I was fortunate to be taught by Richard Hamilton in 1964, my first year at the fine art department of Newcastle University. From then on Richard was a great inspiration, both as an artist, and as a personality. Frighteningly intellectual, he seemed to validate my romantic leanings towards American culture and he revealed how poetic and mysterious the modern world could be. As a teacher he taught by example, and his restless enquiring spirit I have tried to emulate in my own work as a musician.

See the post below (from Nov. 11) called “Architectonic.” Now see the “wordle” version.

AR: What got you interested in photography? Who were some of your favorite photographers?

JB: I started bringing a camera to concerts in late 1977. I used my dad’s camera. I would develop the film in my mom’s basement where I had a small darkroom. At the time, I was aware of Jim Marshall, a San Francisco photographer from the ’60s. He did a lot of jazz in NY, but by the early ’60 was back in San Francisco. He did shots of all the SF bands and at Woodstock and Monterey Pop. Herbie Greene was another photographer. These were the shots I was seeing in some magazines and books.

AR: It’s clear that you loved music, but interesting that you chose something visual over literary.

JB: I think I have always been drawn to the visual. It was an easier way for me to communicate and make sense of what was around me. I saw Trouser Press and Creem, but I wasn’t a regular subscriber. If you’re a writer, you need to find a more tangible place to for that kind of work. Photos could be just for me and my friends. They did not have to be published to be shared.

AR: Did you recognize your strengths right away or were they a little more hard won?

JB: No, I did not. I think if you’re that young, you don’t immediately recognize things like that. It’s not really part of the thought process at 16 or 17. If you like what you do, that’s enough to go on. I mean, a lot of what I did looked okay, and I guess that was inspiring enough to keep trying.

AR: Did you start out with only concerts or some stills?

JB: Mostly shows at first. I grew up in New Jersey so it was mostly indoor shows, but there were some outdoor free concerts at some local colleges. There was no access to bands for posed shots, so it was just live concerts.

AR: What was your first concert? Did you have a camera along?

JB: My very first concert was the Doobie Brothers, Outlaws and Poco in ’75 at Madison Square Garden – no camera just bad weed. Like I said, I never took cameras to concerts until late ’77.

AR: What was your first big job?

JB: That would be U2 in ’87. There were rumors of a free concert in San Fran. I heard on the radio that it was happening. I was right about to leave and go and got a call from Rolling Stone Magazine. If I had left 20 minutes before I wouldn’t have gotten the call (no cell phones). Jodi Peckman from the magazine said, “we need you to shoot the free U2 concert in downtown San Francisco. Go and find the press contact for Bill Graham Presents and he will hook you up. That was my first assignment for the magazine. I have gone on to shoot over 250 assignments for Rolling Stone in the last 21 years. My first magazine cover was Camper Van Beethoven for BAM Magazine in ’89.

AR: How do you work with bands that may not be as photogenic as others to make their image more pronounced?

JB: Some of that comes with experience. It could be choosing a great location, or interesting lighting, or lens choices, angles. Directing them to stand or sit a certain way.

AR: Your images are rich with an almost sanguine quality – almost like still-life portraits. Can you trace that to any art movement influence?

JB: It’s funny because I like my photos to have tension and drama. So if they seem sanguine, it is maybe because the subject is just comfortable. I prefer my images to be more surreal, and tweaked.

AR: Many have that dreamlike, almost Lynchian quality to them. I wondered if you had developed that vision over time.

JB: I like that. I love David Lynch’s work, and he is certainly an influence, so I like the Lynchian comparison. For me, there is a warped psychedelic influence. And yes, style and vibe comes with taking chances and understanding that style and creativity comes from taking these chances. We didn’t have the computer technology that exists now, but our choices of film and lenses and lighting gave me tools to create photos that have a more surreal vibe.

AR: Your color photos stand out, but you do have some black and white, also. Do you have a preference for a certain type of artist or mood?

JB: With Film, I almost always shot both B&W and color when shooting an artist. It was still a magical moment in the lab when I went to pick up my film… there were always surprises. I love the look of both color and B&W. They both create a mood a feeling, a unique image.

