Starpower: In Conversation with Kim Gordon

She’s crashed at Cindy Sherman’s place, she’s produced a Hole record, she’s collaborated with Yoko Ono and she’s an idol to the likes of Carrie Brownstein and Michael Stipe. There’s only one Kim Gordon, and in this episode of the Wheeler Centre podcast, she joins Fee B-Squared for a conversation recorded live at the Astor Theatre.

'It’s just my personal taste that I like to see things fall apart a little bit. Sometimes it makes it into something else, or it’s an experience that you would never have.'

Kim Gordon

Artist, record producer and founding member of noise-rock pioneers Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon is a cornerstone of American experimental rock. As Sonic Youth rose to prominence out of the post-punk, noise and visual art scenes in the 1980s – then achieved worldwide cult fame in the 1990s – Gordon stood out as a role model for countless women (and men) with her unmistakable voice and mercurial musical style. A presence of steely, inscrutable cool, she was, and remains, a figure of fascination for many fans.

Sonic Youth’s last performance was in 2011. Four years later, Gordon wrote Girl in a Band – a memoir describing her formative years, marriage (to bandmate Thurston Moore) and career straddling the worlds of music and art. For several decades now, Gordon has maintained a steady creative output – not just in Sonic Youth but also in fashion, conceptual art and other music projects including her new experimental guitar duo, Body/Head.

Photo: Jon Tjhia