The Chicago-based singer discusses Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed, out October 16 on Shipwrecked Industries
Transmission 427: Interview with Chris Connelly
Four decades into a career built on noise and reinvention, the Edinburgh-born, Chicago-based singer turns Lou Reed’s life into an album of covers and original songs.
Artist: Chris Connelly
Release Date: 2026-10-19
Genres: Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Post-punk
Label: Shipwrecked Industries
Description: Chris Connelly on Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed, out October 16 on Shipwrecked Industries. Interview.
Chris Connelly has been making music for over forty years, from his beginnings with Fini Tribe (read our interview with Chris Connelly on Fini Tribe) in Edinburgh through Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface (read our interview with Martin Atkins), more than twenty solo releases and four books. His new record, Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed, arrives on October 16th via Shipwrecked Industries with distribution by Virtual Label, and follows the method of his 2022 collection Eulogy to Christa, dedicated to Nico. The album sets Lou Reed’s own compositions, drawn from the Velvet Underground years onwards, against songs Connelly wrote about Reed’s life, from his teenage years to his death in 2013. It is dedicated to the memory of Lewis Allan Reed and to Connelly’s friend Zak Boerger (1973-2025).
Connelly produced the record with his Sons of the Silent Age bandmate Alan Holden Berliant, with four tracks produced by Chris Bruce; the two mixed it between Chicago and New York from 2023 to 2026, and James Scott mastered it at Populist Recording & Mastering. Two singles have preceded the release: House of 70’s, with a video directed by Chris Eichenseer for Some Odd Pilot, and Nothin’ But A Rock Song, with a video by Glasgow producer Iain Mutch, a.k.a. Walkerandwilliam. On October 7th, Connelly and the Dirty French Novels play the album launch party at Robert’s Westside in Forest Park, Illinois.
We spoke with him about electroshock therapy and its effect on Reed’s character, his relationship with Rachel, the doo-wop obsession behind the album title, the New York of the 1970s as seen from a teenager’s bedroom in Britain, and the end of The Damage Manual (read our interview with Jah Wobble).
He had a reputation for being a very difficult man, and I think that part of the reason was that he got his brain fried when he was really young. He lost part of his memory, part of his compass, basically.”
—Chris Connelly
The video is also available on our channel, RetroFuturista TV.
After Nico, what made you want to step into Lou Reed’s world for this album?
Mostly because when I did the Nico album, I did a lot of reading, and there’s so much of Lou Reed and Nico’s work that it made me want to just, it felt like an extension of that. They had a relationship that went on past the Velvet Underground and I wanted to explore that further. So yes, it seemed like a natural progression to go to Lou Reed after Nico.
Why open the album with this specific New York movement of the 70s?
With the song House of 70s? Because I think that, not talking chronologically, House of 70s is like a trailer for a movie. It has all the different aspects of Lou Reed’s life in the 1970s in New York, and I thought it was a good introduction for people who were listening.
How did you balance Reed’s original songs with your own compositions written about his life?
I didn’t really try to balance. I just took what I thought were the most interesting parts of his life, the stories that stuck in my mind, and wrote songs about them. There were about ten, so I chose about ten of his songs, just so it was fifty-fifty. But I didn’t really think about it.
What surprised you most about Lou Reed while researching and writing this album?
I think that when he was a young man, his parents had him get electroshock therapy, and I think it affected his life in a very negative way. That’s something I learned. He had a reputation for being a very difficult man, and I think that part of the reason was that he got his brain fried when he was really young. He lost part of his memory, part of his compass, basically, and it made him irrational, illogical at times. That along with being a rock star. But I think it’s a very sad thing that he probably did not get to enjoy very much in his life.
Were certain chapters of Reed’s life harder to capture in songs than others?
Not really, because it’s been so written about. It’s been written about a lot. His relationship with Rachel was hard, because it’s a relationship and we’re only allowed to know so much about that. It’s private, but it was also very public as well. He took Rachel on tour with him. It was a strange and somewhat esoteric relationship, and Rachel never gave an interview; she’s dead now. She was just in the background, a transgender male in the 1970s. It could not have been easy for her.
