Since her creative debut three decades ago in a seminal No-Wave band, Teenage Jesus, in New York City, Lunch has forged a legendary underground career as a prolific, at times demented, more often brilliant singer, writer, photographer and plastic artist. She has lived in the Catalan capital since 2004.
For the uninitiated, the artist has recently released a retrospective double CD, Deviations on a Theme, which includes 64 of her songs and spoken word pieces. Paradoxia, the second of her three novels, meanwhile, is a sexually charged, autobiographical tour-de-force.
When did you first come to Barcelona?
I first came in 1984 on a tour. Somehow, I got thrown into the arms of a guy, Guillem, who was doing the G-club at Sidecar. He’d hooked up with the people in Mars (the New York City band). Of course it was so different then. Later I spent a summer and I kept thinking I’ve got to move here.
You've said elsewhere that cities are like vampires. Do you feel that way about Barcelona?
I was referring especially to New York and San Francisco. I’ve lived in lots of cities and first of all, I think there’s something called geographical sickness. Take New Orleans, where I lived for a few years in the early Nineties. It’s below sea level, a swamp, and there’s an energy vortex that traps things there, things can’t rise up too high; then the storms come along and clean everything out. As for Barcelona, I like the city because it’s got history, but it’s not haunted, it hasn’t got that sucking force that drains your energy like New Orleans does.
Is there a single reason why you’ve moved around so much?
I think it’s important for a writer or musician, or maybe just for me, not to remain in one place too long. I don’t feel any pull to anywhere. I’ve lived in New York, London, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and now I’m here. Sometimes I’m drawn to a place by collaborations, sometimes it’s economical. I've been here two years now, but I’ll be staying longer.
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