St. Vincent (musician)

Annie Erin Clark (born 28 September 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter who performs using the moniker St. Vincent. She has also been a member of Sufjan Stevens' touring band and the The Polyphonic Spree.

For the similarly named English musician and poet, see Anne Clark

• The drug issue is hard to separate from a class issue, an education issue, a wonky foreign policy issue, and a race issue. What I do know is, be it caffeine, alcohol, cocaine, or adrenaline, let's face it: people like to get high. From Starbucks to Budweiser to your own brain, everybody's a pusher these days. If I could substitute another drug to be consumed in the country as much as alcohol is, it would be helium from children's birthday party balloons. Try not laughing when someone sounds like a chipmunk!
  • "John Vanderslice interviews St. Vincent (on the road)" in Brooklyn Vegan (24 April 2007)

• I always looked at any instrument as just a tool, an expressive voice to write with. It even differs from guitar to guitar. Some guitars demand that you play them delicately and really respect the instrument, and some beg to be abused. Same with piano. I know with guitar, I'm intimate with it enough to know when I put my fingers here, it will sound like this. I prefer writing on piano because it's always a surprise.
  • As quoted in "The PopWatch Interview: St. Vincent's Annie Clark" in PopWatch (11 July 2007)

• A lot of the songs have a duality about them; one part is totally sincere, and there's another part that is kind of smirking and making light of it all. Or there's a very dark streak about it.
  • On her album Marry Me, as quoted in "The PopWatch Interview: St. Vincent's Annie Clark" in PopWatch (11 July 2007)

• I like the material, which makes it easy to sort of delve into it, and then also I was too tired to be nervous. I was just happy. The anxiety, the anxious energy was not there, because I was too exhausted.
  • On the first public performances of some of the music from her album Actor in an interview for Billboard magazine (20 March 2009)

• I love the idea that something would be whimsical, and like "delightful", you know, but also disgusting — so I like this sort of, you know, a really gnarly guitar — really gross, disgusting guitar and then a — really a whimsical... — it's one of those things you can only describe in sort of awkward hand gestures and eye motions. Imagine!
  • On one of her compositions on the album Actor, in an interview for Billboard magazine (20 March 2009)

• I think anyone who is creative or self-aware in any way, there’s like a humility to it, or I should say a humiliation to it. But there’s also a self-delusion — the provisional ego, as my uncle would call it. The self-delusion is the thing that makes you go, oh you know what, all the music that I’ve ever loved in the world, I want to be a part of that — hey, listen to what I have to say, it’s really important, it’s going to matter.”
  You can’t apologize your way into people’s hearts ... You have to go full force.
  • "Friendly, and Just a Bit Creepy: St. Vincent Defies Categories" in The New York Times (7 May 2009)

• Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power they say
  "I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is.
  Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear"
  • "Paris Is Burning"

• We are waiting on a telegram to give us news of the fall
  I am sorry to report dear Paris is burning after all
  We have taken to the streets in open rejoice revolting
  We are dancing a black waltz — fair Paris is burning after all.
  • "Paris Is Burning"

• Sticks and stones have made me smarter
  it's words that cut me under my armor they say...
  • "Paris Is Burning"

• What me worry? I never do
  I'm always amused and amusing you
  • "What Me Worry?"

• What me worry? I never do.
  Life is one charming ruse for us lucky few.

  Have I fooled you, dear?
  The time is coming near when I'll give you my hand and I'll say,
  "It's been grand, but... I'm out of here
  I'm out of here"

  • "What Me Worry?"

"Annie Clark of St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree" in QRO Magazine (9 July 2007)

• The first thing I did when I picked up any instrument, when I was five years old, was write a song. It's kind of funny; I thought about it, statements that it's a "solo effort" — it's kind of like, "Oh, well I've been doing this since I was five." I was kind of doing this before I did anything else.

• I was recording with The Polyphonic Spree, recording The Fragile Army, and we were holed up in January in Minnesota at our studio. They called Mike in to play, and we just hit it off, in a really, really special way. Actually, the night after meeting and having a conversation with him, I sat down and I wrote "All My Stars Aligned". And I just kind of had an idea, "Wouldn't it be amazing if Mike Garson played? So the guy who played solo in Aladdin Sane, wouldn't it be amazing if this guy played this song?"
  And I wrote it, based on a conversation we had, but I didn't want to ask him, because I felt shy, and nervous, and everything. It was a few months later, actually, we kind of got in touch, and, 'Oh, what are you doing?', and I sent him a couple songs that I was working on. I sent him "Your Lips Are Red" and I sent him "All My Stars Aligned", just to show, you know, 'wink-wink, hint-hint, this is what I'm doing.' And he wrote me back, the things that we'd said, and asked to play on the record. So I was, 'Well, okay, if you insist…'
  That worked out pretty miraculously.

• I enjoyed, and I tried to soak up and learn everything as fast as I could from doing any kind of music. It's good to have a gig. If you're a musician, it's good to be working.
  I love doing all of it, but Marry Me is my baby, St. Vincent is my child.

