Is it surprising that nothing phases Kim Gordon? No, not at all. She is no stranger to playing in art galleries. She manages to calm the nerves of her sound engineer by reframing The Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as a bourbon warehouse. To be fair, I’d be nervous if I was a sound engineer in that space, which seems part subterranean colosseum, part concrete forest. I would be much more comfortable with the whisky than controlling the acoustics of the space.
When I have the opportunity to catch up with Gordon again, we are both on our beds. Gordon because she has a slight cold coming on, and I haven’t had a chance to unpack or find my desk post move. However, there is tangible excitement in her demeanor – in spite of being dropped from an LA summer into a particularly cold Sydney winter.
Whilst (sadly for me) we didn’t go together, we both were at the Art Gallery of New South Wales last Wednesday night for Extasis. I was curious to know what she thought of Jim O’Rouke’s set, which was so different in tone to her own live show. Gordon's review of O’Rouke and Ishibashi set was “quite beautiful", acknowledging that their sound really worked in the space, but with her full band, it can become “very challenging”.
Perhaps nothing worth doing in life is ever easy, even for Kim Gordon. It’s reassuring to know that even with her experience and virtuosity, her latest record, The Collective, did not just transmute itself from the record to a live show. She explains, “I mean, it's really fun. And it was a challenging record to try and figure out how to represent live, and rehearse for. It has a lot of moving parts to it. But because we work so hard to get it to this place, it's so fun to play.” As she was unable to tour the former record for the reasons we no longer wish to discuss as society, she feels “just really lucky to be able to play here” in what she perfectly describes as an “eccentric space”.
Having studied art before embarking on her music career, I’m curious to know how the context of playing in a gallery affects her work. It's not a first for her by any means, but does playing below a Mucha exhibition and a Defender affect the meaning of The Collective? For Gordon, “it really just kind of felt like a regular gig. And pretty much I mean, typically, when I have played in art galleries, it's been like, a solo thing or a Body/Head thing…My feeling in general about playing in art galleries, is that people are incredibly accepting of anything. I mean, they're very open.”
The tour has been going well for Gordon and her band with a “really great mix of ages of people.” The Sydney shows were no exception, and that's something that really pleases Gordon.
Creativity breeds creativity seemingly, and even before her tour is finished, Gordon has released another track called ECRP which, although she doesn’t prefer it to any of the tracks on The Collective, has the thrill of the new. Gordon explains, “Honestly, I like ERCP as much as anything on the record. Like, I don't know if I like it more than anything on the record, but I like it. It’s exciting because it feels different.”
She is unsure how much she can tell me about upcoming projects when she finishes the tour. There is a collaboration with an experimental rap duo, which makes complete sense, and she reassures those who are waiting for more with her characteristic intrigue. She says, in a very understated and tantalizingly ambiguous way, “Let’s just say, there are a couple of things..”
When she is not collaborating with other musicians or bringing people together in galleries, she is reading French Noir writer, Jean-Patrick Manchette “who’s kind of funny” (even if she forgot her charging cable for her kindle). In lieu of an upcoming holiday, Gordon plans to take a walk in the Botanic Gardens ahead of her show that night. It's how she tries to ward off the symptoms of jet lag.
Reflecting on the tour highlights, Gordon had Malaria!’s Gudrun Gut play with her in Berlin, who particularly captivated her drummer, Maddie. It is safe to say that Maddie captivated those in attendance at the show on the 19th in return. The word ‘elite’ was used on more than three occasions… I’m a huge fan of Gut’s cover of Simply the Best, and so wondered if Gordon had any song in the back of her mind she wanted to cover, (if you haven’t listened to her version of Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love I urge you to do so immediately). However, she requested a few days to think about it. I respect this level of consideration.
I asked Gordon what she really wanted people to take away from her show that evening. Her answer is succinctly perfect, “just kind of like, the idea that music can be really free, I guess. And Joyous. But everybody knows that.” It was free, joyous, and so much more. But everybody who went knows that.
Visit kimaltheagordon.com for your chance to see Kim Gordon on The Collective Tour.
