When Annie Clark declares, “I love an interview with a theme”, it comes as no surprise. A world-builder par excellence, the triple Grammy-winner has spent 18 years shape-shifting under the banner of St Vincent, inhabiting alter-egos as diverse as “near-future cult leader”, “dominatrix at the mental institution” and Warholian muse Candy Darling. Her forthcoming eighth album marks yet another bold creative shift, seeing Clark remove the mask entirely.
As Clark’s first entirely self-produced LP, All Born Screaming sashays between industrial rock and Bond theme atmospherics, eerie dream-pop and gothic funk, with contributions from Dave Grohl, Cate Le Bon and Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa. Thematically, it’s a barbed billet-doux to the brutality of the human experience, as reflected in Alex Da Corte’s Goya-inspired artwork, which depicts Clark artfully bent double, her arms in flames.
And yet, Clark is a lot more playful and self-deprecating than her music might make her appear, as evidenced by her 2020 collaboration with Carrie Brownstein on the St Vincent mockumentary The Nowhere Inn. Today, she throws herself into the 50 Questions interview format, her wicked laugh ringing out as she discusses failure, rapping and her love of Olivia Rodrigo.
1. Where are you right now, Annie? Well, I’m in bed, in my apartment in New York. I DJed until late last night so I’m doing this cosy style.
2. Where were you DJing? A new venue in Brooklyn called The Paramount.
3. What was the last thing you ate? Vegetarian borscht from Veselka.
4. Why did you name your new album All Born Screaming? I think it sums up the violence and beauty of the human condition. We’re all in it together.
5. It’s an album of two halves, right? Yeah, the first is a bit of a season in hell, with the internal and external violence. But then the second half is like: yeah, life is impossible, but we only get one of them so we better dig in. Because the only reason to live is for love. And the record ends with an ecstatic mantra, which is that we’re all born screaming.
6. Why did you want to write about that? With every record I make, I’m trying to take the chaos of my life and make some kind of order out of it in the form of music. And like many of us recently, I dealt with a lot of grief and a lot of loss in the last few years.
7. Why has it taken you this long to self-produce? Well, I’ve co-produced all my records, but in this case because of the subject matter – and because of how obsessed I am now with production and sound as meaning – it just made sense that only I was going to be able to render the sound of the inside of my head.
8. What have you learned from working with Cate Le Bon? Oh my god, so many things. We have very different personalities in that Cate is really patient and tenacious, and I’m greedy. Like, if I hear a hook I like, I want to hear it again and again; I’m like a cocaine rat.
9. Is it fair to say that Big Time Nothing marks your first foray into rap? I mean, in the same way that Debbie Harry raps at the end of Rapture. But this is very tricky territory. The next thing you know, I’ll go on vacation to the Caribbean and get braids... [Laughs].
10. Was hip-hop an influence on this album? I would say an abiding love of J Dilla runs throughout the record, though not necessarily vocally.
11. Who would play you in a movie about your life? You know who I love right now? Rebecca Ferguson. We don’t look anything alike but she’s just crushing the game.
12. Who would direct the movie of your life? Not Yorgos Lanthimos because I’d be fucked in every scene. Um, let’s see ... This is on the nose, but David Lynch.
13. Tell us about your attitude towards alter-egos? My work has always been incredibly personal and autobiographical, but I’m queer so I’ve known how to code-switch my entire life. And I’ve always found tremendous freedom and fun in deconstructing persona in my work. But this one is a record about life and death and love, and I wanted it to be as raw and as sonically perfect as possible.
14. Which musical artists have had the biggest impact on you? Two Davids: Byrne and Bowie.
15. Did you ever meet David Bowie? I met him very briefly – my friends in The Polyphonic Spree were opening for him.
16. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? It’s so boring but I knew I wanted to be a musician by the time I was ten because [Nirvana’s] Nevermind came out when I was nine. Before that, I wanted to be president.
