‘Hip-hop is the new avant garde’: John Cale on Lou Reed,

He made rock history with the Velvet Underground, produced landmark albums for the likes of Patti Smith and collaborated with John Cage. At 82, Cale’s 18th solo outing proves he’s still making music at the bleeding edge

Even over the phone from Los Angeles, John Cale has a certain presence. It’s not just the still resonant Welsh lilt of his speaking voice or the way he takes his time to settle on the right words, more his tangential way of thinking – about music, songwriting, the world in general. This is someone, after all, whose 1999 biography was titled What’s Welsh for Zen?.

That phrase echoes in my head more than once during our transatlantic conversation, Cale having lived in Los Angeles for 10 years now after a long stint in New York. His answers, while always courteous and considered, sometimes tend towards the abstract and are marked by a reluctance to be pinned down about the subject matter of his songs.