Any half-savvy web-user knows that Wikipedia cannot be trusted. For example, when you type in ‘Jay Reatard’, you could be informed that the Memphis punk, a.k.a Jay Lindsey, is one of the only professional musicians to have Down’s Syndrome.

“Somebody felt so compelled to write that that they did it six different times,” says Reatard. “I looked at the history on my page and there have been over 250 changes made to it in the last year. Who am I to say what’s offensive or not? I’m just a musician. It doesn’t offend me but maybe Sarah Palin might get mad, with her little retarded baby.

“People think I’m making fun of retarded people with my name but I’m not. My grandmother had adult mentally handicapped people live in her house and she raised them throughout my childhood. So when I was a kid, my friends were all 40-year-old retarded women. I guess the reason people started calling me the name was because I was like a deviant. I was really crazy and happy all the time but then there would be times when I would do shit that you would only do if you were retarded.”

Reatard has had a colourful career, starting with his first recording at the age of 15. After a string of abrasive punk bands, he hit his then creative peak in 2006 with Blood Visions, the most accessible and cohesive material Reatard had produced. That album and its ensuing tour led to a deal earlier this year with Matador which, in turn, led to a raised profile for Reatard and a series of 7” singles, now released as a collection called Matador Singles 08.

“In the beginning, it really wasn’t my idea to have it come together as a collection,” he says, “but the label thought we should. It made more sense to me as the project went along and the records became next to impossible to get hold of. I’m not one to record music for just an elite few. Somehow it ended up sounding like an album. I’m not sure how that happened.”

When I speak to Jay Reatard, he’s at the tail end of two months off, time he’s spent at home working on his next album, his first proper full length for Matador. Reatard insists on recording all his music in his own house.

“I can wake up and decide if I want to record or not,” he says. “It’s on my terms and I don’t have to plan ahead and block off two months of studio time. I don’t understand why someone would want to get into music and then have to do it on someone else’s terms.”

Reatard has had dalliances with producers and studios before but found it to be anything but pleasant.

“I might go into a studio just to record one song,” he says, “but just to see what happens. I tried it once before a few years ago and I got so frustrated with it that I got up and left. The guy was like: ‘Where are you going? We’re not finished yet’ and I was like: ‘Yes, we are’. But, as far as using a producer…” He laughs before continuing; “I’d probably end up killing the guy or he’d end up killing me.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Jay had encountered violence. There have been several well-documented altercations between him and his audience, the most notable being a set-to with a drunken fan at Toronto’s Silver Dollar.

“Audiences are a weird thing man,” he says, “I have a problem connecting with them. Just because you buy my record doesn’t make you closer to me. I know that makes me sound shitty. I mean, I’m glad that people like it but me as a person has to be separated from music. It’s always weird to be faced with hostility based on what you do on stage as a persona. We get a lot of hostile people who have something to prove.”

It’s a tough situation in which Jay Reatard finds himself. There is a whole subculture of bands who would kill for the associations with hardcore, violent shows that he has earned, but Reatard is keen to distance himself from the reputation he is undeservedly earning.

“I would never come to a person’s work and when they’re doing some busy work for their boss, pour a beer over their computer and smack them in the face. That’s what I feel like they’re people are doing to me. It’s not like it’s a job for me, playing music, but it is what I have to do to feed myself. So when there’s 350 people in a room and ten of them are intent on screwing it up for everyone, I just lose my mind. But it’s definitely something I want to get away from. Since a young age, I’ve always been associated with violence at my shows.”

Most bands are of the belief that live shows are what being a musician is all about - that is where a band proves its true musical and creative worth. Jay Reatard couldn’t disagree more.

“There’s nothing artistic about live music,” he says. “Live music is purely the business end of it. Ultimately, you’re doing nothing more than reproducing a lacklustre version of a product that’s already been recorded. You’re just remanufacturing the same fucking thing to make money.

"There’s nothing artistic about that. Now creating a record or making a song for the first time, that’s the art side of music. You’re in control of making your records. When you’re on tour, the audience is in control of you. If you don’t play your records, if you play a bunch of nonsense or 15 songs that the audience has never heard before, they’d demand their money back. When you’re creating your records, you can do anything you want and they won’t know. It’ll be too late once they get home and they already own it.”

And it is on his records where Jay Reatard shines. His music has evolved from its punkish roots to something closer to noisy pop and his upcoming album will see this line continue. The guitars may sound like buzzsaws but, on Reatard’s Matador singles, the hooks come bounding out of the speakers.

“I think it’s gonna keep going further in the direction that I’ve gone with the singles,” he says, “with Blood Visions, my goal was to capture a really specific sound and every song would stick to this rigid idea. I like to make rules for certain records. I have a pretty decent studio and a ton of instruments lying around so if I don’t make rules like I’m only allowed to use these sounds and I’m only allowed to use this many tracks then I get hung up on experimenting and the cohesion goes away. On Blood Visions, every song sounded like it belonged on that record. For this one, I’ve kinda stripped that away and I’m going for the kitchen sink approach where I’m trying to capture moods more than capturing sounds. There’ll be a lot of acoustic guitar.” He laughs: “I’m sure that this will be the one record that will push the punkers over the edge.”

Photo: Andy Eisberg