Thighpaulsandra: Silence cleanses the ears

According to Wikipedia, Thighpaulsandra (Timothy Lewis) is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards.

As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope. A collaboration with Cope in 1993 followed, as the experimental duo Queen Elizabeth. This project completed just the two albums, Queen Elizabeth (ESP Records 1994) and Elizabeth Vagina (Head Heritage 1997), each containing extremely long spacey tracks of between 20–47 minutes in duration. In 1997, former Cope guitarist Mike Mooney invited Lewis to fill for the departing Kate Radley on a Spiritualized tour, where he remained until early 2008. In 1999 he also became a member of the experimental band Coil. He has subsequently released several solo albums.

Thighpaulsandra is best known as a member of cult duo Coil, but he also plays in bands Spiritualized, Sion Orgon, Cyclobe.

You worked with a plethora of artists over the years. What collaborations were/are the most interesting and important to You and why? 

Predictably I suppose the most interesting artists I've worked with were John Balance and Peter Christopherson.  Their whole philosophy and approach to making music was totally different to anyone I'd worked with before and i found this very refreshing.

When we worked together it was very exciting and one had the sense that we were creating something very special.  I've not had that feeling working with anyone else.

Can You tell me, in short the main ideas are behind Your music? 

The main idea behind my music is to challenge expectation.  As long as I can constantly surprise myself I will make music.  

Sound or silence? 

Silence is very important and increasingly difficult to find.  Silence cleanses the ears. People are frightened of silence.

What is and what is not a Sound Art? 

I don't know.  I don't regard the music I make as art.  It is purely for my own gratification.  If other people want to think of it as art then that is fine.

What do You think about relations between the old art and computer art? Are they compatible?

What is old art?  Bosch, Monet, Kandinsky, Hirst?  Computers are just a tool like a paintbrush. There are no relations apart from time.

What do You think about thousands of neofolk/industrial/ambient/tribal/electroacoustic/avangarde etc. bands/projects? Is it a kind of trend, o just a tendency forwards better music?

I don't really listen to that kind of music so I am unable to comment. I am not particularly interested in music just because it has a label or conforms to the common perception of a genre.  I like all sorts of different types of music and many types of music inspire me.

What do You know about Lithuania? Were You here earlier? 

Unfortunately I have only been to Lithuania once before. I was with Coil and we had played in Kaliningrad. We drove across the border into Lithuania to fly home from Vilnius.  Unfortunately i didn't get to see much of it as it was night time.

What inspires You most?

Nature, food, sex, beauty, death, suffering, kindness, chaos.

Links;

http://brainwashed.com/thighpaulsandra

https://www.facebook.com/goldencommunion