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Sadier: No, we've just reached our goal a bit more.

Gane: Things evolve or die away -- reach a kind of stasis -- and we don't use them anymore. My main thing is to avoid any kind of simple generalization or understanding -- to avoid categorization. And to be able to accept ideas like contradiction and confusion as relevant reactions to the music. That's how I first listened to music, by misunderstanding or not understanding, knowing that I couldn't put my finger on what was attracting me.

That's two ways, but are there others?

Gane: The act of creation is more important than the final thing. The final thing is something that you present, but you can only learn or feel what is enjoyable from the act of doing it on the spot.

There are two things I love about seeing Stereolab live. One of them is really small -- it's that as a touring band, you set up all of your own instruments, all of your own gear. It's not as if you magically appear onstage.

Gane: I think it's very important to be grounded in the place that you're about to play. When I set up, I'm more into a slow process. Before you actually start something, you need a mindless activity. You familiarize yourself with the surroundings.

The other thing is seeing the communication between the band. When I watch you, there's not a band leader that I can watch. I see someone look over at someone else, catch an eye and sort of smile. I can see that you've just hit that moment. As an audience member, I get to feel like I'm somehow in on it. It's not a show; it's not a unified front against the audience.

Sadier: If it happens onstage, it automatically translates into the audience. That can work for better or for worse. If it's a bad gig, you don't see the smiling.

Gane: But you can see, or I hope you can see, that it's not a contrived act. That live interaction of music is the most interesting thing about music. Which is why when you go and see a guy stand onstage with a sampler it's boring, 'cause it doesn't have any live interaction of someone creating something in front of you. I think a lot of people like the vampiric experience of watching a band on stage.

What's that?

While you're there for one or two hours you're basically sucking all of the attention and energy from everyone in the room in one direction, toward the stage. For those two hours, you might as well not exist as an individual or a group because all the direction is one direction.

There are all of these really rare, expensive Stereolab products out there. In light of some of the band's Marxist lyrical allusions and radical politics that I've read about in earlier interviews, do you recognize the irony of that commodity fetishism?

Sadier: It's not that we're doing this on purpose. We're just putting out records.

Gane: I'm not a Marxist, and I don't have a problem with commodity fetishism. But that isn't the reason why we do it. We do most of them because we don't want to be stuck in the tradition of doing an album once every two or three years. I think music should be exciting.

Sadier: I've actually read very little Marx. But what I do know is that Marx never said, "Don't you go and ever do anything that might sell out there in the world." He never said that. Marxism is about evolution, about progress. We live in such a world today that my commie friends, my Marxist friends, find it an absurdity to even say that they are left-wing. The left and right don't mean anything anymore. It's an absurdity to say, "Capitalism is bad! Let's get it, let's kill the beast." Capitalism is everywhere. We live by it. You're better off trying to make a good living, rather than saying, "I'll kill capitalism and I won't sell anything." It's unavoidable. You can't be too hard-headed.

Gane: I understand spending a lot of money on records. I don't have a problem with it. I don't feel sorry for people who buy our records. You don't have to do it.

Sadier: It gives meaning to their lives.

Gane: [Defensively] No, that's not it.

Sadier: [Laughs]

Gane: No, I'll spend 100 pounds on a Sun Ra record. It's stupid, but I want to do it.

Sadier: And it gives meaning to your life.

Gane: It's great, it's a great feeling.

Are you aware that a lot of people have sex to your music.

Gane: Do they?

Sadier: Yes.

A lot of people tell me that they put your record on ...

Sadier: Excellent. I know someone who strips to our records. And someone had a baby. They saw our show in Atlanta and they went back home and got a bit raunchy and had a baby nine months later.

How do you feel about that use of your music? Does it make you happy?

Sadier: Yes. Do I have to say something special? It does, it's great. Can is also good music to make love to.

Gane: I was trying to think how other kinds of music would be weird: Philip Glass or Steve Reich. With us it's good that it's not the normal Barry White or whatever you usually hear, bland R&B. I like the fact that the music isn't utilitarian, it doesn't have any particular purpose. People find their own.
salon.com | Sept. 22, 1999

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