My Interview with St Vincent

I conducted this interview with Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) on April 1, 2014 in the basement of Sokol Auditorium (now called The Admiral) where she was performing that evening. This was during the "Digital Witness" tour, and was about a week before Annie fronted Nirvana during the band's induction ceremony to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

She was touring in support of her self-titled, fourth album; it was the first for her new record label, Loma Vista. 

I was able to upgrade the audio from my original 2014 posting, and am including a little bit of the interview that was edited out of my original.

Find The Dark Stuff on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thedarkstuff

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, it's me, your buddy Dave, the host here at the Darkstuff channel on YouTube. Thanks a lot for checking out my latest video. So this week I am reposting with revised audio my 2014 interview with St. Vincent. I have now made it louder. I've included a little bit more of the interview in there than was included the first time. I have also removed the uh lengthy, some would say excessively lengthy intro that I had back in 2014. So that's all gone. So it's uh uh you know a fresh take on this interview. I conducted the interview April 1st, 2014, in the basement of Sokol Auditorium, where St. Vincent was performing that night. Sokal Auditorium, of course, now known as the Admiral. This is one of my favorite interviews, and I'm glad to sort of repurpose it now with new photos and videos that I personally have shot of St. Vincent going back to 2009. I don't claim to be any leap events or anything. My photos are not amazing. Video is pretty good, but just uh keep that in mind. Uh there are many reasons why this interview is among my favorites. It's rare that I do an in-person interview. Back then they used to always be done by phone, and nowadays it's a lot of times it's Zoom, but rarely is it in person, at least from for me. That part was cool, and also I was told to expect 10 minutes, maybe 20, depending on how it goes. And at 10, I saw the tour manager walking over, and I go, Oh, do we need to wrap it up? And she waved him off, and then we spoke for another 10 minutes or so before we had to wrap up. So that was a I I think that means it went well. So I hope you enjoyed this video, and thanks a lot for watching.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

So I wanted to start off with a question about your new record label because you switched labels between the last record and this record. I was wondering what prompted the change and how do you think it's going so far?

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Um, what prompted the change was I made three uh records with 4AD. Uh four, if you count the one with David Byrne, which was co-released by 4AD and Totamundo. And um my contract was up and I had a choice um to continue or not. And I decided to go someplace else.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

It was just wanted to change. It wasn't like you know, oh, I for this next phase of my career I need to do this or that.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

It wasn't it wasn't like deeply acrimonious or anything like that. It was just like, oh, you know, I'd like to I'd like to see what else is out there and see how other people work. And there was a really good team at uh Loma Vista. Actually, somebody from from 480 uh ended up uh going to a new label, and um it just seemed like a really good fit, and they were excited, and I was excited, and so far it's gone really well.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Well, good, good, good. Um is there it's considered, you know, 480 is sort of still considered an indie, and this Loma Vista is now tied in with the major. You know, there's not as much of a distinction these days as there used to be between things like 20 years ago, it was a big battle, you know, are you supposed to be an indie or whatever? So, anyways, do you is there additional pressure that you feel by being on a sort of a quote major label now, or have you felt any different in what their expectations are of you? Or um because it seems like you've been working your ass off for well, not just now, but a long time. And uh every magazine cover, you've been on every major, you know, you Google St. Vincent on YouTube and you've done every interview show, so it's like you're definitely there. Yeah. Um do you feel that extra pressure, or is it just like you've done this before and it's you're you're used to it at this point?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

No, there's no additional pressure. I mean, I I mean, except that pressure that I would just put on myself kind of naturally to succeed at life or art or whatever. Um there's not you know, I know what you mean 20 years ago, 30 years ago, there was a big difference between a major label and um an indie label. And it was a hard thing to kind of even there's a chasm between them that was difficult to even navigate. But it's the wild, wild west. The music industry is um super complicated and um super in a free fall, and nobody's making that making uh money off record sales. So um and 4ED is a I mean beggars, that whole system is a major is a major label. I mean, they put out a Dell. So it's not like it's not like you know the the David and Goliath kind of idea that it just doesn't apply anymore.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

That's kind of what I thought. Um so in sort of that, is uh speaking of that kind of dichotomy from back in the day where there used to be this big distinction. Now, is is the word like rock star or pop star like a bad word to you or an embarrassing thing to you, or are you gonna this is what is gonna happen, it could potentially happen. Is it a concept that that sort of you are turned off by uh you know, because then back in the day was again this fear of success that a lot of indie artists sort of had, or a pretend fear of success of just saying, I don't want that, and then there's no way I'll it'll actually happen.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