Rachel was just in the background, a transgender male in the 1970s. It could not have been easy for her.”
—Chris Connelly
What does the title Doo Wop in the Dark mean to you?
Lou Reed was obsessed with doo-wop music, the vocal groups of 1950s America. It was what he heard on the radio when he was a kid, and it’s what started him playing and writing music, really. He was such a dark character and wrote about such dark things that it made sense to me as a title, Doo Wop in the Dark.
How did mixing between Chicago and New York shape the sound of the record?
Not really, because I stayed here. My friend Chris, who I work with, lives in New York, so we share files. And then my friend Alan lives right here in Chicago, and he finished the record. But I didn’t leave Chicago, except in my mind.
What I do is historical fiction, so in poetry you get to bend the truth to suit the song.”
—Chris Connelly
Do you see a parallel between 70s New York subcultures and today’s political climate?
No, I don’t. I wasn’t in New York in the 1970s. My idea of New York in the 70s is as a fan. It seemed very romantic when I was a kid reading about Lou Reed, the New York Dolls, CBGB’s, Television, Blondie. The only place I could read about it or know about it was the British musical newspapers, New Musical Express, Sounds. So it’s a very romantic idea, and it’s in a time capsule in my mind. It has nothing to do with what’s going on now. Well, maybe it does, but I’ve never explored that.
What is the hardest part of channeling Lou Reed’s sarcastic lyricism?
It’s kind of like what I think being an actor would be, but I’m a fairly sarcastic man anyway. I get his humor. I get his mood like you would watching a movie, like watching Taxi Driver or something like that. It’s my perception; it might be totally wrong. I never met him, I just read interviews, and he had a bad reputation with journalists. I’m sure he was mostly sarcastic with them and couldn’t be bothered. But that’s what we get, that’s all the public gets. I didn’t spend any personal time with him.
How did the visual concept of the House of 70s music video come together?
I was working with a guy called Chris. I’d seen one of his videos and I really liked the approach, I liked the light. So I just went and told him what the record was about, gave him the lyrics and let him come up with the concept. We did it all in one night. I was trying to get a grainy sense of the visuals of New York in the 1970s, of Lou Reed at that time, his drug use, his speed and his mood at all times, him being on stage, being off stage. All fictional.
Lou Reed was obsessed with doo-wop music, the vocal groups of 1950s America. He was such a dark character and wrote about such dark things that it made sense to me as a title.”
—Chris Connelly
How does writing a biographical album differ from writing a book?
Easier. What I do is historical fiction, so in poetry you get to bend the truth to suit the song. And you have the constraints of verses, choruses, a certain length of time and the attention span of who’s listening. So if it can fit in three minutes, great. Easier than a book.
Do you feel a responsibility when portraying figures who are often misunderstood by pop culture?
Yeah, I do. It’s my job as a lifelong fan to present a picture that’s fair, which is why with Nico and with Lou Reed I read so many books and studied the subject. I didn’t want to say anything that I felt was true without backing it up with some kind of fact. But I didn’t get to interview either of these people, so it’s all hearsay.
Are you planning to perform the album live as a full theatrical piece?
Not right now. I’m playing a show in Chicago with a band as a record release party. But it would be wonderful. I love when Lou Reed did Berlin in 2011. It was really beautiful. I would love to do something like that.
After Bowie, Nico and Reed, is there another icon or universe you want to explore?
It would be fair to do John Cale. I’m a huge fan of his music, but his music is really complicated. He’s an amazing musician, not like me.
Are you working on new material?
Always, yeah. Before I spoke to you, I was playing my guitar, trying to come up with some music.
Photos courtesy of © Chris Connelly
Retrofurista is a site on design, interesting things, audio visual arts, and food.
Discover more from RetroFuturista
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
