Kim Gordonhas scored a booth at Little Doms for lunch.
Gordon, now 66, lives nearby having returned from Upstate New York a few years ago.
She is unmistakably L.A. in style.
Credit: Natalia Mantini
Her voice is meek and soft, and often hard to hear.
Born in Rochester, Gordons parents soon moved to L.A. and raised her here.
Shes now putting out her first album under her own name.
Natalia Mantini
I accidentally did a song with Justin a few years ago.
He was always very encouraging and told me, You should do a record.
He can be a real cheerleader.
Justin DMd me, and kept sending me stuff.
I wrote some lyrics.
Then he took all the leftover bits [and] put a trashy beat to it.
It was almost like a challenge to make something out of it.
My idea of a producer is Hollywood slick, old school.
But he has a home studio.
It wasnt what I thought.
I had New Yorker preconceptions.
The album is humorous.
When youre writing music are you trying to evince an emotion or is it more abstract?Its both.
When I did the song Cookie Butter I wanted the guitar to be the feeling.
Its like a circular snake or something eating itself.
Everything always seems kinda tame to me.
I carried it around in my head.
So being here its like, OK now I canreallywrite some songs inspired by something.
Not that I havent in the past.
Im always looking at signs for lyrics, collecting words.
What do you find interesting about L.A. since coming back?Seeing so many juice places, coffee places.
Being so aware of the homeless situation.
Its so weird that people live with a lot of stuff on the street furniture.
Its almost like youre intruding on their privacy.
What was public is now private.
New York always feels formal to me.
Its a real city with real density.
But L.A.s always been this transient place.
Art wise, it’s possible for you to still be more anonymous here in the art world.
Its such a fishbowl.
It allows for some more eccentric things to happen.
Has being here slowed down your process?It has and every day looks the same.
I know what the seasons are: Virus Season, Pollen Season, ha!
I really liked that.
There seems to be disparate influences on this record.
How much are you connected to contemporary music or discovery?Anything can be inspiring to me.
I got inspired listening to that first Cardi B hit.
It sounded so punk-y.
Bodak Yellow?Yeah.
And the attitude of Lizzo is inspiring.
Other than that, I like the last Kurt Vile record, some indie rock like J Mascis.
I dont listen to abstract noise so much.
Im more into seeing that live.
I didnt think about the contemporary aspect of my record or how it would fit in.
Im making the only record that I can make.
I guess I really do still see myself as a post-conceptual artist.
Mark E. Smiths passing was such a loss.
Did you hang out with him much?Not really.
He was backstage at one of our shows, he offered me a cigarette, and I was surprised.
He goes, Well I know what its like not to have a cigarette.
Its interesting that youre drawn to the attitude of female rappers.
You dont really identify as a musician per se.
Thats how I think about gathering words.
Its all just materials to use.
Art isnt how well you could draw something or how well you could play guitar.
So I relate to it.
It developed as a real art form.
You were born in Rochester but grew up here.
I was sick of the winters.
New York had changed.
There were certain things I missed: the smell of night-blooming jasmine, the Santa Anas.
I always thought of L.A. as about money.
It seemed not as glossy.
Its hard to be observational in New York.
Theres never any distance physically from anything.
Its so in your face.
Tell me about the single Air BnB.
What is it about short-term rentals that captured you?They can look so juicy.
I find it sociologically interesting, how everything is curated for you.
Its the opposite of what your home is.
Its another way to escape who you are.
I found a police horse at one in the morning on the Lower East Side by itself.
It was a beautiful, gorgeous horse, like out of a movie.
I went up to it and was petting its nuzzle and it just licked me.
I broke out into hysterics.
The track Get Your Life Back Yoga is quite a violent-sounding song.
What is your relationship with yoga?Im not skeptical of yoga itself.
It struck me as absurd.
Yoga helped me at a certain time in my life.
The landscape of L.A. is what Im describing.
What has changed is the idea of the artist, the mythical figure.
Thats become more entwined.
What do you think about art as a political platform?
Do you feel like its effective?I think feminisms become branded.
It gets people aware but then there are no details.
Im as bad as anyone who has time to read about everything?
Theres different kinds of political art.
I listen to the news.
I did a series of protest paintings.
The news is rife with horrible things.
It was so exciting when I first moved to New York but it was hard.
I didnt have a gallery.
It was hard to figure out how to make art.
Isnt it Jean Paul Sartre who said: Anxiety is what freedom feels like?
