Starpower: In Conversation with Kim Gordon

‘I refused to play the game. I didn’t want to dress like Siouxsie Sioux, or act out the role of an imaginary female.’

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.

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 she’s coming to Melbourne to talk rock, rebellion and resilience. Hosted by Fee B-Squared.