Original unedited version of article published in Fabula magazine, 1998. This article was written after Blondie’s fall 1998 UK tour and before the release of the No Exit album in February 1999. Among the topics covered are Blondie and Deborah Harry’s influence and legacy, the reunion, the Autoamerican album, and speculation on future albums. Based on interviews with Deborah Harry, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri–Ed.
 
 

I’m on the phone with Deborah Harry and I’m still getting over it. My dad’s email message blinks across the backs of my eyelids every time they close: How do you interview a cartoon character? To Harry, I say, “So you’ve been quite active in your personal career since the last Blondie album 16 years ago.” She coos her assent. “Does the reunion and new album nonetheless feel like a comeback?” Oops. “Well, it’s definitely a reunion, [but] comeback is sort of a derogatory term somehow.” As I scribble the word comeback on a page of my notes, then scratch it out of legibility, she continues: “We just wanted to make a good record and we managed to do that.” Call it what you like, Blondie is back. At the time of this conversation, the band had just returned from an eight-week tour of the UK, their first in 16 years, to promote the upcoming release of their new album, No Exit (due from Beyond in February). Judging from fan response on the Internet, Blondie is ready to rock. I was able to talk with three of the four founding members of the band: drummer Clem Burke, keyboardist Jimmy Destri, and singer Deborah Harry (the fourth member is guitarist Chris Stein).

It’s possibly more difficult to name a band fronted by a woman that is not influenced by Blondie than it is to name one who could not have existed without them. And though elements of Deborah Harry (then Debbie) -- her look, her attitude, her delivery -- appear everywhere in music and fashion today, as they have throughout most of the 80s and 90s, Blondie’s sound has been just as influential as their style....
 

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