LOVE Magazine/2012/Interview

Interview
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===Interviewhttps://web.archive.org/web/20200805155915/https://www.thelovemagazine.co.uk/article/how-grimes-is-much-more-than-claire-bouchers-musical-moniker===
HOW 'GRIMES' IS MUCH MORE THAN CLAIRE BOUCHER'S MUSICAL MONIKER
Words by PAUL FLYNN
When she was 21, CLAIRE BOUCHER sailed a boat made of garbage, Coke cans and wooden doors down the Mississippi river. It's a fairly extraordinary story, but she tells it like it's the most normal thing in the world. 'I was dating this guy at the time and he'd done that before with a bunch of people. I just really didn't want to pay rent. I was really tired of having a job and having to pay a landlord. Why can't I live on a boat? If it's trouble then I'll just move elsewhere...' There was trouble: Claire was arrested, the boat was impounded and destroyed. "The police took my passport, destroyed it, smashed windows and glass all over us and charged us with a bunch of things that we didn't actually do. And then I was homeless for two and a half months without any money in the States...'
It's lucky that Claire appreciates the joys of a peripatetic life, because she'll be experiencing a great deal of it. Albeit probably not water-bound. Claire performs under the name GRIMES-throughout 2012 she is touring to promote her third and much-lauded LP, Visions, across Europe and North America. But for Claire, Grimes is more than a mere musical moniker. She terms it a project, and a multilayered one at that. 'When I started getting recognition from music and stuff, people were like you need a band name - so Grimes happened, explains Claire. 'But I make so much art of so many different kinds that I thought it'd be cool to put everything under this umbrella. It's almost like my company - it's my brand: Grimes. It's something that I can pour myself into. And it's kind of boundless. The possibilities are really endless as to what I could do with this.'
Claire creates the artwork for Grimes' albums - the Visions cover references Aztec art, sporting a screaming skull that cross-breeds a Mexican Day Of The Dead papier mâché decoration with something from an HR Giger nightmare-scape. 'I wanted it to be freaky', she asserts. Her line of tour merchandise pushes that to another level - not for Grimes the sweaty screenprint Ts of other music acts. 'We didn't want normal merchandise, it's so stupid to give a T-shirt,' says Claire. Instead, she worked with jewellery designer Morgan Black - a Montreal native, like Claire herself - to create a resin cocktail ring-cum-knuckleduster in the shape of a vagina.
When it comes to the visuals - her mesmerising videos, say, or all those genital gems - Claire allows that Grimes is very much a collaborative effort. But the music is Claire's own creation. 'Sometimes I really wish I had a band because it's lonely. But as far as making an album goes, this is my work of art. This is a thing I made that justifies my existence on this planet. In that sense, I wouldn't want anyone else.'Category:InterviewCategory:2012