For decades Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore seemed like the model artist couple—incontrovertibly cool, multifariously creative, and fiercely independent—but that illusion shattered in fall 2011, when they announced they were separating. They subsequently divorced, taking their main shared endeavor, Sonic Youth, down with them. Gordon kept quiet about the circumstances of the split until 2013, and her new memoir, Girl in a Band (Harper Collins), lays it all out—though she refers to the woman who had an affair with Moore only with “she” and “her.” Gordon’s account of the breakup reminds us that even star couples live down here on earth with the rest of us—it’s all depressingly familiar and quotidian. The majority of the book, thankfully, reflects on Gordon’s career as an artist, writer, and musician—its title comes from the sort of interview question she’s heard too many times (“How does it feel to be a girl in a band?”). As she’s pointed out, by writing it she’s added another kind of artistic pursuit to her repertoire.
Sally Timms: I got the book yesterday, so I had to speed-read, basically. I will say I enjoyed it very much. I especially liked your descriptions of California growing up. I wanted to ask you, because you’ve written art criticism before—but this is a whole different ball game. A huge amount of work, I would imagine. How did you approach the process of actually having to sit down and write a book about your life?
Yeah, nobody says, “What’s it like being a man in music?”
Us being all the same age, I read Viv Albertine’s book earlier this year—different subject [Albertine was in the Slits], slightly different era, but still, women who grew up probably never thinking they were going to make their lives as musicians. I thought that was quite interesting about punk rock. Not that long ago, I read a Vivienne Westwood autobiography. Ten years ago she put one out where she said she never had any intention of being a clothes designer—she was a schoolteacher. And I’m curious how it works for us, that we put ourselves in these positions not really knowing what the outcome would be, because there was so much up for grabs during punk. I know you said that you wanted to be an artist, but I’m sure you never anticipated that the real thing would be that music dominated so much of your creative life.
I did always want to be an artist and never really thought about anything else, and then always had boyfriends who were musicians.
Well, I just wanted to make something constructive out of these horrible events as a kind of survival mechanism. I started out with it because I think I knew that people would be curious about that, so I just wanted to get it over with. [Laughter.] But it’s also a part of my story, and memoirs have to tell a story. It can’t just be a bunch of information. I mean, it can, but, you know. So it was just part of the story, and actually, because it happened, it really set me back looking at my whole life, like, “How did I get to where I am?”
Thu 2/26, 7 PM Music Box Theatre 3733 N. Southport 773-871-6607musicboxtheatre.com $18, $8 for students and teachers All ages
