Talker #14: Mayo Thompson

As a member of rock group the Red Krayola, since its formation in 1966, Mayo Thompson has made a body of innovative and radically experimental music. The group has been a vehicle for prolific collaboration with contributions from Jim O’Rourke, David Grubbs, Lora Logic, Gina Birch, Sandy Yang and Albert Oehlen among others. The Red Krayola has worked with conceptual art collective Art & Language to release six albums together to date. In the early 1980s, Mayo was a member of Pere Ubu and provided soundtrack music for Derek Jarman. His celebrated 1970 solo record Corky’s Debt to His Father was re-released by Drag City in 1994 and Mayo T. & The Corky Band continue to perform this music live. He is also a visual artist and has published two novels.

This interview discusses performance throughout Mayo’s work, exploring links between happenings and early Red Krayola live shows, formative encounters with performance art as well as the band’s participation in the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

TALKER is an interview zine about performance. Each issue publishes a long-form interview with an artist who works in an innovative way with live practice. The interviews discuss process, formative experiences and performance cultures generally. Copies are £8 each and can be purchased below.