AR: Over time how did you develop your collages?

JB: For me the collages came about because one picture didn’t tell a story, but a group of images told the story a bit better. I like sequences.

AR: Obviously, you’re sort of for hire, but what would make you want to seek out a subject or musician?

JB: I love music, and when I love an artist, I feel a draw to wanting to shoot them. Sometimes if they are local that can be easy. If they are from out of town it depends on the relationship I have with them, or the label, or their management. Many of these people are the artists that form our pop culture history, and I always have a draw to document that history.

AR: So no weddings or Bar Mitzvahs?

JB: No.

AR: Have you known your professional, artistic relationships to become more fluid over time… like the more you photograph someone?

JB: Absolutely, I like photographing artists over and over again because I learn their body language, their movements, what is comfortable, and what can create an engaging image. Jackie Greene, a fairly new artist, is someone I want to shoot over and over again because I know he’ll have a long career and I am drawn to how talented he is and I want to document that. Long term single artist projects are very appealing to me. I did a book on 15 years of Primus and Les Claypool, and another book on the Flaming Lips, and my first book was just on the Grateful Dead.

AR: Who is among the most beautiful women you have ever photographed?

JB: Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Siouxsie Sioux, Tracy Chapman, Vanessa Carlton, Kathleen Edwards, Alanis Morisette, Linda Perry, Elisa… she’s the biggest pop star in Italy and is really down to earth and amazing to photograph. I am sure I am leaving many out. I did the first magazine covers for Alanis and Sheryl; both for BAM.

AR: After photographing some of the most beautiful and unique figures, do regular people you meet every day disappoint you?

JB: Certainly not. People are so fascinating to me! Look at my photos of deadheads, or punks, or people dancing at shows. Shooting the fans is super interesting to me.

AR: How did you choose the photos for the book? Which are among your personal standouts if even for the experience behind it?

JB: I just started looking at everything which was such an overwhelming task. I wanted portraits that were engaging; performance shots that were intense. Not just someone standing there on stage because they were a famous musician. So many are my favorites… it would be impossible to choose, but Tom Waits, Jerry Garcia, Neil Young, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, EmmyLou, Dave Matthews… the list goes on and on.

AR: At what stage did you get to The Meat Puppets and Nirvana?

JB: I got turned on about ’86 to the Meat Puppets and loved shooting them. They were a psychedelic indie punk band… It was an early manager for the Flaming Lips who turned me on to Nirvana. She was their booking agent. She set up a shoot for me with Nirvana and they got lost trying to find my studio and the shoot never happened. This was pre-Dave Grohl.

AC: The Harp cover with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck was a standout. How did that idea come about?

JB: Scott Crawford, the editor, asked if they could bring their axes… so they did along with big bushy beards. Scott Crawford meant guitars, they brought AXES to chop down trees! Scott and Peter had both grown long beards, so the axes fit the persona.

AR: Has anyone ever acted like a little shit? Make it a blind item if you must.

JB: There have been some with big egos… mostly managers. Yeah, they’re big rock stars but you can still be a nice person. But in general, I have gotten lucky. So no need to name names.

AR: Did you in fact take photos of subjects from The Church of Satan? If so, did they try to draft you?

JB: Yes, I photographed the founder Anton LaVey – a very fascinating shoot, great stories for that one. The Church of Satan was created to shock but also to get guys laid… what better way to get naked women. They did not try and recruit me… but I would have loved to hang with them a bit more just to observe. It was amazing to get them before he died a few years later.

AR: Do your kids think you’re cool or are they too cool to care?

JB: Sometimes they think I am and sometimes they think I am a dork! I’m sure all kids feel this way about their parents no matter how cool they are. If their friends say something positive about me, then they’ll step back and think, “Well, yeah, he is.” I try to remind them to be engaged and to experience life. Don’t go through life un-noticed!

blakesberg.com

Traveling on a High Frequency: Jay Blakesberg – Photographs 1978–2008 (Rock Out Books) is a 30-year retrospective with 304 pages of over 1,200 photos from the archive of Jay Blakesberg. The book features a foreword by Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) and introduction by writer and music cultural figure, Bill Bentley.

