Chris Stein
Chris Stein
Christopher "Chris" Steinis the co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie. He is also a producer and performer for the classic soundtrack of the hip hop film, Wild Style, and writer of the soundtrack for the film Union City. An acclaimed photographer, Stein has taken thousands of images documenting the early New York City punk music scene, the visual allure of Debbie Harry and Blondie, and his collaborations with artistic luminaries including Andy Warhol and H.R. Giger. Stein's...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth5 January 1950
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Most of the bands that have regrouped or reformed didn't ring true for me. It smacks of cashing in. We wanted to become a band again and make a new record. It's unfair to fans and musicians to just release reissues.
Our fans come from a wide age group. At our shows, the kids are down in the front and the bald guys are in the back. They're all interested and curious.
We exploded after a while and made a lot of horrendously stupid mistakes.
Debbie was accused of being too overtly sexual and now the standards are different. Times have changed.
We're a pop art band. Not a pop band.
We didn't want a hybrid of the old stuff. The old records were very dense musically. Now there's a trend towards minimalist sound. That's the main thing.
Being inducted seems to mean a lot to a lot of people, and by proxy that has sort of rubbed off on me. But it's not necessarily a mandate from the masses, so I don't know. We'll see.
A thing we always talk about in today's culture is that nobody is an outsider - everybody's kind of a hipster on the inside.
In many cases bands have a lot to overcome, business being what it is.
The vagaries of the industry and show business itself would not lead one to conclude a lengthy career - because things change. Popularities come and go. The tragedy of it is that somebody like Robin Williams should suffer from that, and be driven to commit suicide. If ever there was an untimely, unfair death, it was him.
CS: I always say there's a tribal element in a rock concert. There's a real back-and-forth thing that goes on between the audience and the performers.
We tap into a lot of things from musical history when making the songs.
In the early days, I often felt that I was taking a math test when we were playing. It was a profound feeling of having to prove myself.
They wrote themselves out of the band history, as far as I'm concerned. They should have a little bit of honor. This is supposed to be rock 'n' roll. This is supposed to be friendly. This is like going through the trenches together.