The problem with chatting with Chris Connelly is he’s just so damn easy to talk to. You don’t want the conversation to end. Better still, Chris shares memories and insights in such an intimate and jocular manner it’s hard to remember we have not yet met in person. Despite probably being in the same venue at one time or another, Chris Connelly and I have only conversed via Zoom. My first encounter with Connelly was to talk about his latest recording adventure, The Birthday Poems an absorbing album created to celebrate the centenary of Orkney-born poet, George Mackay Brown. For this enterprise, Chris collaborated with the incomparable, Scottish chanteuse, Monica Queen. It became immediately apparent that a dialogue with Mr. Connelly could easily go off in as many directions as we could handle. We agreed right then and there we had to schedule more conversations. And, so it came to be, here then, is Part 1 of my ongoing series of conversations with Chris Connelly. His bio reads like a who’s who of alternative music collaborations. In Part 1 Chris talks about his earliest days in music, his fascination with Bowie, discovering tape-loops, forming  Finitribe in his native Edinburgh, being rejected from major labels, meeting Al Jourgensen, and his many musical projects including Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, and Pigface. This is essential listening for anyone interested in alternative music and/or great conversations.

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