******

In lieu of Fun Facts the ten questionnaire concept, originated by Bernard Pivot, after the Proust Questionnaire was presented and like the stars who answer he responded in kind haste.

What is your favorite word?
Interpentle.

What is your least favorite word?
I love words… why would I have a least favorite?

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Life and how amazing it is.

What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Mean people – the really mean ones!

What sound or noise do you love?
Music.

What sound or noise do you hate?
Loud sirens.

What is your favorite curse word?
Fuck.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Superhero, neurosurgeon, rock star (all combined) – oh wait, didn’t Buckaroo Bonzai already do that?

What profession would you not like to do?
Cleaning porta johns.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Welcome, Have fun!

Exene and John Doe, NYC, 1982 © Laura Levine

Richard and Linda Thompson, NYC, 1982 © Laura Levine

Scott: Did you ever reach a point with music photography where you felt you had enough? You’ve branched out into so many other interesting areas – is it because there were always other things you wanted to do, or did music photography take its toll?

Laura: Both, in fact. I felt I’d accomplished all I’d wanted to in photographing bands (creatively, that is) and I wasn’t interested in repeating myself. I probably could have made a nice living taking variations on the same photos over and over, but truthfully that wasn’t very interesting or challenging to me, from a creative point of view. At the same time, the industry was changing. I felt the focus was becoming more on style over substance – image, fashion, high-concept shoots. Celebrity culture. The makeup and clothing were the stars, not the artists. Some of my photo sessions evolved into huge productions, involving a dozen people on a sound stage. Once the novelty wore off, this didn’t interest me. In fact, towards the end I refused to shoot anyone unless it was just one-on-one – just me and them and maybe one assistant – preferably in natural light, as intimately as possible.

At the same time, I’d just started to paint. I’d never painted before, nor taken an art class, but I really enjoyed the freedom of it. It was just me and some brushes and paint. No publicists and equipment and productions. Not having to deal with weather and labs and scheduling. So for a while there I did the two side-by-side, shooting bands and also illustration. In fact, my first illustration assignment was an album cover for Jack Bruce, and some of my favorite jobs were album covers. Richard Thompson’s Rumor and Sigh was a wonderful example of being able to create the entire package, both the cover illustration and CD booklet photos, as well as the publicity photos.

Cover artwork for Richard Thompson's Rumor and Sigh, 1991 © Laura Levine

Bjork and Siggi from the Sugarcubes dress up as Jack and Jill, photo-illustration © Laura Levine, circa 1991

Another really fun project where I was able to combine the two was a series of photo-illustrations I did with Bjork, well before the days of Photoshop. In this case it was a high-concept project. With the help of some wonderful stylists and hair and make-up artists, she and her Sugarcubes bandmate Siggi were transformed into some of my favorite fairy tale, nursery rhyme, and fictional characters. I posed them in front of a white backdrop, photographed them, made color Xeroxes of the shots I liked, and then painted the backgrounds directly onto the color Xeroxes. It all seems so primitive now!

And then in 1994 I did one last shoot, with Nick Cave (who was a sweetheart) and called it quits. Since then I’ve continued to paint, I’ve created and illustrated several children’s books, made music videos and documentary films, created an animated TV pilot for MTV, opened a junk shop, you name it!

Giant Sand & Victoria Williams, “Wonder” (dir. by Laura Levine)

Lisa Germano, “You Make Me Want to Wear Dresses” (dir. by Laura Levine)

Scott:  Talk a little bit about the books Honky-Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels and Shake, Rattle and Roll. How did these projects come about? Are the books aimed at a younger audience?

