Interviews: Keith Levene (P.I.L., The Clash)

Keith Levene has one of the greatest resumes in punk rock. He was an early member of the Clash and actually drafted Joe Strummer into the band. After that, he was in the Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious. After that, he formed P.I.L. with John Lydon, and in doing so, helped create (or maybe even created) post-punk with his distant, frenetic, unstable guitar tones. 

But, as with many bands, there was friction. While recording what would be P.I.L.'s fourth album, he split with Lydon and headed to America. There, on his own, he released the unfinished album as Commercial Zone. Meanwhile, P.I.L. released This is What You Want… This is What You Get using Levene's compositions, but new sound recordings with new musicians. The result is an album that exists in two forms, but is complete in neither. 

Now, Levene is raising funds to release a completed version of the album through an Indie Go Go campaign. Because Levene is working on a new version of that mysterious release, features Editor John Gentile spoke to him about what broke up P.I.L. in the first place, the new release, how Levene is hand-making the cover art and some classic punk rock history. 

Commercial Zone is the point where you left P.I.L. What was it like in the band at that time? 
It was quite funny because we arranged to do all this, but we didn't even have a band at that point. It was just me and John Lydon. John was off doing a movie initially, with Harvey Keitel. I had this idea that we could really make it on the fourth album. We could consolidate and really make a cool album. 

We ended up in America, and because we were there, Virgin put out an advance. It kind of put us into a different mode.. I was working on a soundtrack and just started composing stuff. John came back, and our manger pulled in Pete Jones and Martin Atkins. It was a built-in band, so bang! You had P.I.L. again. 

It was good. We were trying to save the band as well. I knew that we were on the edge of something and I thought Commercial Zone would pull it back together. 

Why do you think on the verge of pulling the band back together, the band split up. Was it artistic differences? Personal differences? Were you guys not getting along? 
Not getting along, definitely. We spent too much time together, definitely. P.I.L. was such an intense ride. It so should have, could have made it. People are still talking about it now, so it sort of did. It had this magic about it -- the first band after the Sex Pistols and me walking away from the Clash and all that. Let's face it. People do talk about them now -- people talk everyone now, though. 

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