• In a really great way, you simultaneously try to take up as little and as much space as possible.
  • On working in the ensemble group The Polyphonic Spree.

• Some songs I wrote that night, and some songs took nine months to arrange, get how I positioned them. Some songs I wrote parts of when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Just putting it together, just finding the right place for it. So it's really been a long time coming. ... I'm actually really restless, in the sense that I'd rather be always making something new. I'm really excited about making a second record. I've got a lot of things up my sleeve, I guess.

• I certainly owe a lot of awesomeness to blogs, to people who have been blogging about a show, or blogging about a single, or blogging about something. It's just amazing to me that it seems to be a nice equalizer. People don't necessarily need the clout of a big "record company machine" to put their face on a billboard. It seems more organic and honest in a lot of ways, for fans of music to be critics I suppose.

• I'm a debut artist, I'm not established — nobody would write about it if they didn't like it. So I'm waiting for the next album for the backlash.

• Here's an awesome tour story: I was playing these two shows last fall in Europe, we played at Reykjavík, and the three or four days we were in Reykjavík happened to be the one and only Sugarcubes reunion show… So it was like, tour of a lifetime.

• I'm not your mother's favorite dog
  I'm not the carpet you walk on
  I'm not one small atomic bomb
  I'm not any any any anything at all.
  • "Now, Now"

• Now, now ...
  You don't mean that say you're sorry
  You don't mean that ... I'll make you sorry
  • "Now, Now"

• I'm not the pawn to your king
  I'm not your world on a string
  I'm not anyone you'll beat
  I'm not anything
  • "Now, Now"

• While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days
  in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints.
  While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day,
  I'm inside a still life with the other absentee.
  • "Jesus Saves, I Spend" - (Studio video on YouTube - Video of live performance on YouTube)

• While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made
  I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints.
  • "Jesus Saves, I Spend"

• Come, my love, the stage is waiting,
  Be the one to save my saving grace.
  • "Jesus Saves, I Spend"

• While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my grace,
  on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage.
  While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made,
  through storms of red roses we've exited the stage
  • "Jesus Saves, I Spend"

• Your lips are red
  My face is red from reading your red lips
  • "Your Lips Are Red"

• Your skin's so fair its not fair
  • "Your Lips Are Red"

• Marry me, John, I'll be so good to you —
  You won't realize I'm gone,
  You won't realize I'm gone.
  • "Marry Me"

• Many people wanna make money, make love,
  make friends, make peace with death —
  But most mainly want to win the game they came to win
  they want to come out ahead.
  But you, you're a rock, with a heart like a socket I can plug into at will.
  And will you guess when I come around next.
  I hope your open sign is blinking still.
  • "Marry Me"

• As for me I would have to agree,
  I'm as fickle as a paper doll
  being kicked by the wind —
  when I touch down again
  I'll be in someone elses arms
  • "Marry Me"

• I read the signs,
  I got all my stars aligned,
  My amulets, my charms,
  I set all my false alarms,
  So I'll be someone
  Who won't be forgotten.
  • "All My Stars Aligned"

• I do a dance to make the rain come,
  Smile to keep the sky from falling down, down, down, down.
  Collect the love that I've been given
  Build a nest for us to sleep in here
  You know it's real.
  • "All My Stars Aligned"

• There are no signs,
  There are no stars aligned,
  No amulets no charms,
  To bring you back to my arms.
  There's just this human heart.
  That's built with this human fault.
  What was your question?
  Love is the answer.
  • "All My Stars Aligned"

• It's time.
  You are light.
  I guess you are afraid of what everyone is made of —
  Time and Light.
  • "The Apocalypse Song"

• All your praying moments amount to just one breath.
  Please keep your victory
  But give me little death.
  • "The Apocalypse Song"

• I'm crawling through landmines
  Just to know where you are.
  • "Landmines"

• Romeo, where'd you go?
  It's been years and still no sign,
  But I'm keeping hope alive.

  Juliet, how you been?
  You look like death like you sure could use some rest
  from this place human racing and the faces of people who pound at your door
  They always want more — they want more.

  • "Human Racing"

• Tell the truth now
  Your heart is a strange little orange to peel
  What's the deal?
  • "Human Racing"

• Little lamb, what's your plan?
  Greener pastures in the sky?
  It's a shame you want to die know why
  Just to find you've been blinded to the greenest of pastures they're right here on Earth
  For what it's worth you're not the first to break my heart.
  • "Human Racing"

• Lover, I don’t play to win but for the thrill until I’m spent.
  Paint the black hole blacker. Paint the black hole blacker
  • "The Strangers" - Live @ Great American Music Hall (27 February 2009)

• What do I share?
  What do I keep from all the strangers
  Who sleep where I sleep?
  • "The Strangers"

• Good souls have born better sons,
  Better souls born worse ones.
  Paint the black hole blacker...
  • "The Strangers"

• The keys are in my pocket and they rattle you awake.
  • "Save Me From What I Want" live @ SXSW 2009

• I'm a wife in watercolors I can wash away what seventeen cold showers couldn't wash away.
  • "Save Me from What I Want"