Laura: From the moment I picked up a paintbrush, I was painting portraits of musicians; in fact, my first experiments at painting were copies of photographs I’d taken of musicians, and it continued from there. So I’d been creating and exhibiting this ongoing series of biographical musician portraits for many years, and I first started to explore the idea of adding separate text to go along with the artwork and packaging them as picture books for children (and adults) well over a decade ago. It seemed to me that this was an untapped market in the field of children’s books – today’s parents grew up on rock music, and no doubt they’d want their kids to know about the legends of rock & roll. I had a very clear vision of the project from the get-go. I wrote a detailed proposal pitching a series of illustrated picture books covering various musical genres, listed who would be represented, and wrote the first few sample chapters myself (as well as doing the sample artwork, of course). Then at some point well into the process I decided that I’d rather focus on the overall concept and artwork and bring in another person to write the brief bios to accompany the art. At various junctures I’d approached different people to write the text, and eventually I invited Holly George-Warren to handle the text. Because of the success of my previous children’s book (Wig! which was a collaboration with the B-52′s), I had a bit of a track record in the children’s book world, which helped. I pitched my idea to Houghton-Mifflin and they were very enthusiastic about it. The first book, Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll, did very well (it’s since been released in paperback and has gone into a second printing) and Honky-Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country & Western Music followed.

The original paintings I created for  Shake, Rattle & Roll were given a four month solo exhibition at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as shown at the Experience Music Project, Yard Dog Folk Art, and the Buddy Holly Center.

Cover artwork for Shake, Rattle & Roll, 2001, © Laura Levine

Scott:  Were you pleased with how those books came out? You got some great reviews for them – including from George Jones and Roseanne Cash. That must be pretty cool.

Laura: Oh yes! The publishers gave me a lot of creative control over the design and look of the book; in fact, they made no changes whatsoever from what the designer and I submitted. The blurbs were great – a real honor.

Scott:  I see you’ve done some corporate illustration work – i.e., for Sony Playstation and Absolut Vodka. How did those projects come about, and do you enjoy doing projects like that? Is there any stigma in the arts community with taking on corporate work?

Laura: At various times I’ve had illustration reps, and the Playstation job was brought in by a rep. The Absolut job was commissioned directly by The New Yorker magazine; they’d asked three illustrators who worked for them to create ads for the three different flavors of Absolut. Yes, I love doing advertising work! The ideas are usually well thought out and needless to say, the budgets are generous. I don’t think there’s much of a stigma about taking on most corporate work at all, at least not among illustrators. (There are exceptions, of course, such as tobacco or certain political causes; no doubt every artist has their own personal list of dos and don’ts).

Scott:  I’m also curious about your website, which is a really great resource – well designed, simple to navigate, and it contains a fair bit of your work on it as well as biographical information (and no silly animated gifs to distract me). Do you design it and update it yourself?

Laura: Thanks. I designed the overall look myself although I hired a programmer/designer to upload it all and design the smaller bits, as I don’t know the first thing about code, etc. I can update it myself in the most basic way (adding images and text) but anything beyond that is outside of my capabilities.

Songbirds of the Catskills, acrylic paint and vintage trading stamps on birch panel, 36" x 36", 2008, © Laura Levine

Scott:  I can’t recall exactly how I discovered your website – it must have been through a link somewhere – but a few years ago, when I stumbled upon it, it was exciting for me to finally connect your name to so many of the photographs I had loved when I was younger, especially those from New York Rocker (hence, the reason I finally tracked you down for this interview). Have you received a lot of feedback about your site, and has it generated interest in your work you may not have generated otherwise? Or is it just a necessary tool that you need to have?

Laura: I truly think that anyone who’s involved in any sort of career that relies on the “outside world” to generate work ought to have a website; even just a splash page will do in a pinch. It’s really made a difference. Everything from sales of my photographic prints to painting commissions to dear friends and musicians who I haven’t heard from in 25 years making contact again. Then again, there are millions of websites, so unless you’re searching for something specifically or someone links to your site, it’s easy to remain under the radar.  You can have the best site in the world, but people still need to find you.

Scott:  Of all the various and many projects you have done – and we haven’t even discussed some of your films and other projects – what would you say is: a) the most personally satisfying one; and b) the furthest out-there (i.e., the one that has the least or no connection at all to your other work)?

