In 1974, Blondie pushed punk onto the New Wave dance floor and helped introduce hip-hop to the masses. Now, after 40 years, the band is as inventive and forward-thinking as ever. “We’re gonna re-establish ourselves in a way that we haven’t done in a while,” Debbie Harry says. This spring, she and her bandmates will release a two-disc package entitled Blondie 4(0) Ever, pairing one album of their greatest hits with another set of completely new tracks. “We’ve got this new music we’ve been playing, and it’s relevant, and important to me that people are saying the new music really fits in perfectly with the Blondie music that they know, and how interesting and beautiful it is that they fit together like that,” she says. “And we can do an almost seamless kind of show that goes over a long time, a lot of years.”
While everything may seem so much slicker and glossier today than in punk’s heyday, it’s basically impossible for Debbie not to be genuine in all things. She prefers special nights out at different little New York City clubs (especially the places where you can dance) to watching live performances on the computer or the phone. “Going to see live shows, your friends or bands you’re curious about play in little clubs, is always super-special, you know. The intimacy is great. With phones, it’s sort of like somebody’s making decisions for you. I really want to see something. I’d rather watch what is really happening at the moment. They’re sort of missing it. They’re missing the fucking important part of what the music is.”
And when the band commences its 40th Anniversary World Wide Tour, in March, expect music, fashion, a vision, and an experience that move you, not just chitter-chatter. “Today, people really like to be exposing themselves constantly,” says Debbie. “It’s almost like everybody’s some kind of an intellectual flasher.”
As for the band’s sound today, she says, “Even though technologically, and technically as musicians, we’ve changed and improved, you know, there is definitely a continuity. And that’s kind of perfect, really.”
