When Sonic Youth wrote music, we would rehearse for months before anybody heard anything. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
We're not really an underground band anymore, and we're not a mainstream band, either. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
It's easier to write about a celebrity, a personality, than it is to dig in and write about the music. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I didn't intend to make one solo record, much less two. It's really a matter of seeing how it goes. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I'm so used to knowing what to do with an electric guitar and amplifier, but with an acoustic guitar, it's different, but… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I've never been a huge Zeppelin fan, much to the chagrin of everybody else in my former band. But certainly those Pink… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Sometimes, for me, lyrics are derived from poems that I'm working on, and they kind of cross back and forth between the… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Sometimes it takes us a long time to build up songs, and we really work the structures over and over and build… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
What Nirvana's success means is that certain radio stations now have their ear more cocked to bands like us; they're more open… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Obviously, for Geffen, if it wasn't for us, it's quite possible that bands like Nirvana or Beck would not be on the… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
When you listen to early Leonard Cohen records or Joni Mitchell records, you feel like a window is being opened into someone's… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
We always operated within a sense of community not just about the band. It's important to the way we define ourselves. It's… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I'm just old enough to be able to say I got those very first Beatles records right as they were hitting America.… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
'Europe '72' was a super influential record full of fantastic songs and amazing experimental musicianship. I always valued both of those aspects… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
When we first started, in the early Eighties, we had some crappy guitars - Japanese knockoffs that wouldn't hold standard tuning. Later,… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Like everybody else, I love a good pop song. You know, there's nothing like it. I also just really like music that… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Certainly our records could be found in most of the mom and pop indie stores, but we still found there were a… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Signing to a major, there weren't many bands from our sphere that were doing it. I mean, obviously R.E.M. had done it,… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
'Daydream' brought us to the top of the heap of the indie-college market and recognition by all of our peers; 'Daydream' kind… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
We'd been on Geffen for a long time, and I think we felt that we needed a change. I just don't think… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Of course you want to keep making good records, but I think there were certain aspects to the indie rock situation at… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I've always been an acoustic guitar player, and I've pretty much continued to play acoustic guitar throughout all of the Sonic Youth… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
I always think that, for me, being someone who comes out of electric guitar experimentation, the idea of playing acoustic guitar is,… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
When I was in grade school and high school, I did a lot of chorale singing. And the chorus would be tenor,… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
My main pedal is the Ibanez Analog Delay, the AD9 or the AD80, whichever one it is. That's my go-to pedal for… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
One of the key guitars in my career has been an early-Seventies Fender Telecaster Deluxe that I had before Sonic Youth started… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
When I first learned guitar - when I was 14 or 15 - I had an older cousin who showed me some… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
We're obviously not a platinum-selling band, and yet we've managed to maintain a career on a major label through all this time,… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
Signing to a major label was an experiment for us. It was a challenge: working in a big studio with a producer… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share Image
We've been around long enough that there have certainly been people at every stage of our career telling us about one or another record… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
I guess I see 'Goo' half as a really New York record because I think there are a lot of really particular New York… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
It's easier to write about a celebrity, a personality, than it is to dig in and write about the music. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
I have nothing against change or evolution, and I'm not one of those people who wants the city to be what it was 40… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
'Daydream' brought us to the top of the heap of the indie-college market and recognition by all of our peers; 'Daydream' kind of capped… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
Signing to a major label was an experiment for us. It was a challenge: working in a big studio with a producer was a… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
We'd been on Geffen for a long time, and I think we felt that we needed a change. I just don't think we felt… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
It's not like we set out to antagonize the audience in any way. We're just presenting our music; it's really much more innocent. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
One of the things I loved - or I love still - about this Occupy movement is it's got a very gentle core. I… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
We got our first significant pieces of press in the 'New York Rocker' from early gigs at CBGB. — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
Being a guy who was a geek with tape machines in the early days and really interested in how records get made, I was… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
The world is going to end for each of us in a prescribed time, and you sort of understand that your time is limited… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
My main pedal is the Ibanez Analog Delay, the AD9 or the AD80, whichever one it is. That's my go-to pedal for short delay.… — Lee Ranaldo Copy Share
