RS: How involved are you with choosing the remixers and producers for your songs?
Yoko: It seems like the people who are coming to ask if they can remix it, they're such incredible people and musicians that I respect very much, so there is no way of saying no. It wasn't like, "well not you, but this one, ok." No, it wasn't like that at all. Each time it was a surprise for me, and I said it's so sweet of you to want to remix this song and it's an honor. That's how I felt each time.
RS: Do you go out clubbing yourself, do you go out to nightclubs?
Yoko: Well I don't really club around. I don't know why I'm not doing that because I love dancing, but I think I'm a bit shy. It's a little bit different when I go dancing now and I miss the days when I could just anonymously go out and dance. I did go to many clubs this time to perform the remixes and it was wonderful.
RS: Digging back to the 60s, people said that dance is about peace, love and the beat, so much like the 60s counter culture and their music. Do you think dancing can lead to more acceptance and tolerance?
Yoko: I think dance is a very important thing, it's for our bodies and minds. I always say don't march through life but dance through life. Of course, it's important to make a statement by going on a peace march but in the big picture, we have to keep on dancing. That's how I feel. I mean life is how we dance, not how we march.
RS: That's a really cool way of saying it. Do you find similarities between the art scenes and the dance scenes and how they're willing to express new and often confrontational ideas?
Yoko: Well I didn't think it was confrontational. We share things that are in my head and quite often people think it's controversial, but for me it's just normal.
RS: What do you think of when other people record your songs, like when Fuzzbox or Elvis Costello took on "Walking On Thin Ice"?
Yoko: Oh I thought it was an honor! Elvis Costello did an incredible job and I was amazed.
RS: Awesome. Has there been any personal motivation for you, like in the past few years, to really get into dance music?
Yoko: You know I was always into dance music.
RS: It seems like in the past few years, the remixes have really started coming out.
Yoko: Yes I know, that was because of the Mindtrain thing and that started to take off. I was making my own album at the time and they came and asked if we can do something. Then when I heard "Open Your Box," which was the first one, I just couldn't believe it was so good that I started crying. I was crying because I took a beating a lot in my days especially with my music, and now people are bothering to remix it in such a beautiful way and I couldn't believe it. So the first time I was just crying, now I've got used to it and love it.
RS: I want to ask you, this is something from your wisdom that I really want to take out of this. What can we as a genre that accepts all cultures, all races, all sexual orientations, what can we do to empower ourselves and the message of our music?
Yoko: Come together, always together. I think that in the beginning there was a word and the word was love and love is what created the world. If love could create a world and the universe, then it could certainly heal the world. I think that this is a time that we should keep dancing with love.