Gordon Raphael : Musician, Writer, Artist & Producer | Interview

''These Days People Separate Their Politics From Their Music''

Gordon Raphael is an American record producer and musician from Seattle, Washington, currently living in Hebden Bridge, UK. Raphael has worked with The Strokes, Regina Spektor, The Libertines and The Psychedelic Furs. He has produced songs with Hinds, Skunk Anansie and Mexico's top band, Fobia. He is known for his work with The Strokes, whom he met while attending an early show at Luna Lounge on Ludlow Street, New York City. He produced The Strokes EP The Modern Age (2001), as well as Is This It (2001) and Room On Fire (2003). He also produced some of the songs on Green River-Dry As a Bone (1987) and they are considered one of the first grunge bands.

He formed two bands in Seattle, synth-driven Mental Mannequin and Colour Twigs. During the grunge revolution he was the keyboardist for the psychedelic band Sky Cries Mary. He released his book : The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With the Strokes in 2022. You can check out more of his work by visiting his official website or following @gordonraphael on Instagram. Check out his music :

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What do you think about the fact that grunge music was adapted by Christian musicians? Resulting in Christian Grunge. How significant is this adaptation? What do you think is the appeal in grunge that even Christian musicians liked?

GR: I was living in Seattle from 1991 until 1998, and I honestly never heard one person even mention Christianity in that entire time! I only learned today, march 14, 2024 from you… That there was such a thing as Christian Grunge. It might’ve been a thing in some of the smaller churches, or some Sunday school classes? But take my word for it. It didn’t go onto the stage of the Offramp, RCKNDY, The Vogue, crocodile Café, Moore Theatre, or Paramount! If it did, certainly none of my friends or myself knew about it!!

In the Seattle music community were there a lot of religious musicians ? Or was it something that musicians sought to avoid ?

GR: In the Seattle scene, there were a lot of musicians that smoked pot religiously, drank beer religiously, and played rock ‘n’ roll religiously, but that religion was not anything to do with Christianity!

Was jazz music or its elements influential for grunge ? Was there a jazz scene in Seattle ?

GR: I didn’t know anybody interested in jazz were talking about jazz in the 1990s. There was that band Critters Buggin’ with Skerik in it, and I’m sure they were really influenced by jazz. But it was not a popular feeling at all 60s psychedelic rock and punk and alternative music, mixed with some kind of influence from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, or else Iggy and the Stooges: that’s what people were celebrating!

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, had there been any personal impact for you or your music ? Did it have any influence on grunge or 90s musicians ? Do political events influence your music ?

GR: The only political events that ever influenced my music was how the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix we’re talking against war. The way they incorporated the feeling of the times in their music really affected me and gave me a drive to try to change the world with rock ‘n’ roll.

No other political event ever influenced me in my poetry, artwork or music. I pretty much scorn governments and economic policies all over the world that I am aware of. USA, UK, especially. Every government just seems detached from the people and it’s something I’ve noticed since I was about eight years old.

I watched very closely the fall of the Berlin wall on television, while I was going through intensive heroin withdrawals at my mom’s house in Oregon. That was quite interesting to watch really. Other than that I didn’t think too much about the fall of the Soviet Union. I didn’t think it would change anything at home in the United States where I lived.

Do you think music can be used as part of national or cultural identity, if we look at grunge, rock or alternative music?

GR: I have the feeling that in many countries of the world their national music is a spiritual identity for the people living in the country. Asian music, Mexican music African music—yes! Argentina is the only country I know of where rock ‘n’ roll is part of the spiritual identity of the entire nation, because of things that happened in the past i.e., the fascist dictator in the 80s.

I would hope that for the United States, that the music of national identity be called out as jazz, the blues, and now hip-hop. I certainly don’t think that anybody who is thinking about the country of USA and what it stands for… would suddenly have Rock ‘n’ roll music pop up on its agenda. If it did, it should be Bruce Springsteen, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Dylan probably!

Do you think rock, punk, goth and other alternative music genres and their history should be studied more in schools and universities? Is there anything significant that alternative music teaches for society ?

GR: I think it’s important for people to learn about Bauhaus theatre philosophy and costumes. I also think it’s very important that people learn about what happened in Paris artistically at the beginning of the 20th century. I do think rock ‘n’ roll history is important starting from black musicians, and how they affected Europeans and American white audiences.

I think it would be great to have courses in progressive rock, and then punk history from The New York Dolls, and The Stooges— all the way up to Bauhaus, The Banshees, The Cure and Joy Division.

I think people would be inspired to learn how creative ideas spread by using these examples.

What do you think about musicians that use their music to publicly support a politician, or political party or a specific ideology ? Do you think musicians have the power to influence events like elections ?

GR: In the Seattle days, Krist Novoselic used his platform as a former member of Nirvana to really help organize, politically and overcome, conservative initiatives. He sponsored a bunch of concerts, and did a great job of raising awareness. I have nothing but respect for him for doing that.

I think these days people separate their politics from their music, and they don’t expect their pop stars to have much intelligence about government or economy. So no, I don’t think they have much effect right now, but in the past, they really did!

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Check out our other interview with Gordon Raphael, where he shares his opinion about grunge and politics, and tells the story of Kurt Cobain asking him to join Nirvana as a guitar player!

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