An avant-garde musician, composer, singer, rock and roll guitarist, writer, publisher and editor, Thurston Moore is perhaps most widely known as one of the founding members of Sonic Youth, an extremely influential rock group that was on the scene for 30 years (until 2011).

I first came across the band in 1992 via MTV. Their track “100%” had a rebellious energy, it felt cool and stylish, and the video featuring amazing skateboarders floored me, as back then I was a 13-year-old fascinated by the skate culture and attitude. I only got to know Dirty, the album containing the song, three years later – at school I found a pirate cassette edition that someone had left behind. I know I should have posted a ‘lost property’ note, but I didn’t. It was a serendipitous theft: after Dirty I dug deeper into Sonic Youth’s catalogue; many years later, I translated a handful of poems from Thurston’s chapbook Lion, and in 2015 I finally met him after a Thurston Moore Group show at Warsaw’s Pardon, To Tu.

Thurston Moore recently recorded an instrumental album, Spirit Counsel (2019), as well as By the Fire, which is due out on 25th September 2020. The new records alone were the perfect excuse for a conversation, but we also discussed literature, surviving as an indie publisher, and finding hope and str