• Honey what reveals you is what you hide away.
  • "Save Me from What I Want"

• Let's pour wine in coffee cups and drive around the neighborhood
  And shine the headlights on houses until all the news is good.
  • "The Neighbors"

• Tomorrow's some kind of Strangerland where all the news is good.
  • "The Neighbors"

• What would the neighbors think?
  Oh no! If they only knew.
  • "The Neighbors"

• Tomorrow's some kind of Stranger I'm not supposed to see.
  • "The Neighbors"

• You're a supplement, You're a salve,
  You're a bandage, pull it off
  I can quit you, cut it out.
  You're a patient, iron lung.
  • Official video "An Actor Out Of Work" rehearsal

• I think I love you I think I'm mad.
  • "An Actor Out Of Work"

• The unkissed girls and boys of paradise
  Are lining up around the block
  Back pockets full of dynamite
  While their neighbors talk and talk.
  • "Black Rainbow"

• Just like an amnesiac, trying to get my senses back.
  Oh where did they go.
  • "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood"

• I traded my plot of land for a plane to anywhere
  Oh where did you go.
  And I can't see the future but I know it's watching me.
  All my old friends aren't so friendly
  And all my old haunts are now haunting me.
  • "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood"

• I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron.
  • "Marrow"

• Honey can you reach the spots that need oiling and fixing.
  H E L P Help Me.
  • "Marrow"

• If you want we could go somewhere else.
  • "Marrow"

• We're sleeping underneath the bed to scare
  The monsters out
  With our dear daddy's Smith and Wesson. We've got to teach them all a lesson.
  • "The Bed"

• Honey the party went away quickly, but thats the trouble with ticking and talking.
  • "The Party"

• Oh but I'd pay anything to keep my conscience clean.
  I'm keeping my eyes on the the exit sign. Steady now.
  • "The Party"

• I'm just the same but brand new
  And anything you wrote I checked for codes and clues.
  • "Just the Same but Brand New"

• Bodies like wrecking balls fuck, fuck with dynamite.
  • "The Sequel"

Quotes of Clark from the BBC documentary The Kate Bush Story (2014)

• You can hear one note of a Kate Bush song, or one note of her voice even, and know immediately what it is. And that is the biggest feat of any artist, especially when you consider, you know, all the roads that she's gone down.

• For that to have come out of someone's brain, period, is a remarkable feat. For that to have come out of someone's brain, at 17 years old — this incredible song, incredible song … there aren't that many amazing pop songs that have two or three key changes in them —‚ and I'm not talking about some modulations, I'm talking: "Okay, now we're in the key of Q." It's like WHAT?! But it's so brilliant, it's so memorable. I always karaoke that song — if I drink enough.
  • On the song "Wuthering Heights"

• I read an interview with her one time, where she was asked, something along the lines of "Why do you write from the perspective of a lot of characters?" And she said very simply and eloquently "because they're more interesting than I am."

• I'm convinced that, as great as that record sounds, if you had anyone else sing it, you know, anyone else try to kind of weave and make it do that thing where it burns like wildfire and it comes alive, no one else could do it. It's incredible the way she kind of brings this cold arctic atmosphere, It's just like fire, you know? It's like all aaarh coming out of her mouth. … and now I'm listening to the song in my head. "Do you know what I really need? Do you know what I really need? I need lalalala yea yo yea yo your love."
  • On the song "The Hounds of Love"

• I still remember going to the CD store and buying The Sensual World when I was 16, and the cover — there was a rose in front of her mouth, that has bloomed, she's got big wide eyes, and I remember, you know, putting it on the shitty car stereo on the way home, you know — and my life was forever changed.

• You don’t ever get the sense that she's making music to pander to anyone. I think you always get her absolute best attempt at her true vision whenever you get a Kate Bush record.

• The first time I saw her perform — she must’ve been 15, maybe 14 — she got up in a club in Dallas, sat in with her guitar teacher’s band, played "The Wind Cries Mary" and just blew everybody away. ... At that time she was very shy and diminutive, except when you listened to her guitar playing. ... She’s physically a very intense player. She takes a kind of ferocious approach to the technique of the guitar, a real high energy.
  • Tuck Andress, as quoted in "Friendly, and Just a Bit Creepy: St. Vincent Defies Categories" in The New York Times (7 May 2005)

• Her stage name was inspired by the hospital where Dylan Thomas spent his last hours. “It’s the place where poetry comes to die,” she said, joking. “That’s me."
  • Melena Ryzik, in "Friendly, and Just a Bit Creepy: St. Vincent Defies Categories" in The New York Times (7 May 2005)

• Official site : ilovestvincent.com
  • Earlier blogspot blog
  • Jesus Saves, I Spend - Studio video on YouTube
  • Jesus Saves, I Spend - Video of live performance on YouTube

Reviews of Marry Me:

• Pitchfork Media
• All Music Guide
• No Ripcord
• Cokemachineglow
• This Is Fake DIY
• Rockfeedback
• Yahoo Music UK