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 TOPHER HEALY speaks to whimsical American chanteuse ANNIE CLARK, better known on record as ST. VINCENT when she isn’t moonlighting with Sufjan Stevens’ touring band or The Polyphonic Spree…
St. Vincent’s 2007 album Marry Me was an impressive effort for a first-time solo release, Annie Clark’s oblique song structures and musical playfulness complemented by lyrics both mischievous and sardonic. Regina Spektor might have been enjoying the leftfield singer-songwriter crown at the time, but Clark had an unusual quality that set her apart – a sharply defined experimentalism coupled with impeccable musicianship.
These qualities are doubly apparent on Actor, an album carefully constructed to bemuse, surprise and wow in almost equal amounts. Like her Brooklyn neighbours Grizzly Bear, Clark has the ability to combine disparate elements into something musically unique (take lead single The Strangers as an example). As she explains, it’s about "trying to combine as many elements that you love together – to see how you can strike a balance between all the ingredients, and then juxtapose things in a compelling way."
Actor represents a reappraisal of songwriting for the 26 year-old Clark, who has been playing music since she was 12 (these days she even builds her own FX pedals).
"I wrote a lot of the music literally in the box, on the computer with a mouse," she reveals. "Just to challenge myself and make something more ‘composery’ than strumming along on the guitar."
Working closely with producer John Congleton of Texan avant-rock band The Paper Chase, Clark experimented with ways to bring her more abstract ideas into line. "John was really good about helping me ground the songs and find the things that were going to be more… palatable," she says. "It’s like a baby – you both just want what’s best for the baby. It’s a little exercise in selflessness. You don’t dress the baby up like a hippopotamus and send it to school, y’know? It’s gonna need therapy for a long time after that. (laughs)
"You don’t dress the baby up like a hippopotamus and send it to school, y’know? It’s gonna need therapy for a long time after that."
"[We worked] on things specifically like drums – after trying a lot of different variations we decided to go with beats that would groove and feel good. And I think as long as you have that, you can get away with a lot over the top of it (laughs). Some way more esoteric whimsy, just as long as you’ve got a little sexy groove kickin’."
When discussing lyrics, Clark admits, "I prefer to be evasive about it," allowing the dramatic images she creates on songs like Laughing With A Mouthful Of Blood and The Bed ("Don’t move / don’t scream / or we will have to shoot") to speak for themselves. "The music I had written was already telling a narrative," she explains, "so it was really just up to me to collect and put together images that helped tell it. I wanted to focus more on the details of any particular scene, rather than some grand, lofty, nebulous, romanticized … something!"
Her interest in narrative springs partially from a fascination with acting theory and filmmaking. As part of her creative regime when writing the album, Clark immersed herself in old Disney animations and Jean Luc Godard’s nouvelle vague classics – two styles that in many ways seem incongruous. But then, Clark excels at diving into the heart of any experience or story, fictional or otherwise it seems.
"They have some whimsy in common …", Clark says thoughtfully. "And Woody Allen too, I mean, I just love him. I wish I could be in a Woody Allen movie – I don’t mean ‘oh, I want to be an actress and play a character in a Woody Allen movie’… I want to be in a Woody Allen movie."
Inhabiting the world that he creates on screen, I suggest, like his idealized, dream-perfect Manhattan?
"Absolutely!"
ACTOR is out now through 4AD/Remote Control. www.ilovestvincent.com
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