17. Did you have a nickname growing up? I had a few: AA, AC, Neens, MIA.
18. Why MIA? Because I’d be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I definitely want to drink Crown Royal and get into a fistfight in a Taco Bell parking lot’. But then I would stay home and play guitar instead.
19. What is the best thing about growing older? It’s really most of it. You don’t have patience for things that are nonsense.
20. What do people assume about you that is incorrect? That I’m pretentious. I fucking obsess over my work like a crazy person but I don’t take myself all that seriously, because when you’ve lugged your own gear to play a show in Baltimore to nobody, you can’t.
Who would direct the movie of your life? “Not Yorgos Lanthimos because I’d be fucked in every scene” – St Vincent
21. What or who makes you laugh? Cate Le Bon is the funniest motherfucker on the planet. Carrie Brownstein is really funny too. And John Congleton.
22. Why so many musicians? Because so much of coming up in the world as a musician is just these hilarious indignities. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
23. Who or what is your current musical obsession? Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas. I’m obsessed with Liz Frazer.
24. Are you superstitious? No.
25. What makes you angry? I’m very Curb Your Enthusiasm style with things that make me angry. I was in a long coffee line the other day and there was a girl at the front completely unaware, just chit-chatting with the barista about asinine shit. I said something to another person in line about her and they were not infuriated. [Laughs].
26. Did you say anything to her? No, because I was too far back in line. It drove me crazy though.
27. Do you have tattoos? No, I never did it. I don’t even have my ears pierced.
28. What’s your favourite word? Cunt.
29. What’s your least favourite word? Supposably when people mean to say supposedly.
30. What is the closest you've come to death? I imagine probably driving a 12-passenger van over icy roads in the middle of the night in a blizzard in the Smoky Mountains.
31. What happens after we die? Nothing. We live through the people who we have loved and who loved us.
32. What’s your karaoke song? I don’t really do karaoke.
33. Why don’t you do karaoke? Because I can’t tell if it’s obnoxious when people are professional singers. It just feels a little, like, icky?
34. What else gives you the ick? I wish that there was something other than shaking hands that we could do as a greeting and show of mutual respect. And I wish I didn’t look like a standoffish pariah if I want to avoid shaking a hand.
35. How do you feel about hugging? I love a hug. It’s simply the germophobe aspect of shaking hands. But I’m pretty germy, you know?
36. Is Dave Grohl really as nice as everyone says he is? Yes, nicer and funnier.
37. What is Elon Musk’s problem? I have no idea.
38. Who is the greatest guitarist of all time? Django Reinhardt.
39. Is there such a thing as a guilty pleasure? No, that’s a Christian construct.
40. Is it? Yeah, it’s a way to control people by putting guilt around all things that are inessential.
What happens after we die? “Nothing. We live through the people who we have loved and who loved us” – St Vincent
41. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given? Always wear sunscreen.
42. What’s the song you wish you’d written? I'm Your Man by Leonard Cohen.
43. What is your favourite lyric ever? It’s a PJ Harvey lyric: “God is the sweat running down his back / The water soaked her blonde hair black”.
44. How do you relax? Honestly, I think I feel more anxious not doing than doing. I mean, one time I looked at the ocean? That was nice for a few minutes …
45. What’s the one book that you’d like to read again for the first time? VC Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic. It’s a YA book that’s so fucked up, but in a way that really speaks to a young girl’s budding sexuality in a very hilariously fucked up way.
46. What was the last photo you took on your phone? I took a photo of my toe because I think I broke it. I sent it to my brother-in-law who’s a doctor saying, ‘Did I break my toe?’
47. Did you break your toe? He hasn’t responded.
48. Why is Olivia Rodrigo so good? Oh, I love her. I think she’s really speaking directly to her own experience, and it’s what so many of her fans are going through right now. And as a kid who loves 90s alternative music, she’s really bringing that spirit with her into this new gen, which is so exciting to see.
49. What would you like your legacy to be? As a musician, for anything that I did to inspire future generations of musicians to go forward and find their own voices.
50. Did you enjoy the interview? I really did. I think we had fun.
All Born Screaming by St Vincent is out now.