send in their manager and lawyer into battle BEFORE they've even sent you an email saying 'gotta problem, little help please'.

MS : Reading Our Band Could Be Your Life, it was mentioned that Sonic Youth weren't happy about a live album that you put out for them. What's your take on that, and more importantly, will that album ever see the light of day again?

PS : At the time of the tour, which turned out be the last one with Bob Bert on drums, we had been talking about a double 10" 'official bootleg' called The Screaming Fields of Sonic Love.

Primarily this had come as an idea from me at the time to make them some money as they were working very hard but were going back to New York with no money, and their rents were unpaid or in arrears - one of the reasons Bob had to leave - and take up part time jobs.

I was keen for them to at least be able to concentrate on their next round of music making. As they did not get round to completing the process, and being aware that other bootleggers were planning a release, I took the decision to bootleg them myself with my choice of material.

As was always the intention, they did get all the money, BUT the record arrived in New York via Dutch East India Co. before the cash, so they actually found out about it via Gerrard Cosloy, not me.

Salt was further rubbed in wounds when a Rolling Stone journalist who was writing a piece on them at that time bought the record and mentioned in his piece that this record was a better document of the band than their official releases available at that time.

Strangely 'my' vinyl version was subsequntly bootlegged as a CD from which the band never saw a penny and the band never batted an eyelid... Anyway, they have the record master tapes and metalwork, so I won't be suprised if it features in some box set or somesuch in due course. The Youth later applied the title to their first video compilation and its CD equivalent.

MS : How did you find the bands that you released records by? Demos sent in to you, gigs?

PS : Demos, very rarely - Head of David was the very first demo BF got sent. Other than that only Easy was signed from a demo. Mostly the bands were recommendations by other bands already on the label or seeing the bands live.

MS : Were there ever times when you thought a release was never going to happen?

PS : Nope, all the bands WANTED to get the records out, none of this namby pamby My Bloody Valentine wishy washy, 'oh my art, my art' bollocks. 'My' band's knew what they wanted. You tend not to go over budget when you are spending your own dollars first then licensing it out.

MS : Who were the hardest bands to deal with?

PS : They are people so they all have their quirks, Butthole Surfers have been known to get the wrong end of the stick due to operating with their consciousness chemically altered. Texans, frontiermen - direct action, then debate.

Steve Albini was and is pretty straight edge lifestyle-wise and so would be the opposite of the Buttholes. There was a precision in his music that indicates his personality. He prefered yes or no answers, not maybe's. Pessimistic, more suprised if you came through than if you let them down.

Sonic's were pretty much fun, fun, fun... Lots of laughing... We were learning together. Obviously it got weird at the end and for long time after that.

Maybe Dinosaur Jr... J Mascis was frustrating to work with, so much talent, pre-slacker attitudes to cover up being seen to appear to care to much about 'making it'. Always wanted to cancel every tour the day before or day of them flying - moody.

When you do what we do, you prefer a good argument that clearly states the problem - that way you at least know what they want and don't have to try to second guess their 'needs'. So much of that rock n' roll bullshit comes from people around them building in another couple more layers of comfort zone for the artist, till they can't live with it.