An Interview with Grimes

It was a cold and drizzling San Francisco morning when I packed my mics up in the Haight, a run-down neighborhood of spooky old Victorians, faded tie-die awnings, and twisted, haunted neon shop signs burning in the fog. I was about to interview Grimes, and the aesthetics of my neighborhood felt a little too suspiciously on point — psychedelic everything, graffiti here and there imploring me to “follow the white rabbit,” and a storefront window literally emblazoned with the name “blade runners.” This was the spiritual home of Gibson and Stephenson and Lana Wachowski, the transhuman mother of raving freaks and freedom fighting mystic cyborgs, and one of my earliest mentors (we have never met (I have simply watched the Matrix many times)). Now, absorbed in their philosophy, I was on my way to explore the real-world fruits of all their dreaming. Did one of them write this? What year was it, really? Had Grimes’ experiment already worked?