Laura: Certainly the furthest-out pursuit of mine is my junk shop, Homer and Langley’s Mystery Spot Antiques (named for the famous hoarders, the Collyer Brothers). I’ve always been a thrift store/flea market junkie and collector of the weird and old and unusual, and at a certain point I decided it was time to share my accumulated wealth with the rest of the world. Plus it’s a neat way to support my collecting habit and also meet like-minded people. The shop is in the Catskills village of Phoenicia, NY, where my family has had a small weekend cabin since I was a kid. The Mystery Spot is very much a part-time venture – it’s only open on weekends, Memorial Day through Thanksgiving, weather permitting, maybe 10 hours a week, tops. Lately I’ve really been getting into vintage clothes, and I just bought a mind-boggling estate collection of over 15,000 records (country, rock, jazz, mostly from the 60s) which will no doubt make it into the shop this spring. Phoenicia also has the best pancakes in the world, at Sweet Sue’s, across the street. If your readers find themselves up that way, they should check it out!

Gang of Four, NYC, 1981 © Laura Levine

It’s hard to say which project is the most personally satisfying, as that changes on a daily basis. Having my film selected for the Sundance Film Festival ….going there, that whole experience, that was a definite highlight. And certainly the photography was – and still is, to some extent. I guess because so many personal relationships were created along with the photographs. Even though I’m not shooting anymore, I continue to mine my archives for exhibitions, books, magazines, and film projects. The most enjoyable work I’ve been doing recently is probably my personal painting – those pieces I create for gallery shows and private commissions and the like.

Scott:  What project or projects are you focused on currently?

Laura: Right now I’m working on an album cover commission for a wonderful young British singer/songwriter signed to Virgin who records under the name Alessi’s Ark; a series of paintings of tiny dogs for the next issue of Blab! magazine, and – something new for me – producing archival pigment ink prints of my paintings and photographs. I’ve found it’s a wonderful way to make my work more accessible to collectors who don’t have the budget for an original painting or silver gelatin photographic print yet want to own something to hang on their wall. I’m really impressed with how gorgeous the quality of modern-day printmaking is.

The two museum exhibitions that you mentioned are coming up, and I hope to start showing my photographs more extensively abroad as well. It’s very gratifying that so-called “music photography” is finally starting to receive recognition from the fine art and museum world. There are many talented artists who have worked in that area and I feel it’s long overdue.

Sinead O'Connor, NYC, 1988 © Laura Levine

Click here for part 1 of rockcritics.com’s interview with Laura Levine

Joey Ramone in his kitchen, NYC, 1982, © Laura Levine

Scott: Talk a bit about your job as Photo Editor at New York Rocker. Was being an editor something you particularly enjoyed (I mean, in comparison to being a freelance photographer)? What was the atmosphere like there? Was it difficult putting the paper out every month?

Laura: I have great memories of the Rocker. As Photo Editor and chief photographer, it put me in the enviable position of being probably one of the few photographers of the time who had access to most of the punk, post-punk, new wave, No Wave, and college radio (as it was called then) bands of the time. I was there during Andy Schwartz’s reign as Editor, from 1980 until 1983, when it folded. The Rocker was on the second floor of a commercial loft building on lower Fifth Avenue – a few metal desks, a stereo that was always on (and where I first heard Mission of Burma, Prince, and countless other bands), tons of posters and flyers and a few ratty sofas. As a freelance photographer you’re always on the move, but being a member of the editorial staff meant I had a home base, and, without sounding too corny, I was part of a family, which I really appreciated. Once a month we’d pull an all-nighter pasting the issue together, with Xacto blades and melted wax. Since the Rocker was around the corner from Danceteria, we’d generally meet at the office and all head over there for gigs afterwards. I made some wonderful friends there who I am still close with.

Scott: Who were some of the writers and editors you worked most closely with during these years (in or out of the New York Rocker)? Any scandalous rock critic stories you can share with us?

Laura: As writers, Tim Sommer and Michael Hill the most, probably. Editor Andy Schwartz at the Rocker, and Photo Editor Fred McDarrah at the Voice (and indirectly, Robert Christgau and Jon Pareles at the Voice).

