60 Seconds With . . . Lydia Lunch

All-around provocateur and No Wave muse Lydia Lunch returns to print with “Paradoxia, A Predator’s Diary,” a gritty, autobiographical tale of hedonistic excess through three decades. Inspired in part by her new hometown, Barcelona, Lunch has also released “Ghosts of Spain,” a CD of spoken word tracks. See her next week at Skylight Books (13th), the Hammer (15th), and Largo (15th).

--

WHAT ARE THE BIG DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BARCELONA AND L.A.?

There’s no “aggro,” no tension. People are happy in their day-to-day movements -- they’re smiling, they walk, they take the Metro and they’re outside. It makes a big difference . . . I move every few years. I lived in L.A. for four years before moving to Spain; I couldn’t take what was happening [politically in America]. It’s too heartbreaking.

--

HOW HAS SPAIN INSPIRED YOU?

What’s interesting about Spain is the history of its own amnesia. In my political tirades, I deal a lot with: Have we all fallen into Orwell’s memory hole? In “Ghosts of Spain” I’m creating a desert landscape [with the] music. In a war, any war, who talks about the ghosts, the dead men, the desert? I’m always trying to find a new method to house the insanity that I am afflicted with, which is called modern reality. I’m allergic to this life but I love it.

--

THE NEW YORK IN “PARADOXIA” IS DISAPPEARING. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT NOW?

I can’t stand it! I managed instinctively at a very early age to migrate to a city that was desperate, poor, disgusting, dirty and vibrant. I was lucky that New York was a place you could afford to live and things were happening there. It doesn’t offer that anymore.

--

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING ANYTHING IN L.A?

Oh god, yes! Pico Boulevard -- my favorite stretch in America. I love wig shopping in Inglewood. It’s where I’ve gotten all my best wigs. And I love Roscoe’s -- and I don’t mean the trendy one on Vine.

-- Elina.Shatkin@latimes.com