The story of how I fell in love with indie-rock and snagged an interview with Sonic Youth

Music: it’s the one thing in life with which I am completely and irrevocably obsessed. Ever since I heard the first line of “Don’t Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come” by Bright Eyes in the 8th grade, I have had an insatiable need to see, hear, and discover new music. This obsession only escalated when I heard Elliott Smith, Built to Spill and Joy Division. When I listened to their songs, something inside me was transformed.

Obsession can be hard to define. It’s difficult to understand when you’ve gone too far; when you’ve hit that point of obsession. For me, flying to New York City to see Bright Eyes when I was only 14 years old wasn’t too far. It was logical. If Conor Oberst wasn’t coming to the Midwest in the fall, then I would go to the East Coast. Of course, over the period of the next two years he would come to Chicago and Bloomington, and I saw him both times. When I was 14 and obsessed, the realization that he would eventually come to my part of the country was irrelevant. My desire to see him was so great that I simply couldn’t wait a few months. I had to go at that very moment and when my plane landed in the JFK terminal, I finally realized the extent of my obsession. The trip of course, was more than worth it.

Since those earlier years in junior high and high school, my obsession has only become more fervent. When I enrolled at IU, I realized that I could actually volunteer at WIUX, IU’s student-run radio station, and write about bands and review albums for the newspaper. Ultimately, I could meet people who shared their music and were even more obsessed with it than me. I swapped music collections with people who had bookshelves jammed tight with vinyl and CDs stacked as high as skyscrapers. It gave me such an intense feeling of happiness that I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Eventually I interviewed a couple of small, indie bands, like Beach House and Bishop Allen. In the spring, I interned at the Bloomington record label, Secretly Canadian and went to as many concerts as was realistic. The need to get my foot in the door and to hold onto any part of the music that I could was even greater than before. Simply reading about these bands that I loved in Spin or Under the Radar magazines wasn’t enough. I wanted to meet these people, ask them questions, and figure out why I had such powerful feelings when I listened to their music. Why was it that they had seemed like such close friends when I went through depression and the death of a close family member? How could these people that I didn’t even know, touch me so deeply that it felt like I was born inside their music?

When I received an email this morning that said I was going to interview Sonic Youth at the Vic Theater in Chicago, I could barely move. It was just a few weeks ago that I sent an email with my name, call letters of the radio station at which I worked, and my position there. I needed a drink of water, but my whole body was shaking too hard for me to stand. I wanted to scream or cry, but instead I made a couple of phone calls to share my exciting news. I was both terrified and excited. I didn’t know what I was going to ask them or how I would even manage to not be too nervous to properly conduct the interview. After realizing that I would be nervous regardless, I drove to the post office to try and snap back to reality, but a mundane task like slapping a stamp onto an envelope made everything seem less real.

Interviewing any band is exciting for me, but the members of Sonic Youth are legends. Forming back in 1981 before I was even born, Sonic Youth is known for its avant-garde experimental rock sound scapes and its ability to help other indie bands make it music industry. Hundreds of musicians have since tried to recapture their sound and have found inspiration in them; Nirvana and Blonde Redhead being only a couple among many.

While at this point I’m not sure what I’m going to ask them or where I’m going to be staying that night in Chicago, I’m just going to have to try to get back to reality and remember that obsessions aren’t always a bad thing. If it weren’t for my obsession and deep desire to be involved with music, I wouldn’t be writing this right now.

Make sure to check back on Tuesday June 30th for my interview with Sonic Youth.

xoxo,

Katie