Lydia Lunch was on stage November 7th in Oslo.

It's been 7 years since the first time we saw her perform in Lyon and hoped to meet this Lady. We had another try in Marseille few years later but she didn't want to do any interview at all. And then, in november 2004, we finally had the honour to meet Lydia and we really want to thank her for this brilliant conversation.

The morning after the show, Lydia Lunch is checking her e-mail in the reception of her hotel in Oslo. She's up early, she doesn't sleep much, she confesses to us as we enter the hotel's library and sit on black leather sofas. She played an enthralling concert the night before at Elm Street to a silent, devoted crowd. We were just happy we got the opportunity of an interview. The show ended in a beautiful, dangerously seductive cover version of The End... We captured a special 25 minutes long encore under the form of an interview. Thank you for sharing it with us



Ovary Action: How did you like the gig last night? The Norwegian crowd has the reputation of being still and stiff.
Lydia Lunch: I don't give a shit about the response to the crowd. I always look for two faces and it's usually female and I saw them when I first walked in and as long as they are there, that's all that counts. I was talking to these two ladies after the show and they were saying: "I just wanted people to sit down" like she thought they were too active, the crowd. "They should just be paralysed and placed somewhere" she said. I would like it if their hands were handcuffed to the chair and they couldn't applaud, whether they want to or not. I like dead silence, so maybe the Norwegian crowd is the perfect crowd for me. I am not looking for a response, I'm looking to penetrate inside their psyche and that's going to happen whether they like it or loathe it, so my job is always successful. I am not looking for any exaggerated response, as a matter of fact it annoys the shit out of me. I'd rather have a peaceful, almost Japanese style, that bow before next song.

Ovary Action: Do you often get some reaction from the crowd...
Lydia Lunch: Well, if you mean with applause, it's almost pavlovian, you know, song ends (she claps), it's so irritating to me. That's what is so good about spoken word. In my delivery of spoken word, there is no time for them to applaud, laugh, cry, moan. With music, I try to make the spaces between songs as short as possible, but still, they manage to get in a squeak or two. It's irrelevant, you know.

Ovary Action: Have you ever had any really violence response from the crowd?
Lydia Lunch: Oh yes, and they have been corrected on the head with a microphone. When I first started doing spoken word it was like a verbal box image, and no one knew what the hell it was, and it was very aggressive, very hysterical. You learnt quickly back then to handle it. Only once did I have a woman... and I had seen her crawling between the bar stools of the bar before the show began, so I knew there'd be trouble because alcohol to me is the enemy and people become so stupid on alcohol. I don't care if people drink, but it's the excess of alcohol that makes people stupid. If you're never drunk.. not that I don't drink, I am just never drunk. So , she was crawling like a snake on her belly and I knew there'd be trouble, and she was like: "Lydia, what do you need those notes for?" I'm like "you want the notes after the show, you take the notes, you do the speech, I don't care." And she kept coming and finally I just heard the airplane spinner. It used to be mad, but now, no. What are people going to do? Are they going to try to out hackle me? No, with one sentence I'll cut their head off, so. So no, there is no violence, unless I am perpetratring it.

Ovary Action: Do you find it easier then playing with a band, so that it is louder, more people..?
Lydia Lunch: Oh no, I find it much easier with spoken words. Because if there is aggravation you might have to work it not the song, whereas for the spoken words, you can just go for the straight direct attack.

Ovary Action: Does it make more difficult if the crowd does not understand English?
Lydia Lunch: No, 'cause I think that in America, they understand less of what I am saying than in Japan, and in Japan, they don't understand a word. My biggest audience for spoken word is Italy, and they don't understand 20% of what I am saying. More people come to my spoken word shows in Italy, than music shows and this is just a ......mystery. Maybe it's because they have so many political parties, the press is more political. Mainstream press always interviews me, Cicciolina...need I say more? There is not sizing up 100 to 200 people in one breath.

Ovary Action: About the concert again. How much room do you have for improvisation?
Lydia Lunch: Complete room, I mean really it's only the first 2-3 songs actually... wait a minute, what was the set last night... yes, it was just 4 songs that are song structured, and one is from Queen of Siam, one is a Door song and the other 2 are from my new album. What I like about the structure of the set last night is that it starts about as gently as I possibly can and with each passing song the nightmare gets longer until the illustrated world comes in, and that's a very loose lyrical content from which I can go on.

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