What does it mean to have been “indie” before “indie” came into vogue?
There is nothing alternative or indie about anything in music these days. There is only Successful and Unsuccessful. We are Unsuccessful. We are no good at anything other than being good at being Unsuccessful. Because we come from professional middle-class families we have always known that we can do anything else in life more successfully than make music so we’ve never had an incentive to do anything other than exactly what we want. We are spoiled. Or we have integrity. Depends on your point of view. Professional middle-class families traditionally stress intellectual/poetic pursuits over material gain. Pere Ubu is nothing if not traditional.
