We get the lowdown on this one-day London music bonanza from its New York spoken word ambassador
This Saturday, Shoreditch Park will play host to the 1-2-3-4 Festival, a one-day event that has showcased some of the best up-and-coming acts alongside more established cult talents for the last four years. Following on from last year’s exciting line-up that included the likes of Bo Ningen, Dum Dum Girls and Queens of Noise, this year’s offering of raw acts features a variety of international musicians and emerging artists.
Centre stage this year will be Danish band The Ravonettes, all girl punk band Throwing Up and Atlanta quartet The Black Lips amongst many more. We spoke to anti-commercial spoken word performer and all round New York No Waver Lydia Lunch to find out more about what’s in store, who is this year’s festival’s ambassador…
Dazed Digital: How did you become involved with the festival and what attracted you to becoming its ambassador?
Lydia Lunch: I snuck in after hours, did a dirty dance while singing a raunchy tune, videotaped the entire lewd creepy crawl and threatened to reappear night after night like a blood thirsty ghost in Sean McKlusky's dreams if he didn't give me a crack at it.
DD: Who are you most excited to see or work with at the festival?
Lydia Lunch: What's most stimulating is the throng of the entire affair as it rumbles forth in crashing walls of sonic belligerence,
each group doing their utmost to appease the god of thunder...(and ummmm....let's fucking pray it doesn't rain!)
DD: Do you feel disappointed with modern, mainstream music artists? Is there a need for groups to get politicised again in today's society?
Lydia Lunch:: I dont give a shit about modern mainstream music. A whore is a tool of the pimp it makes rich. The machine feeds on offal. (awful)vI'm never NOT politicised. I'll continue to rant. And yes a nice Greek chorus of hundreds of screaming musicians bemoaning the
eternal injustice the kleptocracy continues to perpetrate is always music to my ears.
DD: How successful do you think music is at projecting an idea, a movement or catalysing a revolutionary notion?
Lydia Lunch: It worked in the '60's and late '70's. But the corporations that run the political puppets that pretend to be in charge
are deaf to anything other than the sound of the cash machine turning over as the world smolders awash in the blood
of the working class.
DD: What continues to inspire you day to day?
Lydia Lunch: The sheer arrogance, blatant genocide, inhumane disregard of the above offenders. To create something powerful
in rebellion against the overwhelming expanse of their destructive corruption, fuels me.
DD: Having worked extensively in creative environments, where do you see yourself exploring next?
Lydia Lunch: More music, more photography, more books, more multimedia eruptions.
DD: How important is it, in your opinion, for bands to remain anti commercial and retain a do it yourself ethic? Why?
Lydia Lunch: Preservation of the soul against blood sucking leeches.
DD: Are there any bands or individual acts that you are keen to collaborate with that you haven't already?
Lydia Lunch: Bo Ningen, Daxx Riggs, A Place to Bury Strangers, Baba Zula.
The 1-2-3-4 Festival is this Saturday, July 9, 2011, in Shoreditch, London
