Lenny Kaye just released his first solo album at 79 years old.
He isn’t new to this — Kaye’s been in music for nearly 60 years, best known as the longest-serving member of the Patti Smith Group. We talk finding yourself through music, YouTube algorithms, and chasing artistic closure. Here he is.
So tell me a little about the project — what’s coming out here?
I’m celebrating the release of my debut solo album ‘Goin’ Local’ after nearly six decades in the music business. The songs I felt I needed to write for myself. I thought it was time to have artistic closure. I found a studio near my house so I could drop in and spend five or six hours piling up tracks. After a year, I had enough to make a record.
How often do you write?
I write more if I’m working with people like Patti [Smith], or whoever. But sometimes you just have the need to write a song. There’s a lot of music in this world — probably too much to appreciate. So if you’re going to write one, it has to mean something. It has to have a reason for being.
This album doesn’t sound like my stuff with Patti. This is a way for me to realize my potential at a time when I need a new evolution in my life.
Tell me about the six decades of working with other musicians. Was there always a whisper of wanting to do this?
I love working with musicians. I always enter their soundscapes — sometimes it requires seeing the world of music through their eyes. After all this time, I wanted to see my music unfiltered. Who I am, not through somebody else’s sense of inspiration.
Have you always been that way?
I hope so. I think so. I’ve written three books, and they took me down deep rabbit holes. I have a good work ethic. No matter how much I like to stay out late dancing to “White Wedding” at 3:30 in the morning, I want to get up in the morning and do my work.
What are you listening to lately?
My friend Alejandro Escovedo just finished recording a new album, and I’ve had it on repeat the past couple days. I’m very much taken with a woman from Denmark named Kira Skov — beautiful voice, presents it in many different genres. And when I feel the need to rev it up, Deep Purple’s greatest hits.
How do you find music? That’s a skill in itself.
Sometimes I just follow the bouncing ball of YouTube’s algorithm and see what wacky place I wind up in. I spend a lot of time in record stores and record fairs — people are always introducing me to things I’ve never heard before. The internet, as maddening as it can be, gives you instant access.
There’s always music coming into my house, not too much going out — which can be a problem, as my song “The Things You Leave Behind” will show you.
My mother-in-law started learning guitar around the time she turned 60. It’s become her whole life. Any message for people picking up hobbies later in life?
Good for her. I’m all about learning stuff later in life — I’m learning slide guitar now. Never mastered it, but I can at least make a sound.
My only thing is: keep doing it, don’t have a direction. Play for the sheer joy of the instrument. Tell her she should keep it on the couch, so she doesn’t have to take it out of the case. So it doesn’t become something she has to do, but something that’s easy, that she likes to do.
Do it with no expectation — same way I did my album. I worked on these songs for my own sheer musical pleasure. David Lynch has a little motto: “the pleasure is in the doing.”
What do you think of goals? Are they helpful to you?
Goals are good — they give you reach. But don’t get blindsided by your goal. A lot of people like music, and then they decide they need to make money at it, or get successful, get famous. I’ve never been like that. I like to get paid, and I like beers bought for me by people who recognize me. But that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it for personal fulfillment, and that’s how you become who you want. I’ll never be a great pedal steel player. I’ll be adequate in some situations. But I don’t care — when I hit those pedals and it goes, I’m a happy guy.
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What a day in Lenny Kaye’s life actually looks like (spoiler: it ends real chill)