No, I know what you mean. I mean, I think in this day and age it's so hard to be any to have any level of success. And I mean it's so hard to like pay your bills as a musician that I don't think I think it's not a question anymore of like selling out, it's a question of survival.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Um and it's always it is always sort of a strange thing, you know, it doesn't happen anymore, but occasionally people will kind of use the term sell out, and it's like, well, the same people who aren't paying for your records are calling you a sellout for doing things that are to monetize what you did.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Piggy pop licensed this song to a TV commercial, and when he explained why he did it, I was like, okay, I'm over the whole concept of selling out for the city.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

It's you know, it's tricky, it's a tricky world.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

It's like, you know, he he said, Look, I I wrote the song Lust for Life 30 years ago. I know what it's about. It's not about selling a car. I'm comfortable with someone paying me to put it in a commercial. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I get that, you know?

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, it's a wild world, it really is.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Um I've read in articles that you you learned a lot about performing or enhanced your performing style with your tour with David Byrne. Um, but was wondering, did you did he change your approach to songwriting or add anything to it? Or did you guys collaborate or did you each bring in your own songs?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Um, we collaborated, but we really we really met in the middle. You know, it wasn't the thing that makes David so exciting still as a as an artist and as a polymath is that he wants to see how other people work and he's a he's a real natural collaborator. Um so it wasn't this dichotomy of like teacher and student or that kind of thing. I mean that's a good idea. You were at peer level, it wasn't like it was peer level. I mean, that doesn't give either one of us, I think, enough credit. Um but I but I certainly had uh so much fun with the Love This Giant tour uh because it was very theatrical and um it just seemed to me like no longer enough to just get up there and play some songs on a guitar. Like that that's fine, but I think the the thing, the kind of tip that I'm on right now is this idea that everything is performance once you walk on stage. So you can you can some some people are performing authenticity and they're wearing a flannel shirt and they have a beard and they're singing heartfelt, seemingly heartfelt songs, but they are just performing a version of authenticity, like a prohibition, you know, Dust Bowl sort of version of American authenticity. And it's good, it's fine. I'm not saying anything bad about it, but we're all kind of essentially doing the same thing. So the fact that I'm acknowledging that this is like this is all a performance is actually really liberating. You know, because I I'm I'm going, okay, well, I'm aware that every detail is gonna be looked at and interpreted some way. So why not be in control of those details? As opposed to like, hey, I'm just walking on stage and being me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

It's like, you know what? I wore these clothes all day. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

It's like, you know what, being you is not enough. Being you is fucking boring.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, this day and age, you gotta be better than you.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Um, you get compared to a lot of artists, a lot of articles always say the similar things. They say Kate Bush, etc. Um, what's the one artist that you think you sort of resemble that nobody's ever pointed out or that you were impacted by that?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

That nobody has ever said, hey, you sound like this, or um, one thing I do think is interesting is that often, even though I I love, I mean, I think Kate Bush is wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Um, but I don't really think I sound like Kate Bush.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

No, and it's a reference that a lot of people don't know anymore. You know, like the commercials for the concert, they said, you know, comparisons uh that were on the radio. It's a comparisons to Kate Bush. I'm like, you know what? The average 18-year-old doesn't remember Kate Bush.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

No, God no. You know, I mean she hasn't performed in 35 years, so it's like the cool 18-year-olds know who Kate Bush is. Sure, right. But but I know what you mean. It's not it's not a current, it's not a current reference. I mean she still makes records, and she's I'm not saying she's not a current artist, but I mean, yeah, most kids don't know who that is. Um I don't and I think I don't really sound like Kate Bush. Um and I think it's interesting. Um I've sort of been able to evade it uh to some degree, but definitely earlier on in my my career, there's just always always a comparison to another female artist that I had in a lot of times I had to be.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

I hear Kate Bush, then I hear David Bowie talking heads to male artists, you know. So I I didn't necessarily associate it in in that way. I just thought it's sort of a strange reference. Like I used to manage this pop group in the 90s that was really into Lindsay Buckingham. They were called the X-Action figures. Uh-huh. And they they really loved Lindsay Buckingham. That was like their idol. Okay, well, in the 90s, or early 90s, 92, 93, in like indie magazines, they didn't want to hear you say you're like Lindsay Buckingham, you know? So it was like a an odd reference that people didn't like. And it sort of turned them off, but it's like, that's but that's what they're into. And isn't that sort of the independent spirit? Like they can be influenced by Lindsay Buckingham the same way that you could buy, you know, uh, what's the name, Howard DeSoto or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah, totally. You know, it's interesting. There is definitely there's a canon of like cool bands. Like, there's like I'm not sure what it is, but every say five years, because the cycles are getting shorter because of the internet, every five years someone's like, you know what was an amazing band? Joy Division. And I'm like, yeah, Joy Division was an amazing band. They work like it, yes. But they have this like this um this permacool thing, and every five years someone's like, you know what? I'm gonna sound exactly like Joy Division. And it's I mean, it's cool, that because whatever, but um, but there are other bands, like nobody's ever, and like a band that I love, like Steely Dan. Nobody ever kind of comes around and is like, well, we're kind of doing a Steely Dan thing, it's really it's gonna be huge. All the all the time.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Well, I told the guy, I don't know if you ever heard the group Blinker the Star, it's a Canadian group. I told him that I thought their new album sounded like Steely Dan, and he was like, Thank you, man. That is the best thing I've ever heard, you know, because he was getting these flaming lips comparisons and stuff that he didn't really think was appropriate. Yeah. And I said Steely Dan, and he was like, exactly. But the you know, nobody else seemed to really care about that. Um, if you could be in any other band at any time, what group would that have been and what would you play in that group?

