Rip it up and start again

It's hard not to read Dorian Lynskey's interview with Kim Gordon in the Guardian without thinking of Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' - a wronged woman looking defiantly to the future. However, that is largely Lynskey's invention based on the number of new projects she has on the go post-Sonic Youth - he describes her as actually having "a subdued, melancholy air". As Gordon herself says, "People just project things on to you" - though, talking about the legendary 1991 European tour with Nirvana just before the release of Nevermind, she does also admit: "There's something to be gained when things fall apart."

Their conversation ranges over her time in Sonic Youth (naturally), her new musical endeavour Body/Head (a collaboration with Bill Nace), her forthcoming memoir and her TV appearances (most recently on Girls). Regretful for being too candid in an interview last year, she refuses to talk about her split with Thurston Moore, though she does sound slightly resentful at having to do the bulk of the childcare for Coco and the creative frustrations that that brought: "I feel like I'm playing catch-up in a way." I wonder how galling it was for her to see her ex-husband recently awarded the status of Living Legend, then...

Gordon also tells Lynskey that Sonic Youth "would have ended fairly soon" regardless of the breakdown of her personal relationship with Moore: "When you do something for so long it's nice to stop." That's just about as firm and clear a statement as we've had that Sonic Youth are no more - hardly surprising given the circumstances, but nevertheless reason for me to go into mourning. And when I say "go into mourning", I mean "flick through this gallery of photos of Gordon and listen to 'Titanium Expose' on repeat in a darkened room"...