The School of Visual Arts has many distinguished alumni, but only one (so far) is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Chris Stein (1973 Fine Arts), who in 1974 founded the band Blondie with singer Debbie Harry, has been a major influence on popular music for nearly 50 years. Blondie has sold more than 40 million albums and continues to tour worldwide, boasting a repertoire of propulsive, catchy and cool hits—like “Heart of Glass,” “Dreaming” and “Rapture”—that endure as playlist staples and inspiration to countless musicians.

Stein is also a dedicated photographer whose work has been collected into three books to date, including Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene (2018) and Chris Stein / Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk (2014), both published by Rizzoli. The latest, KooKoo (Kaleidoscope, 2021), presents photos of Harry and Stein’s 1981 collaboration with Swiss artist H.R. Giger—best known for his creature and set designs for Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979)—for Harry’s first solo album, also called KooKoo.

A departure from Blondie’s sound and image, the funk-focused KooKoo featured songwriting and production by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic and striking visuals by Giger, done in his signature “biomechanical” style. Stein is currently working on a more comprehensive book about the project, with the cooperation of the estate of the late artist, who died in 2014. It is due out from Titan in October.

“Giger is kind of overlooked,” Stein says. “He’s not represented in [MoMA], which I think is a crazy oversight. I think it has to do with his Hollywood connection or that so many people do these Giger-based, biomechanical tattoos—maybe they think he’s too fringe or ‘outsider.’ But the guy has influenced a whole generation of artists.”

Though he is sitting out the current Blondie tour, Stein expects to reunite with his bandmates this summer to start work on a new album; their last, in 2017, was the well-received Pollinator. He recently got on Zoom from his Manhattan home to talk about collaborating with Giger, his art collection (or lack thereof) and SVA stories from his forthcoming memoir, Under a Rock, which will be published next year.

Features

The musician, photographer and SVA alumnus talks about his current book projects: a commemoration of Debbie Harry’s 1981 solo debut, and a forthcoming memoir.