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Oh man. Um, every once in a while when I'm sound checking and for whatever reason not singing, um, I'm reminded how fun it is to just play guitar in a band uh and not be a front person. So Angus Young then. Yeah, with the suspenders and the little short shorts and stuff, yeah. Um You know what? I would be uh I would be like Pat Smear.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

I'd fucking join Nirvana.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Join Rivana. And you had the germs, of course. Do we need to wrap it up?

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Um I was thinking about your rock sorry, I'm eating raspberries. Um I was thinking about your rock star question.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

And I know what you mean, like in 1990 or 89 or whatever, the the thing was so bloated, like a rock star meant like being poison or being Axl Rose or something like that. And um so then you had like Nirvana or somebody in Pearl Jam and stuff like that come along who were people who And they felt guilty about being a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

You felt guilty about it. Yeah. And I always thought that was so strange, but it was so true. I like I said, I used to manage bands and I had a little label, and that was the time when there was this battle, and if you were connected in any way, shape, or form with some big label or some big thing, you were tainted. Yeah, and it didn't matter that all those artists, if they were really honest, wanted to play bigger places. They're not embarrassed of having money, they're not, you know, whatever. They just it was it was illegal to admit to that, basically.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

You know what I think that was? Well, because I mean I guess if you go back and look, like Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, those they were at one time on major labels in the early 90s. But I think um I think what that was was the 90s were actually a time of prosperity. And there was a sense that, like, well, you don't have to be a fucking gazillionaire, you can just like probably live a maybe a comfortable like middle class life or something.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

You know, it wasn't like a choice between you know squalor and there also there were so few like good rock stars at that point. In the 70s, it wasn't embarrassing. Neil Young was a rock star in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Nothing wrong with Neil Young. I mean, he's awesome, you know. And there were guys, people that you even kind of crummy bands that you know, but they're still around or whatever. Uh I'm not saying Van Halen's crummy, but they were like big rock stars or whatever, and it wasn't a bad thing. It's just it it kind of turned negative at some point as the 80s got played out into the 90s, the new decade, etc. But it was so fierce, and I I I look back and I hated that time because I made a lot of terrible decisions based on that same mentality that if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have made those same decisions.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Because they were wrong at the time, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Yeah, well, and times are tougher now, so I don't think people are as like afraid of success. But uh, you know, there's a there is you brought up the 70s rock star thing, and it is interesting. I mean, there's you know, bands like Zeppelin, big stadium bands who I mean I think Zeppelin's great. Yeah, um the rhythm section, especially, but there was that period in the late 70s when like the snake started eating its own tail, and you just started having all these songs about like being on the road. Yeah. And there's some songs from that, you know, era lexicon, like um Hot Blooded, and it was at like bands like Chicago and that's like foreigner Chicago sticks, Rio, Speedwag, and Journey.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Can you tell the difference between most of them?

SPEAKER_02 15:33

All that shit I hate. I never I could never get it.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Interchangeable groups because you never knew who was in the band. There was no identity with like, oh, I really uh, you know, the guy I have hump up on my wall is the bass player for REO. It's like, no, no one does that, you know? Yeah, but yet they sold more records than anyone that you put on your wall, you know? Yeah, of course. It was such a bizarre.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

But it's weird, it was weird aspirational music too. It was like, but it was just all songs about being on the road and like that's all you needed back then, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Roll with the changes? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Rambling or just everybody's rambling. Um but that's like a whole that that started to be, I think, like the dark the dark zone of rock and roll, which led us into you know poison and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

