It happens every four years. February 29 is a special day that sometimes holds surprises for us. Like chatting in London with Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincentregarding his new album, “All Born Screaming” (Total Pleasure/Virgin, 24).
As usual, London greets me gray and with showers soaking its streets. Fortunately the panorama is not the same inside the Metropolis Studios. Inside everything looks more colorful and in harmony. The place is a marvel, a hidden oasis in the Ealing neighborhood for musicians who adopt it as their own home for a time. Foo Fighters, Noel Gallagher, The Orwells and The Big Moon have recently passed through here. The day’s plan includes an audition of this dazzling “All Born Screaming” for a small group of attendees, press and guests. Later we will have our private meeting with a St. Vincent who will act as hostess. Although we had already devoured and dissected the album previously in one of those promotional listens, listening to it here takes on another dimension. The sounds and sensations they provoke are amplified. You can close your eyes and let yourself go with each song.
“I’m obsessive, like all musicians, but I know when to stop so as not to go crazy”
Annie [Clark] It does not go unnoticed when you arrive at the meeting. She wears an elegant black outfit, dark and almost transparent silk gloves, the coolest white socks and, as the representative color of her most successful album [“Masseduction”, 17], a bright red clutch. Not in vain has she always taken care of her image and her aesthetics, even going so far as to create her own collection of clothing and accessories for a fashion brand. The conclusion, seen closely, is that there are few artists with as much style and personality as St. Vincent. Sometimes you wonder if he is a real or fictional character. In reality, this woman born in Oklahoma forty-one years ago can transform into whatever she wants, adapting to any role. I imagine her in “Poor Creatures” by Yorgos Lanthimos – Annie is fascinated by the film – or like that Cate Blanchett from “Manifesto”, the film directed by Julian Rosefeldt in 2015, in which the glamorous actress screens twelve characters, with twelve different ways of conceiving life. And the transformations of St. Vincent They always give us something satisfying while managing to surprise us. In each of his albums, since his debut “Marry Me” (07), has experienced a clear evolution in search of his own self, which reached its peak with “Masseduction” (17), a huge and addictive work. Along the way there are collaborations such as his appearance with Nirvana in the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame or his album and tour with David Byrne. From her joint performance at the Barcelona Auditorium in 2012, I remember the mechanical steps she took from one side to the other. And, even then, she showed a magnetism that time has only magnified. Proof of how it works – even if it was very ironic – is found in the documentary “The Nowhere Inn” (21), an experiment between the everyday and the fictional with her friend Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney) as an accomplice. With this we return to the beginning, wondering if St. Vincent is a real or fictional character. When I have her in front of me, one comment makes her very human. Being grateful that, after seven albums, there are still so many people who care for her and pay attention to what she does. A sincere and honest gesture.
The fact that “All Born Screaming” It is presented in two parts, leading us, to begin, to talk about the format. “As for sound, I take into account the sample frequencies that vinyl has, which I think are forty-four. But that’s just an arbitrary technological decision, but for me the important thing is that it’s forty-five minutes of music. In the old cassettes you could put two albums on a tape and they would fit, and when compact discs came out in the nineties they would fit sixty or seventy minutes of music. But no… That’s a lot! Who can maintain attention for so long? I believe that no one [risas]. It’s too long and it’s not necessary. We artists cannot, nor should we, bore the listener. Forty or forty-five minutes is enough to tell a story.”. Those two parts we were talking about are distinguished by a first side that is more chaotic, abrupt and electric, and a second that directs us to a reconciliation with life. “In the first part of the album hell is represented, while when you reach the end of the album you find heaven. And when I get there I reserve the right to scream and protest. In some ways it is cyclical. One thing leads you to another. The process was not spontaneous at all, but was already planned that way, although along the way it took the correct form. You start piece by piece, but with the idea of building a global and complete image that explains the reasoning of the album. Meanwhile, you observe how everything looks, the line you are following and discovering the objective that, consciously or unconsciously, you are pursuing. In general, I always look for that final photo, but while you compose the pieces separately you don’t know exactly what that last image is going to be, no matter how much you already imagine something.”
