I’m obviously familiar with a certain aspect of Sasha Grey’s career, but I didn’t know until today that she’s also a member of a band, aTelecine, and has been since 2008. Time flies when you’re watching Buttman’s Stretch Class 2, I guess. Anyways, aTelecine is a self-described “Experimental/Industrial/Post punk” band, with a hint of dark psychedlia (think a bad acid trip scored by Kraftwerk), and they recently played their first live show at Poland’s famed Unsound Festival. The Guardian used that as an excuse to ask Grey about her music career and the music industry as a whole, which she says isn’t that different from the state of porn today.
Grey has now left porn behind, saying she wanted to quit in her prime, though she admits that her timing was good in an industry under siege to piracy and falling budgets: “It’s just like the music industry – it’s f*cked now, no pun intended. It’s the wild west.” At the same time, “it’s become an American dream – for a lot of girls, it’s their day job, or night job, to pay their bills and get to college.”
Her career somewhat mirrors that of one of her heroes, Cosey Fanni Tutti of the band Throbbing Gristle, who also took part in porn. The pair have recently collaborated, with Grey providing vocals for the forthcoming, final Throbbing Gristle album, a reinterpretation of the Nico album Desertshore. “Their ideology as individuals has always been very inspiring, and I wish as a 13-year-old I had known who they were,” Grey says. “To feel proud as an individual, not feeling guilty about yourself or your tastes because of societal norms – that’s not something we’re encouraged to do.” (Via)
Grey seems to know what she’s doing, but she shouldn’t look to Tutti for advice, when everyone knows that the porn-turned-pop star genre reached its peak with Ron Jeremy’s “Freak of the Week.”