I was lucky to work with writers, critics, and editors who had great taste and were aware of certain bands and scenes before anyone else. I learned a lot from them. I also made an effort to shoot certain bands that I personally liked, not on assignment, but on my own, and would place the photos or pitch story ideas to editors later on. So in that sense I probably also had a bit of influence on who got press. A lot of times I’d shoot a band and we’d just click. R.E.M. was a good example of that. We first met when they came over to my apartment for a photo shoot, and then we went out to Chinatown for dinner afterwards. We just connected, and became good friends, and through them I eventually got to know the other bands from Athens. When Michael Stipe’s sister’s band OH-OK came to New York for the first time, he made sure we hooked up, and they ended up staying with me. I documented much of the Athens music scene (Pylon, Love Tractor, the B-52′s) and spent a lot of time down there. Same for the Paisley Underground scene in L.A.; through the Dream Syndicate I met and photographed the Rain Parade, Opal, the Bangles, Three O’Clock, Long Ryders, Green on Red, Mazzy Star, etc. A lot of bands used to crash in my apartment when they were on tour, or some became friends and came just to visit.

BTW, rock critics? Scandalous? Ha!

David Roback and Kendra Smith on Ave. A after Clay Allison's debut at the Pyramid Club, NYC, 1983

Scott: Some of the musicians you photographed in the early ’80s were originally situated in the post-punk scene – or at least tangentially related to that scene – and then blew up into something much bigger. I’m thinking specifically of Madonna, Prince, and R.E.M. Talking specifically about Madonna and Prince, describe your experience photographing them, and was there any sense at that point how big they were going to become? (Also, did you do any follow-up photo shoots with them?)

Laura: Funnily enough, you chose two people who I don’t have any interesting stories about! I was assigned by Interview magazine to shoot Madonna in 1982, right before her first single (“Everybody”) was released. No one really knew what she looked like. Like most of my subjects back then, she came to my Chinatown apartment alone, without any kind of entourage. She was incredibly professional and cooperative and took direction very well. Even when I asked her to do seemingly ridiculous things like wrap herself in the backdrop and pretend to scream, she was game. There’s really not much more to the story than that, I’m afraid! It was a very professional and pleasant encounter.

I have even less to tell you about Prince. I think I was sent by the Rocker. He was performing at The Ritz in 1981 and I stood at the base of the stage and photographed his performance. His stage costume was pretty outrageous and very risqué for the time, so I shot a few frames that cropped out his head and focused on the rest of him – I think it worked. I never met him.

I don’t always have the best radar when it comes to who will make it big and who won’t. There are some bands who surprised me with their success, and others who I’m shocked to find never make it big. I tend to gravitate to what I like personally, but that doesn’t always translate into record sales.

Madonna, NYC, 1982 © Laura Levine

Prince, NYC, 1981 © Laura Levine

Scott: In one of the notes on your website, you mention that you photographed R.E.M. “more than any other band.” You also did a Super-8 movie with them in 1984. In a working situation like that, does it become harder with each shoot to come up with an interesting concept or idea for the shoot? How did you keep things interesting with them in particular?

Laura: With R.E.M. my approach to the photos was pretty straightforward, as they are. They’re a friendly, down-to-earth and unpretentious group of guys and I thought the photos should reflect that, so I didn’t try anything high-concept. It wouldn’t have been true to their nature. Mostly I’d shoot in different environments and settings, of which there were plenty down in Athens and on the road. Michael and I also did a lot of sessions privately – for fun and for practice and as two artists collaborating – and those were always more experimental and different and, for lack of a better word, arty. I went on the road with them a lot, so I was able to shoot them backstage, in the van, sleeping in their motel rooms… all the behind-the-scenes documentary stuff that I loved to do.

