Kim Gordon has never had much of an appetite for convention. And that goes for the faux niceties of the PR game, too.
From the moment she was pigeonholed as ‘the girl in the band’ – aka the driving force behind Sonic Youth’s enduring cult status – her patience for poor questions has wavered from mid to low. And it’s not hard to see why.
For an artist who thrives on improvisation, dropping new art and music projects to great clamour unannounced, the media’s capacity for re-running the same predictable, tired old lines hits with the dull thud of a sledgehammer to the head.
In the world of the press junket, booby traps abound. There’s the mansplaining pundit who will kick-off every question by recounting your own history as if it’s fresh news, and the live Q&As that are more awkward than a family dinner in the nude.
But for anyone willing to put in the work, a Kim Gordon interview can pay dividends in the end. Marc Maron, the podcast juggernaut who has a talent for turning static sit-downs into conversations that feel intimate and real, calls Kim his toughest but most rewarding subject.
So, how do you interview an artist who hates being interviewed? You don’t. You interrogate them.
The Interrogation of Kim Gordon, an original Huck Film, is directed by Isabel Freeman and Jamie Brisick.
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