O supervisionary - singer Laurie Anderson

Interview, Sept, 1994 by Steven Garbarino

who? Friendly ironist laurie anderson, the analog era's answer to Will Rogers. Instead of a lasso, the Renaissance woman in signature zoot suit and stand-up hair uses low- and high-tech special effects--from "talking pillows" to simulated sixty-foot tornadoes--to rope in diverted attention spans to her performance-art spectacles. "Basically, though, I am a storyteller," she says. "The gadgets don't matter if the emotional center, and the words, aren't there; without them, it's the equivalent of an electronics trade show."

what?! Bright Red (Warner Bros.), a dark but user-friendly new album produced by Brian Eno with special guest Lou Reed. Intimate and ominous, and equal parts spoken and sung, "Bright Red is about love and destruction," says Anderson. "Why red? It's a bloody album, a late-night record. It's music for driving down a dark road." Each song is a mystery set to music. Sample lyric: "Did she fall, or was she pushed?"

what else?

Stories from the Nerve Bible: A Retrospective 1972-1992

(HarperPerennial), a new book compiled by Anderson that trails her career, from her days sleeping in public places (Institutional Dream Series, 1972) and recording her dreams and observations to more ambitious projects like United States (1983), the eight-hour multimedia "opera" in four parts ("Transportation," "Politics," "Money," and "Love"). Stories also acts as an Anarchist Cookbook for aspiring performance artists, providing tips such as how to tune a room like a piano and how to cook a bratwurst with a hotel lamp cord.

wait, there's more!

Together with friends Eno and Peter Gabriel, Anderson is designing a theme park called Real World, to be built in Barcelona. She envisions an interactive place with talking trees, rotating art installations, and yes, rides. (John Waters has been asked to design what she calls "the adolescent division.") The city of Barcelona, says Anderson, has already donated a tract of land. Prospective opening date: 2000.

why?

"I always answer a question with a question. Are we collections of our own stories? Are we what holds these stories together?"