Pamela Z & Me in The Wire

My latest piece for the The Wire: First spread of the pair that comprise my lengthy interview with longtime San Franciscan Pamela Z (for the magazine’s Invisible Jukebox series — issue 512, October 2026, the one with Mike Watt on the cover). We sat down at her longtime studio loft in the Mission to discuss 10 different tracks, which she was to identify and discuss. We talked about voice, sampling, STEIM, folk music, MIDI controllers, festival curation, opera, the pandemic, transcribing, arrangements, neon, and much much more. In the mix: Laetitia Sonami, Joni Mitchell, George E. Lewis, Annea Lockwood, Claire Chase, Carl Stone, and Clipping (with Daveed Diggs), among others. I’ve read the Invisible Jukebox series forever, and it was super fun to actually conduct an entry.