Teen Vogue/2017/Interview

===Interviewhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-grimes-is-ready-for-robot-overlords===
=Why Grimes Is Ready for Our Robot Overlords=
Grimes, AKA Claire Boucher, talks robot overlords, the gender gap in STEM, and neuroscience at WWDC 2017.
BY AMANDA SOUTHWORTH
JUNE 28, 2017Grimes, a singer, songwriter, artist, sound engineer, and possibly a different species than human, is a person and a genre of her own. Listen to any of her songs, and you’ll soon understand what I’m talking about. Her music style can be described as electro-pop, with her vocals ethereally shining through. Even Grimes’ style, a combination of streetwear and modern goth, is uniquely and boldly her own, and it’s highly doubtful that you’ll find another person remotely like her on Earth.
And that’s exactly her charm. Starting her life in Canada as Claire Boucher, she took on a normal existence but soon undertook Grimes, her alter ego. She even studied neuroscience in college while taking on the responsibility of touring, even though it eventually got her unenrolled. Ever since then, she’s been creating, touring, and following who she wants to be. Judging by her 779,000 Instagram followers, nominations for multiple prestigious awards, and shooting for campaigns like Alexander Wang, she’s done exactly that.
If her accomplishments in the recent years aren’t enough to make you look twice, you’re missing out on her true, and most impressive strength. Her success and following only prove how she turned what her weaknesses, such as lack of support and equipment due to being signed to an independent label, into a strong fan base with collaborations with artists such as Janelle Monae. Grimes’ visual style is somewhat of a mosh pit between comic-style sketches and gothic dystopian influences. She created her own look, her own sound, and she ran with it.
Every layer of her is filled with more insight to who she is as a person, and how all of that correlates to her own style in music and art. Claire recently attended WWDC, which she enjoyed and looks forward to getting a computer that can one day handle the stress she puts on them, “I spend so much time editing videos and music, so I’m always crashing and destroying computers”. Which is easily understandable, as she produces, engineers, and records most of her earlier tracks herself, and directs a large portion of her own videos, which even go up for awards against veteran professionals. Her dedication to her work is something anyone can see, and it shines through within each record, each with a different variation on her synth “electro-pop” sound.
Underneath her cool exterior is something more surprising, though. She is so easily relatable, and far away from the sort of barrier that many artists create between them and their fans. If you saw her at WWDC, you would see the flaming dog tag around her neck, which was given to her by a fan. She also runs an art page in which she features fan art and occasionally peeks of her own sketches. Instead of posting photos posed and edited, she prefers candid shots and freeze-frame moments in her life — as well as photos of her dog. Even as an accomplished musician, she still finds time to voice her thoughts on her platform, often sharing websites or pieces of information relevant the current political climate on Instagram and Twitter. She is a strong advocate for the environment, as well as a supporter for those affected by the refugee crisis in Syria and surrounding countries.
Even more so, she is blunt and tells you what she wants you to know, not what she thinks will impress you. When asked about what she looks forward to in life, she simply replied, “Spaghetti”. She is a self-professed canned food lover, and is in love with Singapore due to their environmental regulations. Looking to the future, she’s finally getting to a place where she’s able to do what she wants to do with her music and style, “I have a budget for the first time ever, so I’m buying a sh*t ton of hardware and building a studio, and just getting to go where I want to”.
With Claire, every turn in a conversation is more surprising than the last. She’s a strong proponent of being nicer to computers (she’s already pledged allegiance to the robot overlords on her Instagram), as she believes they’ll rule us all someday, “I used to think, being in neuroscience, that we can’t develop a computer smarter than us if we can’t understand our brains; but now it’s a reality.”
She has a strong background and love for neuroscience and even developed a thesis about the gender gap in STEM, which Claire believes is a result of gendered toys that give girls a disadvantage from the start. While boys' toys revolve more around engineering and science, girls' toys tend to revolve around cooking or fashion design, she says, and as a result underexposes girls to the STEM field as a whole. Aside from her entire Grimes ‘ego', she's an animal lover and an avid reader, filling her Tumblr with music from artists of all walks of life. Claire holds an undying love for Ronda Rousey, citing her fighting sexism in MMA as an inspiration and part of the reason she was able to finish Art Angels, her 2015 album.
While she’s a complex person, it only works for her, gathering everyday listeners and turning them into fans. And what’s most impressive, is Claire herself. She’s making it within the music industry, not bothering to change who she is to better her chances of succeeding. It’s clear to see Grimes’ appeal. She is far more open than many other artists are, and she’s not afraid to speak up for what she believes in. She’s not here to be molded by society or to be formed into another mainstream artist guided by the latest sounds or trends.
Grimes is who she is, not who you want her to be.Category:InterviewCategory:2017