What happened in the 80s, which is a dark period. Yeah. Yeah. Um since you've become a little bit famous in your own right, uh, and I don't um have you met anybody that you used to sort of idolize as a teenager or were a fan of, maybe not idolize, that you've encountered, and maybe the encounter was really good or the encounter was really bad.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Well, I would never say it if the encounter was really bad. Okay. Um I will say I met um I met Eddie Vetter.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Who was a big uh big part of my life. You know, Pearl Jimton came out when I was 10.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Oh my gosh, he's so much older than you then.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Yeah, you know, so that was like a big deal. Um and I was uh I got to thank him, which was I felt I was very emotional. He's a nice guy, again, he's very nice. He's a sweet guy. Um and Prince came to the show in New York. I didn't get to meet him because he kind of is not very well, so I don't know if I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

It might not have been that good of an experience. He's one of those guys I would wonder whether he would be nice or not. Well, he came to the U he might be.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

He came with a friend of mine. Uh he came with a friend of mine, so I think it would have been totally sweet and pleasant.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Um I was just always curious about that because I had my one negative experience.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Oh, with who?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Uh Paul Westerberg.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

I met him when I was 18. I was the editor of the high school newspaper, so I got to go backstage and like meet them. And I had this little 8x10, those little 8x10 glossy band photos. That'd be okay. So I had the whole band sign it. And when I got to Westerberg, I approached him and I told him who I was and everything, and he sees the picture in my hand and he goes, Where'd you get that? And I'm like, uh, in the mail. And he grabs it out of my hand and he rips it into pieces. Okay, and throws it on the ground. And like everybody's looking like, holy shit, I can't believe that he just did that. So I'm like devastated, right? And I had all this other stuff to sign too, but I didn't want to give it to him anymore. And he's like, What else do you have? So I had this musician magazine with them on the cover. So then he grabs it from me, and then he signs it like 30 times. It keeps opening the page and signing it and opening the page and signing it. And then we started talking about stuff, and he was cool for like 10 minutes. But it was like, what the hell just happened? Like, why do you think that's it?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Maybe it was a really unfair it was a really unflattering picture. It's like, oh, I never want this to see the blood of day.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Well, there were thousands of them out there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Well, okay, so I know we're probably gotta wrap it up. So let me just ask you one thing. Since this is your fourth or fifth time in Omaha, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

I've seen you four times, so unless you're here to leave time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

So sorry about the first three.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

No, no, no. You know what? I mean, uh this is gonna sound bad or whatever, but I saw you open for the national when you before you had the band and everything. And um, I went there to thinking, okay, St. Vince is cool, I'm here for the national. Yeah. I watched your set. I didn't even want to see the national after that. And I loved the band. And none of the two. You know what I mean? But it was so different and it was just so like exciting for me because it was something I wasn't expecting that just four guys being kind of sad and stuff just wasn't. I mean, ordinarily that would have worked for me, but it wasn't gonna work for me that night, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Oh, well, I'm glad you enjoyed that show. I remember that tour because I wanted to have like some sort of like a light show, but I didn't have any money and anything, so I like went and I built, I like welded this crazy light thing together. It was like kind of cornball LED like light thing. The LED things were from Guitar Center, and it was like reacted to sound. And I remember that took like an hour and a half to set up. Like I could barely see Jack because I was setting up this stupid light video.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

See, I just I just remember just being so impressed with how different it was and the balls it would take, no offense, you know, to like step on stage by yourself because that would be petrifying to me. Yeah. To just do it with nobody else there and to have all those pedals and all the gear and all this. I I just I I ended up being like, wow, I can't watch just a regular band right now. I'm I think I need to go home and do something. Well, okay, I'll I'll end it there because I know you gotta go, but I want to do the ultimate corny thing. Okay, I wanted to know if you could sign a record for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Okay. Generally I don't like to do that during interviews, but I don't know if I'll get another chance.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Do you have any other Sharpie?

SPEAKER_00 20:33

I do. I'm prepared, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Oh, oh, Tom Carlson has a sharpie.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Ooh. Maybe yours is better than mine. You know what would be more horrifying is if you actually went and saw Foreigner today with no original members, and the bass player from Dachin is the bass player for Foreigner, and he does all those heavy metal moves like he was in. I was watching this on the Palladium channel the other day, and they got a singer who sounds just like Lou Graham.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Yeah. And then uh Why aren't the where are the original numbers? Did they?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Oh, I don't know. I mean, who knows? I think this one guy wrote all those songs anyways.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 21:16

I believe. I mean the the I can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

I don't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

You know, that's the funny thing about America. It's like somebody, somebody who can whose like grandfather made Tootsie rolls is like will never have to work a day in his life. Like it's a really bizarre.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Mike Nessman's from the monkeys. His mom invented whiteout.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Really?

SPEAKER_01 21:36

He he was one of the first investors in beta that made a video.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

I knew he was in video production. I didn't know about the beta thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

I heard he's a really nice guy though.