Kim Gordon makes the mundane sound thrilling on 'The Collective'

One of the things that makes Kim Gordon so interesting is that it never seems like she is trying to impress you. In fact, throughout her career, she's made art and music that seems designed to challenge you. Her latest solo album, The Collective, does just that.

As a founding member of Sonic Youth, Gordon released 15 albums with the alternative rock band before it disbanded in 2014. Much of the music they made was aggressive, loud, strange and avant-garde. It was also massively influential, with their unusual tunings and distorted guitars pushing the boundaries of what rock music could sound like.

Gordon's latest record is still focused on that distortion and disintegration of sound; The Collective is full of intense and sometimes dystopian tracks created with the help of producer Justin Raisen. Just like in the past, her unconventional approach has attracted intrigued new fans. The song "Bye Bye" went viral on TikTok, introducing Gordon to a new generation of music lovers.

In this session, she talks about how collaborating with the right person can take you in exciting, new directions; about how her visual art melds with her music; and what it's like to become TikTok famous at the age of 70.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.