Lucy von Sturmer chats with St Vincent!

Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, catches me listening to one of her songs as she walks into the room. “There are stars like Kanye West who insist on listening to their own music when they’re doing interview and shoots, but I’m just not that into it,” she teases. I promise not to quote her referencing Kanye …and we begin:

lvs: You’re on tour at the moment, where have you just arrived from?

sv: “We went to Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore. I’d never been to any of those places before. China was amazing! There’s not an established “indie music” scene there, so it was an interesting crowd to play to.”

lvs: I read somewhere that when you were a teenager you worked as the tour manager for your uncles band Tuck and Patti. Did that inspire your desire to go on tour and play music?

sv: Manager or Road-Manager, those are lofty terms for what I did which was basically, “Can I help carry your bags?” and “Can I get you some water?” I did get to see a lot of the world before I was 20 and for a kid from Dallas Texas that was pretty mind blowing. It definitely made me want to keep touring. Sometimes I miss TV, I like Arrested Development a lot.”

lvs: “Wasn’t it an Arrested Development reference which led to the name of your first album, Marry Me?”

sv: “Yeah I’m a big fan, but I only watch it on DVD. I don’t know how we got onto this tangent….”

lvs: “Speaking of television, is it true that your second album was inspired by Disney?”

sv: “ That album was a funny little one to make. I’d just moved back to New York and I was living in a small apartment in Brooklyn. I was starting to write the album and I swear the second I made any noise, I was getting noise complaints from all of my neighbors. Which for the record I don’t think is my fault. It was more the fault of the insulation and shoddy building… anyway, so I had to start making my record on my computer, listening through head phones with no audible sound to the outside world. I started thinking about doing it like a film score and the first thing I thought of was Disney. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

lvs: The origin of your stage name is a little mysterious. Obviously your real name is Annie Clark, but Wikipedia claims you came up with “St Vincent” as a dedication to the Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas, while other interviews have you claiming that that was just a joke… What really inspired it?

sv: “Well there’s a Nick Cave line and it goes “And Dylan Thomas died drunk in St Vincent’s hospital” and Andy Warhol was secretly religious; he used to go to church every week. St Vincent is also a family name. It’s the middle name of my Great, Great Grandmother. I like that there are all these meanings. I guess a little of each and not a single one. I think I was joking in one interview when I said my music was a reference to Dylan Thomas as it was a place where poetry comes to die. That WAS a joke. I WAS being silly.”

lvs: Ah it’s a joke until it gets quoted on the internet. Then it’s fact. Forever.

sv: Yes if it’s on wiki it must be true!

lvs: Also on the internet, listed as a fact, Obama is your top friend on Myspace. How did that come about?

sv: Well, Barack asked me personally and I FINALLY obliged. No, I don’t even know how to change stuff on myspace. That was probably done November 2008. I have a blog, I have a twitter, I definitely have a self conscious toe in technology, but I don’t gorge personal stuff. If I saw a cool movie, or I heard a wonderful record, I like to share it.

lvs: So you used to play in the Polyphonic Spree. How does touring as “St Vincent” differ? Do you miss all your pals?

sv: We’ll we’re performing in New Zealand as a duo. It’s just me and my violinist. Usually my band is a five piece, with wood-wind and drums and bass. Tonight we’ll be sampling a lot so it will still be a lot of noise for just two people, but yes – a big group is a lot of fun. The Polyphonic Spree was fantastic to be a part of. I happened to go to high school with some of the guys in the band and they were like “ Hi Annie, you should come and join our band.” The next thing I knew, I was in a robe touring the world. I loved it.

lvs: So what’s next for St Vincent? Is a third album on the cards?

sv: I’ve been traveling straight since last February so I haven’t had time to start writing the next record, but we’re nearing the end of the “touring cycle.” It’ll happen soon.

lvs: And can you reveal a little about how you go about writing?

sv: Well with the most recent Actor record I didn’t begin writing anything on guitar or piano. I literally wrote most of it mouse-click, by mouse-click. I wanted to do that. I wanted to switch it up. I don’t “read” traditional music very well, I instead have to feel my way through it. I’m typically going after an idea or something that’s visual when I work. In elementary I took this class for Surrealistic art and they talked a lot about drawing the negative space. For some reason that really informs what I do. That’s in my brain. I sit down and think “what is the shape of this melody” and then envisage it. That’s how I work.