Tonight you'll be presenting your take on Lou Reed's "Heroin." Why did you decide to cover it?
I was a nerdy classical-music person in high school, right? I played in a rock band, but I was totally unprepared for hearing this music because I'd never heard anything that was dangerous before. You get used to what these musics are for: Classical music is about nobility, about things with capital letters that are big marble busts on pedestals, and pop music is about dancing and sex. But I'd never thought of music as something that was terrifying. It was an introduction to a way of living I found scary, and still do. I thought for years and years I'd just make my own arrangements of those songs, and finally I thought, Maybe I just want to deal with the lyrics. The first one I made was "Heroin."
To read the full interview go to The New York Magazine
I was a nerdy classical-music person in high school, right? I played in a rock band, but I was totally unprepared for hearing this music because I'd never heard anything that was dangerous before. You get used to what these musics are for: Classical music is about nobility, about things with capital letters that are big marble busts on pedestals, and pop music is about dancing and sex. But I'd never thought of music as something that was terrifying. It was an introduction to a way of living I found scary, and still do. I thought for years and years I'd just make my own arrangements of those songs, and finally I thought, Maybe I just want to deal with the lyrics. The first one I made was "Heroin."
To read the full interview go to The New York Magazine