I made the film, Just Like A Movie, during one of my longer visits to Athens, in the fall of 1983. I’d gotten a used Super-8 camera the year before and had been shooting a lot of home movies on the road with them and some other bands, so I decided to try my hand at a more narrative film. I had just seen D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back so I used it as a jumping-off point; there are parts that are an homage to that film (for example, Michael Stipe presents the credits with cue cards a la Dylan). I was aware that R.E.M. at that time were in a similar place to where Dylan was when Pennebaker made his film; you know, just on the cusp of fame but not quite there yet, taking it all in, dealing with it. So I brought my camera, 60 minutes of black-and-white Super-8 film, and my Walkman down to Athens. The film was very much an improvisational affair – the cast came up with their own characters’ names and costumes and we pretty much improvised the scenes. The basic premise was that there were two rival musicians performing on the same night (similar to the Dylan/Donovan rivalry that existed when Dylan came to London to perform), each with their own entourage. They meet and fall in love, but evil forces keep them apart. Linda Hopper from OH-OK played the “Donovan”-inspired character, and Michael Stipe, the “Dylan”-inspired one. The other players included Lynda and Cyndy Stipe, Matthew Sweet, Jerry Ayers, plus of course all of the members of R.E.M. and Oh-OK. Members of Pylon and pretty much anyone else from the Athens scene who was in town that week also made an appearance. A few of them were in drag.

Cast photo of "Just Like a Movie," Athens, GA, 1983 © Laura Levine sitting, left to right: Cyndy Stipe, Lynda Stipe, Laura Levine, Michael Stipe, standing, left to right: Matthew Sweet, Linda Hopper, Bill Berry, Chris

I recorded all of the original music live on my Walkman. Michael and Matthew Sweet performed a gorgeous version of “Pale Blue Eyes” and a song called “Tainted Obligation.” R.E.M. had scheduled a secret show at an abandoned factory called Stitchcraft while I was there, so we combined their rehearsal with filming, and they played “I Got You Babe” and some other songs while we filmed a scene with the actors. They and Oh-OK were also playing an outdoor performance at the University of Georgia football field, so I worked sound check and concert footage from that into the film as well.

I used pretty much every minute of footage I shot – from 60 minutes of raw footage the film itself is I think 45 minutes. Which, if you know something about the ratio of raw footage to a cut film, is absurd! There were no re-takes, needless to say.

The film has a special place in my heart not only because of the friendship and the music, but because it documents a time and a place that disappeared soon thereafter. There’s a real innocence to that time, documenting the band before they moved on to the wonderful successes that they did.

DNA, NYC, 1981 © Laura Levine

Scott: I love some of your photos of D.N.A. – they’re such an exciting looking band. And musically pretty extreme. Were you big on much of the music to come out of the No Wave sub-genre? Were DNA a fun subject to work with?

Laura: Between you and me, I had a hard time listening to much of the No Wave music, but visually it was a treat to photograph. How can you not love shooting someone like Arto Lindsay? That face! That body! That fashion sense!  DNA were a pleasure to work with, very cooperative and accommodating. In fact, a number of my photographs from that scene were recently published in a book about No Wave written by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore.  Byron and I had a great time going through my archives and contact sheets, picking out images for the book.

Scott:  One of the first photographs of yours I remember loving was your New York Rocker cover featuring Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Grandmaster Flash, both holding giant boom-boxes, standing in front of a wall of graffiti. For me that photo – which is very straightforward in a way – just kind of crystallizes such a major moment for me personally, the melding together of punk and rap, black and white, etc. Any thoughts on that whole timeframe and era?

Tina Weymouth and Grandmaster Flash, NYC, 1981 © Laura Levine

Laura: I can’t take any credit for pairing those two up – that was the brainstorm of Andy Schwartz, who obviously saw what was happening in music: the cross-pollination of the uptown and downtown music scenes… the Tom-Tom Club, Grandmaster Flash, Liquid Liquid, everyone influencing everyone else. The session was a joy – Tina and Flash had never met before, and got along wonderfully. I took them to a playground on the Lower East Side just a few blocks from my apartment, around Cherry Street or Monroe Street. They were terrific – they played, they danced, they had a great time, as did I.

Scott: I think the New York Rocker lasted six years, and went through at least one major stylistic change (with its short-lived stint as a glossy). What, from your perspective, happened to the paper?

Laura: I honestly couldn’t say. I had nothing to do with the Rocker (nor did any of the original staff) once it was sold and resurrected as a short-lived glossy. It didn’t really bear any sort of relation to the original.

Click here for part 3 of rockcritics.com’s interview with Laura Levine