Annie Clark, known as St. Vincent, launched her career as a guitar virtuoso—a real shredder—in indie rock, playing alongside artists like Sufjan Stevens. As a bandleader, she’s moved away from the explosive solos, telling David Remnick, “There’s a certain amount of guitar playing that is about pride, that isn’t about the song. . . . I’m not that interested in guitar being a means of poorly covered-up pride.” Her songs are dense, challenging, and not always easy, but catchy and seductive. Remnick caught up with Clark before the launch of her new album, “MASSEDUCTION.” They talked about the clarity of purpose she needed in order to “clear a path” to write the “glamorously sad songs” she’s become known for.This segment originally aired on October 13, 2017.
Who is St. Vincent and what is her musical background?
St. Vincent's new album, Just Out, is called Mass Seduction.
I asked her about the title track.
This is Toko Yasuda, who plays in my live band. I wanted her to pretend like she was an alien describing how to seduce someone, but in Japanese.
Why Japanese?
Because a couple of reasons. One, a totally self-serving one, which is that I love Japan and I want to be big in Japan so that I can go there all the time. I mean, I'm not above strategy.
Why did you decide to make this track the title track? In other words, how does it shape the whole of the album, the conception of the album, the themes of the album?
It's more or less kind of like a thesis. It's more or less, it contains all the characters that you meet on the album. It's... I thought of it like a graduate thesis or something.
A graduate thesis?
Yeah.
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