You Can Be There or Not

Alex Paterson: You’ve got to have an eye for a good shot with your camera, you just never know when that shot might appear.

Richard Kern: I mean, it wasn’t like every fucking person and their brother had a camera back then like they do now.

Paterson: This was a turning point.

Kern: I have to think about that.

Paterson: No, I’m way past that sort of thing.

•••

Kern: The first thing that pops in my head—and it’s not even that outrageous, and this happens sometimes—is just when you’re getting ready to shoot someone and they just don’t want to be there, and you’re wondering, “Why did you even come?” and that’s happened quite a few times.

Paterson: You can be there or not. The choice is yours.

Kern: So, I win—no, I’m just kidding. [Laughs]

Paterson: That’s nearly true. A mix of Killing Joke and Front 242 meets Brian Eno meets King Tubby, with Chic thrown in for good measure.

Kern: Man, they have everything now—I mean I watch things on there too, but it’s interesting.

•••

Paterson: Junkies were the arse holes of the neighbourhood.

Kern: That all started in the eighties. Or you make a movie and then they make a movie.

Paterson: Just about.

Kern: Like the idea that I’m going to be really rich when I die kinda thing.

Paterson: Go away, wouldn’t you?