Lee Ranaldo on Art, Music, and His Covid-Era Album 'In Virus Times'

Lee Ranaldo, co-founder of Sonic Youth, discusses his multifaceted career as a musician, visual artist, and poet. Born in New York in 1956, he was ranked 33rd on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of greatest guitarists, while bandmate Thurston Moore was 34th; both topped Spin's 2012 list. Sonic Youth, formed in 1981 and disbanded in 2011, influenced the grunge genre, notably touring with Nirvana in 1991, documented in Dave Markey's film '1991: The Year Punk Broke'. Ranaldo has released solo albums and two with The Dust, featuring former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. He has published books and exhibited drawings, paintings, videos, and performances since 2005, often with his wife Leah Singer. On November 12, 2021, Mute Records released his 22-minute instrumental piece 'In Virus Times', written during lockdown in New York in fall 2020. In the interview, Ranaldo defines art as any human creation that moves or offers perspective, and music as any sound in the air, citing John Cage. He cites Jasper Johns' current exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art as inspiring. He describes his recent focus on flower watercolors and his 'Covid music' album, recorded in his dark living room in September 2020. He recalls a memorable duet with cellist Leila Bordreuil at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn on March 2-3, 2020, just before the pandemic shutdown, as his last live interaction with another musician.