[The Soup Nazi]

4/4

NYR: How do you expect to succeed if you continue to insult and alienate your audience?

JC: I'm gonna shove my way in! Who would want to have a relationship with a bunch of idiots anyway?

NYR: Still, you're far from alone — you have your band, a manager, friends...

JC: I'm not interested in those stupid, simpy, Neil Young ideas about being all alone. That's just a load of sentimental, hippy bullshit!

NYR: What are you talking about in your lyrics, then? A perpetual frustration that can never be satisfied?

JC: I don't know if I would say it's a frustration that can't be satisfied.

NYR: When you're in a group of people, do you feel you're a negative influence? Do you make people feel uncomfortable?

JC: I certainly hope so. When I start making people feel comfortable is when I start to worry.

NYR: That's truly perverse.

JC: How can anyone be interesting when they're comfortable? When they're comfortable, they're just vegetating and getting fat!!

NYR: Are you an anxious person, then?

JC: Yes, I am. I like being anxious.

NYR: Are things moving along as quickly as you'd like?

JC: Of course not. I should have enough money right now to buy a car, if I wanted, round up all my friends, cruise around the streets, pick up all the creeps we hated, and send them out to a concentration camp in Nebraska, or Guyana maybe...

NYR. You you enjoy getting beat up?

JC: By whom?

NYR: Are you a masochist?

JC: What do you mean?

NYR: You provoke trouble.

JC: That has nothing to do with masochism! I provoke trouble for the sake of trouble, not for the sake of masochism.

NYR: Can you handle yourself in a fight?

JC: I can scratch and bite pretty good!

NYR: Why did you use that picture of you with black eyes for the back cover of the No New York LP?

JC: It was the only good picture I had. We had to submit our own photographs, so that was the one I used.

NYR: Does 'Jaded' also steal a riff from Archie Shepp's 'Blase'?

JC: NO! It does NOT! I may like Archie Shepp's playing, but I never copied one note from him!

NYR: Who are your favorites in the jazz world?

JC: I'm not a critic; I don't sit around thinking about those things!

NYR: Do you think white people can play funky music?

JC: Sure they can, but that doesn't mean anything. They might be total idiots and still be able to play funky music.

NYR: What is the difference between white and black music? Is there a mystical difference in rhythms?

JC: It's got nothing to do with magic!! That's just a bunch of nigger bullshit. Black people have simply developed one form of rhythm while white people have developed a different form. Teenage Jesus, for instance, is totally white music, as far as Rhythm goes, and I like that just as much as any black music.

NYR: Are you a religious person in any sense of the word?

JC: Please...

NYR: Why do you think so many jazz players turn to religion?

JC: Because they're idiots.

NYR: How do you avoid it?

JC: By not being stupid.

NYR: What do you believe in?

JC: It's ridiculous to believe in things. It's the height of absurdity.

NYR: Do you have a large ego?

JC: You need a large ego; anyone who doesn't have a large ego is a wimp.

NYR: Are you into any kind of musical theory?

JC: Of course not. I pick up the instrument and play.

NYR: How does the rest of the band know their parts?

JC: I tell them and they adapt it themselves. They usually come up with better parts than the ones I give them.

NYR: Were you ever a hippie?

JC: Need you ask?

NYR: What were you doing in 1969?

JC: None of your fucking business!!

NYR: Did you have long hair?

JC: I had fairly long hair.

NYR: Are you from the Midwest?

JC: Yes.

NYR: Did you attend college?

JC: I wouldn't say I attended it. I went there occasionally.

NYR: Were you political in the 60's?

JC: I liked it when they had riots.

NYR: You like chaos?

JC: It's much more entertaining.

NYR: What would you like to see happen to an audience after one of your performances?

JC: Either be completely insane or completely terrorized. Either complete submission or complete insanity.

NYR: Is analysis dead?

JC: I don't ever have to analyze things.

NYR: Doesn't your music break things down into primary elements? Isn't that its theoretical underpinning?

JC: It is not a theory! It's a physical effect the music's supposed to have!

NYR: Is your music planned or spontaneous then?

JC: What I do on stage is not planned at all. It all depends on who's sitting out there staring at me... I mean, there's certain people I want to destroy, and there's other people I have too much contempt for to even do that.

NYR: Do you respect any of your fans?

JC: I have no respect for a fan. A fan is the lowest creature on earth.

NYR: What is the coolest reaction to have to your band, then? Is it cool to walk up and punch you out?

JC: No, you think people who would do that are cool? It doesn't matter what you do...

NYR: Should people be thinking about themselves at a Contortions performance?

JC: People should not be sitting there analyzing themselves. If they do, I'm gonna slap them right in the face. I don't think about what the audience's response should be. I just think about the attack. I couldn't care less what they do. They're a bunch of idiots and they're totally boring to me.

NYR: What is the future for James Chance? Are you going to make a living in the music business?

JC: Well, making a living is a pretty boring idea, I don't like to think about it. I let my manager do all my thinking for me.

NYR: Are you going to follow up the release of No New York by appearing in other cities?

JC: If someone gives me a date, I play...I think that's enough of this interview already, that's pretty much. You've got enough.

NYR: You don't want to do any more?

JC: NO.

© Roy Trakin, 1979