Although the artist has always immersed herself in the production processes, this time she has taken charge alone. She alone has had the support of Cate Le Bon on any of the issues. “I had a series of sounds in my head that I needed to come to the surface and release them. I have been working on topics related to sound since I was fourteen years old and I have co-produced my works. In that sense, everyone has a system, their own rituals, and this time I wanted to follow my own instinct. Look in the mirror and understand that what I was looking for was a new sound vocabulary. Honestly, it was something I needed to touch and feel. I insist on the sensation of touching it. For example, I wanted to put special emphasis on the drums and the piano. I was also clear about the guitars, although I wanted to check their textures.” The most complicated thing is usually deciding when a song is finished. “The key to this is in the words and above all in your determination. In knowing how to say ‘That’s it, it’s over. We have it ready.’ I’m obsessive, like all musicians, but I know when to stop so as not to go crazy. Although you are always tempted to press buttons again [risas]”. With whom he surely learned a lot in that area was with David Byrne, when they worked together on “Love This Giant” (12), as he is another perfectionist. “What I learned the most from him is how to conceptualize a show, something that, believe me, is very complicated and complex. First you must have the best dancers and choreographers in the country. Look at what he did with ‘Stop Making Sense’. David plays with nostalgia, but always looking to the future. That is something that I also follow to the letter, and it is partly thanks to him. I mean I’m always looking ahead.”
One of the most striking songs on the album is “Broken Man”. It has a different look; Never before had she sounded like this, so direct and so aggressive. “This song takes me to other places in terms of sound and style. It may be where I go in the future and it may be the most intense thing I’ve ever recorded. The genesis of this song is in how I am sometimes, in the violence that I perceive around me and that scream that I want to scream in front of a mirror. That’s the kind of ecstasy I expose in this song. It is a very faithful portrait of desperation”. His friend Dave Grohl collaborates on it – Josh Freese is also on the album –, an inexhaustible source of anecdotes. “Dave played on the back end of the song and he’s definitely the best drummer in the world. It’s impressive to see how he nails every melody. Plus the attitude he has towards life… he arrives in his truck drinking coffee, starts telling those great stories and always conquers you with a smile. And if you hint to him that you want him to play on your album, he will never object to you.”
Another significant piece on the album is “Violent Times”, with that setting so typical of Portishead songs – he recently sang “Glory Box” on The Tonight Show – and a phrase that talks about how we use our gaze depending on the circumstance. “In this topic I talk about a desire and an impossible: I want there to be peace in the world. So, I think this is a love song. And yes, the melody makes me sing like a diva, as if I were Judy Garland.”
In “All Born Screaming,” the seven-minute closing track and title track, there’s a line about a pantomime, about how depressed she can feel listening to a karaoke version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” again. “It is one of the best compositions in history, but, for some unknown reason, for ten years I have not stopped listening to versions of it. Even on ‘American Idol’! And they sing it without any type of filter. Nobody sees a difficulty when he has one. The result is that they turn it into something horrible [se pone a cantarla con ese registro de voz tan típico de esos programas]. And I say no! No, not again, please! It’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life and they do it with the best song in the world [risas]. That’s why I make that reference. Obviously, Jeff Buckley’s version was fantastic.”
Live life
Despite the difficulties and this complicated world in which we have had to live, Annie is one of those people who prefers to live in the moment. “I believe that, contrary to what many think, things should never get worse. I refuse to admit or assume that everything was better a hundred years ago. Some things are absolutely better and others may be worse, but in the end what matters is the love for your environment, for the people who are close to you. For me this is not easy and sometimes, like on this album, I contradict myself. But the human being and his condition, sometimes erroneous, usually see the opposite. “It gives the impression that we are going in a forbidden direction all the time.”. Still, she insists on feeling grateful, on being aware that she has reached her seventh album and that that is, in itself, a great achievement. “I see too many people come and go and most with doubts and little protection. It’s not that I feel like the luckiest person in the world, but in my own way I can be happy. I’m well surrounded and can make music I care about with an audience that supports me. Maybe I don’t make a type of song that reaches everyone, but the doors are still open for whoever wants to enter. I am lucky to continue creating. Not everyone is going to connect with what you do, that is something I respect, and that, mind you, helps me. “I accept every opinion, every good or bad criticism, but in the meantime I will continue to strive to give the best of myself.”. At this point I tell you that perhaps we now live in a time in which the false reality of “The Nowhere Inn” makes even more sense. “We are in a moment in which the line between public and private is very fine. We don’t know exactly where the border is. Off stage I can entertain myself by playing with a console or doing a puzzle, being an ordinary person. It’s like at the beginning of the documentary, when I’m inside that limousine and the driver asks me: ‘Are you famous? And what songs do you sing?’ And I start singing ‘New York’… That is definitely a unique moment in which reality and fiction mix.”