Mr. Skin Mr. Skin

What's your number-one all-time Hollywood nude scene?

I think my number-one all-time Hollywood nude scene would have to be Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Picture: 1 - 2) when Phoebe Cates comes out of the pool and takes her top off. That scene is so beautifully photographed. And I also love that the camera doesn't cut away. In a lot of those types of movies, you expect them to cut away just before the action.

I also saw a screening of James Toback's When Will I Be Loved (Picture: 1), and it had an incredible nude scene with Neve Campbell. When Felicity was on TV, I was really into Keri Russell so I really like her scene in Eight Days a Week (Picture: 1).

What Hollywood actresses would you most like to see do a nude scene?

Jessica Alba. She's done a nude scene hasn't she?

Not yet, but she shows her butt in a thong in Into the Blue (Picture: 1). Anyone else?

Oh, Jessica Biel (Picture: 1 - 2).

Your music collaborations go pretty deep into the underground. You've played with noise-rock pioneers To Live and Shave in L.A. and neo-folk originators Current 93 and produced records for new noise bands like Wolf Eyes and Sightings and now reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry, none of which sounds much like the music people are accustomed to hearing on your records. What's your favorite kind of music to listen to on your own time?

All kinds of music. I used to not like having diverse musical interests, but as it's gone on I've listened to all kinds of stuff. I don't like to think of it as different kinds of music; I just want to think of all of it as music.

It seems like you've taken your success as an opportunity to do pretty much anything you've ever wanted to do (TV shows, piano performances, children's-book readings, performance art, happenings, one-man shows, night clubs). Is there anything you really want to do that you haven't done yet?

Wow, what an amazing question. Well, of course. I don't know that I've thought of it yet; I used to think more along the lines of how things fit together. I used to think of myself more in terms of what things I was doing. What kind of music was I doing? Was it rock music or rap music or classical music or piano music or crazy music or normal music? It all just got really exhausting, and I wasn't just doing it with music, but with my friends, my family, what movie I was going to see. But then I decided that instead of thinking about what kind of thing it was that I was doing, I was going to think in terms of how it made me feel and respond that way.

Are your movie tastes as eclectic as your musical tastes? What kinds of movies are your favorites? Are there any movies that have affected you in a big way?

When I saw the movie Ray (Picture: 1), it really blew my mind and I got very depressed for a couple of days. I was just really overwhelmed with the level that Ray Charles operated at. So I liked that movie.

What about the extremely low-budget horror flick Sledgehammer?

Sledgehammer is a movie that Aaron Dilloway and I found, and when we watched it we were amazed. I don't like people who say that they like something because it's so bad it's good. It's not like that. Sledgehammer is incredible because it uses so much slow motion. Before that movie, I never thought about using slow motion just to show a person walking!

I hear you're into Photoshopping huge tits onto images of naked women. What's that about?

When I first got Photoshop on my computer, I would enlarge women's breast on their photos. I used women who were very beautiful but had small chests. I used to feel about breast implants that they were bad ethically, that people shouldn't do things to their bodies. But who cares? People should be able to do whatever they want. I think it's great. It's really taking control in a very creative way.

But (and it's like this with all pornography) I have to be able to convince myself that it's real in my mind. If women's bodies are natural, it's exciting because they grew up that way and didn't have any control over it. They're like this whether they like it or not, and that's very exciting to me.

I get that.

Chickens are now being bred so that they develop oversized breasts, and there's a theory that young women are developing larger breasts because of all the chicken meat they're eating.

Wow.

I like that idea. I'm sure you're also aware that there's a fetish in which people are fascinated with breasts suddenly becoming way oversized.

You mean inflation?

Inflation, yeah! I really love that. I really admire the perfect qualities of what they like and how hard they go about trying to satisfy this urge. It's really heard to find real cases of this happening. Are you familiar with Eric Stanton?

Right, the fetish artist.

He puts out a small comic book called Stantoons. The drawings are incredible and there are these crazy stories. It's so exciting. These fetishes are unlike anything you could ever imagine. I really recommend checking him out. Have you seen female masking?

Female masking? No.

Look it up, you'll be blown away.

I know you like to do a lot of pranks. Have you ever made anyone angry with these practical jokes?

I used to do a lot of these "projects". A long time ago, there was a record store I didn't like because of the prices they were charging. And they had an ad in the paper with a drawing that looked kind of like an R. Crumb cartoon. So I wrote them a lot of letters telling them that R. Crumb was suing them and made it look like they were from a law firm. I could only wonder what the guy was thinking when he was getting these letters because I wasn't there to see. I haven't done a lot of that stuff in a while.