Throbbing Gristle - Cosey Fanni Tutti
Cosey Fanni Tutti has plainly stated that she regrets nothing she has ever done but some of it she would never do again. Thank god one of those things wasnt doing at least one more show with Throbbing Gristle next April. Also theyve released an album they call A Taste of TG which is actually what it says it is. This album will draw you into their world because Throbbing Gristle is well known as one of the creators of industrial music.
Check out Mutes website for Throbbing Gristle
Daniel Robert Epstein: What made you guys decide to do a greatest hits type album?
Cosey Fanni Tutti: We wanted to do it to introduce a new audience to TG who had never heard of us before. It wasnt too difficult we just took a bit of everything from different albums. I think it would be throwing them into the deep end if we jumped right into the hardcore stuff which is already available on the boxed set anyway.
DRE:
Are you guys planning on touring to support it at all?
CFT:
No [laughs], were only going to play one gig and thats next April. After that we will never play together again.
DRE:
Why is that?
CFT:
Because we dont want to. We just want to do the one gig then thats it. Were not reforming but just regrouping for one gig. Were not going to do any tours. I know there are rumors were going to tour Europe or America but those are just untrue rumors.
DRE:
Are you all getting along?
CFT:
Were fine but TG had its day and even though weve gotten together and done some new tracks that worked extremely well we still dont want to reform TG. Even though I think TG is as relevant today as it was from 1976 to 81 but we all have our separate projects. We dont work together all the time.
DRE:
Did you all expect to be alive this long?
CFT:
[laughs] What a question! What are we supposed to do, throw ourselves off a rooftop or overdose or something. We dont even think about that.
DRE:
There is no one person that you look at and say I never thought youd make it?
CFT:
No but I dont think any of us thought we would come together again as TG. Life is weird and fate deals different hands to people. The way interest in TG has cranked up and how weve all gotten in touch again. Everything just came together.
DRE:
What made you guys notice the new interest in TG?
CFT:
The albums are still selling and the fact that a lot of DJs are playing our stuff and Basement Jaxx recently mentioned our influence on them in a few interviews. Also we get hits on the website and we get emails. When things in the music and art world are radical, people have often said that its not as radical as TG was in the 70s. Things like that built up and created the right time for us to get together and do something.
DRE:
I was lucky enough to get to talk with Blixa Bargeld from Einsturzende Neubauten and he said that he invented industrial music. What is your opinion on that?
CFT:
I think he is in some kind of dreamland because Throbbing Gristle coined the phrase industrial music for industrial people before he even picked up a metal grinder.
DRE:
Have you ever had much contact with him?
CFT:
Theres no rivalry or anything. Genesis knows him better than I do. Hes very close friends with a friend of mine. Neubauten supported Chris and Cosey when we toured America and I dont remember him ever saying hello to me on any of the mornings we passed one another. The other guys in the band were really nice but he was just on some other planet. You limit your possibilities when you act like that.
DRE:
Is the Creative Technology Institute still around?
CFT:
Yeah more than ever. We just put out a new album under our new name Carter Tutti.
DRE:
How was that?
CFT:
Weve shifted quite a bit lately. Thats why we changed the name because we didnt want people to expect the Chris and Cosey kind of songs. We do a lot more improvisation and they arent as structured.
DRE:
Do you listen to a lot of new music?
CFT:
Sure Im not locked into the 80s bubble.
DRE:
Have you found anything as artful as what you guys did with TG?
CFT:
No not quite. I dont know what has to happen for something new to come along but I dont think its come along yet.
DRE:
What do you listen to?
CFT:
All kinds of stuff. A French band called Rework and another band called Colder. DJs send us their mixes a lot.
DRE:
As TG did you guys have any idea you were doing something groundbreaking or were you just trying to do something different?
CFT:
We just didnt want to hear the Bee Gees and frog about in a disco. We were working on the edge doing our actions. There was no goal or career in mind when we did what we did. We just followed our own instincts on what we felt like doing. I think thats the difference with some musicians nowadays. They view music as a career and for us its always been a way of life. If we cant do that then we dont feel we exist.
DRE:
Do you have any regrets?
CFT:
None whatsoever. I wouldnt change a single thing good or bad.
DRE:
Apparently you used to work in a strip club and do some nutty things.
CFT:
Yeah I did [laughs].
DRE:
Was slicing yourself with razor blades and licking vomit off the floor things you did to rebel or were you on drugs?
CFT:
I probably was the only stripper that wasnt on drugs. I knew what I was doing and I enjoyed it. It gave me a lot of insight into all kinds of areas of life, sexuality and exploitation. So did the film work I did as well.
DRE:
Were you trying to turn stripping into more of a performance art type thing?
CFT:
I wasnt an artist stripping or an artist modeling. I wanted to be as the other girls were. I wasnt infiltrating at all because I was really interested in the genuine feelings behind all that. I dont think you could go into that situation with the mindset of an artist analyzing it as you go along and get the same kind of experience I had.
DRE:
But you wouldnt lick vomit off the floor now.
CFT:
I have no need to do it now because I did it once.
DRE:
I agree.
CFT:
Featured Interviews
All interviews
