St. Vincent’s Seduction

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	These are just anecdotes, but it's building up into something more coherent.
0:09.0	And I think it's interesting to really try to unravel what his ties.
0:13.0	There's a sort of country city divide for their own convenient, and then it's not clear where it goes next.
0:19.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production
0:24.6	of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:29.6	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:41.3	Not long ago, I spent the afternoon at a concert hall on the west side of Manhattan where Annie Clark was getting ready for a show.
0:47.3	Clark performs under the name St. Vincent, and she started out in indie rock.
0:51.3	She played with artists like Sufion Stevens.
0:53.3	But St. Vincent was an old school shredder, a terrific guitar player and a rock star.
0:58.5	As a solo artist, she's been compared to David Bowie, and her music is heady and layered,
1:03.8	and not always easy, but it's catchy and somehow seductive.
1:07.5	You traced the Andes with your index.
1:33.6	St. Vincent's new album, Just Out, is called Mass Seduction.
1:36.4	I asked her about the title track.
1:45.4	This is Toko Yasuda, who plays in my live band.
1:52.5	I wanted her to pretend like she was an alien describing how to seduce someone, but in Japanese.
1:57.1	Black saints in a lady playing knock our soul.
1:59.1	A punk rock romantic.
2:00.3	Why in Japanese?
2:03.6	Because a couple of reasons.? Because a couple reasons.
2:09.7	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.
	...

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