This is the Pitchfork Review.

I'm Pooja Patel, the editor-in-chief.

And today we've got a special episode.

A big perk here at Pitchfork is that we get to meet legendary artists in person.

We get to hang out, see them in their homes, and in their studios, and we also

get to share those interviews and moments with you. Last spring, I had the opportunity to talk to

a few women I consider music royalty. The avant-musician and performer, Lori Anderson, Kim Gordon

of Sonic Youth, amongst others, and the writer and editor, Shnade Gleason.

Kim and Shnade had just edited an anthology of essays titled This Women's Work,

which features writers like Margo Jefferson, Atessa Moshvig, Fatima Bouto, and Kim and

Sheenade themselves.

I started by asking Lori Anderson how she navigated the act of work in creating art,

you know, while also trying to maintain her sanity.

I have not.

But, you know, at all, it's really hard to do, you know.

But, and I also don't particularly think of this as work.

I never really did when I was starting out as an artist.

Not one person I knew other artists ever thought we would make a living doing this stuff.

Ever. Never.

It was not at all, like the kind of professionalism was going on now, at all.

So I was really starting out pretty close to the 60s with still that idea of working a dance down the road and, you know, just see what happens.

And the people who were going to get jobs were idiots.

...