Vivien Goldman comes to Germany to present Frontline Adventures Linking Punk, Reggae, Afrobeat and Jazz

Foto: Alexesie_Pinnock

“…. we scarry on, try to shine a little light and use culture as a weapon. It’s  my philosophy”

Interview by Marita Brinkmann & KP Flügel

Vivien, what can the audience expect from Frontline Adventures Linking Punk, Reggae, Afrobeat and Jazz?

Vivien Goldman: I like to mix it up, and I enjoy being able to do the different things I do, like writing and music. So I start off the set by singing three or four songs from various stages of my work… I really began with the new wave, early synth-pop crew, The Flying Lizards, in the 1980s, and I still love singing those songs. Then a couple of years ago I had my first ever album out, “Next Is Now,” produced by Youth from Killing Joke. So it will be songs old and new. Reading-wise, expect a selection! It was pretty intense surveying five decades of my music journalism for my new anthology, “Rebel Musix, Scribe On A Vibe: Frontline Adventures in Punk, Reggae, Afrobeat and Jazz.” I like to have a few ready to please the mood of the audience. Really, one of my favourite moments of these shows is the end, when we get a chance to chat, audience and me, to discuss what I’ve been reading, which however old it is, always opens doors to the present.

Grace Jones, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Billy Idol, The Sex Pistols, all these “old” artist are touring today. How would you explain their longevity?

Vivien Goldman: It is great that artists in the music business are not seen as disposable as they often were in the beginning. We see that audiences enjoy growing with the artists who shaped their youths. People always have a special affection for the music that made them when they were kids! And these days, everything is kept alive online, even music that was comparatively obscure when it first came out. So audiences can access it and discover new/old artists, on Playlists and so on. Now retro is normal, anyway.

Dada, surrealism, situationism, are all known as avantgarde-movements. But at the same time the role of women in these movements was not as emancipated as they seemed to project. Do you have an explanation?

Vivien Goldman: You are kidding? I mean, you’re talking about the patriarchy. You know, it’s an endless struggle. There was a fantastic open window for women musicians in the mid-1970s punk time, which followed some major breakthrough legislations for women’s rights in Great Britain. But some years of legislation. But what you’re describing is the norm for women, that we are constantly working to change. In America right now, the struggle is obscene. To think we have to go back and fight yet again for rights we considered long won, like the right to abortion! Women are dying because of this backwardness. People try to suppress women’s voices. That is the norm, darling. It’s a constant struggle. And I often have to think of some of the last words Bob Marley said to me after a lot of his friends had been killed who were doing the Peace Concert, the peace movement at the time, in the 1970s; he just said simply, the struggle continues. Today we just are in another phase of an endless cycle. It’s a struggle for the soul of the planet.
In Jamaica, where I’m speaking to you from, to have a career as a female artist (pretty much no musician/players here,) it was always like, you had to be somebody’s sister. You had to be shagging somebody, a producer, you know, or you didn’t get a single chance, no matter how brilliant. Very, very few managed to sustain a career, even then.
So, it’s a tough world, and the same applies to females in all artistic fields, like the visual arts. But we scarry on, try to shine a little light and use culture as a weapon. It’s my philosophy. You just have to keep on in your corner. You know, like this course I’m doing in Paderborn, you know, is called Artivism and in my proposal I said, it’s not always about going out on a big demo, travelling for three days to get to a protest. Not that it’s not important. It’s also how you live your life and interact with your community, how you encourage others and build networks and try to create a safe, positive space where creative activity can flourish.

How is your view on the political developments in USA and Europe?

Vivien Goldman: In England, the general feeling does seem to be that we/they are paying a price for Brexit. Globally, the past few weeks have seen a literally unprecedented sort of anarchy in the US. When everything seems to be going nuts around us, it’s good to try and stay calm and if possible use the energy stress creates in a positive way, like expressing yourself artistically. It can be very soothing and cheering.

To me, it’s always intense to go to Germany because I’m like a German n many ways. It’s just an accident – the Second World War! – that I’m not German. Our food at home was German, my parents spoke German. So it’s great to come to Germany. I always think that it would have been nice for my parents to know. Sometimes I get a bit emotional thinking about it, but it’s a special bond.