Pitchfork/2012/Aug/Interview

===Interviewhttps://pitchfork.com/features/directors-cut/8929-grimes/===
Grimes: "Genesis"
Claire Boucher on the inspirations and dangers behind her wild new video.
by Carrie Battan
"I can't help taking everything that's attractive to me and putting it into stuff," Grimes' Claire Boucher says. "I'm very bad at keeping things minimal." That's never been so apparent as in her new self-directed video for Visions cut "Genesis", a visual feast of oddities that makes her "Oblivion" video look like an episode of "Leave It to Beaver" in comparison. For anyone who's followed Boucher's ascent-- whether fondly or skeptically-- it's safe to say she's outdone herself here.
In the clip, Boucher yields a burning sword and swings a mace, drives an Escalade in the desert, parties and blows bubbles in the back of a limo (while holding a giant python!) and poses in the woods with a bunch of medicated-looking weirdos. And then there's Brooke Candy-- whom Boucher describes as "a very contemporary muse"-- at the metallic neon-pink center of it all, looking like a character you only encounter at the very highest levels of a Sega Genesis role-playing game. Still, in spite of the wild imagery, aggressive characters, and outlandish props, there's a peaceful cotton-candy glow that almost lulls you into hypnosis.
Pitchfork: There's a lot going on here. What's the concept of the video?
Claire Boucher: It's loosely based on this painting by my favorite painter, Hieronymus Bosch, called "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things". I wanted to play with Medieval/Catholic imagery. I was raised in a Catholic household and went to a Catholic school, and my childhood brain perceived medieval Catholicism as an action movie: There's this crazy omnipresent guy who can destroy you at any moment.
If painters could be compared to filmmakers, Bosch is the Hype Williams of renaissance painters. With Bosch, there's always a narrative that is very nonlinear-- and that's the essence of a good music video. Hype Williams' music videos don't have narratives either-- they just focus so much on charisma. I find it really hard to throw myself into something artistically where I'm making up a whole character and finding something for that character to do.
Pitchfork: It feels reminiscent of a lot of video games, too.
CB: That just naturally happens in a lot of the art I do because I like to read comics and play video games. I want it to be anime-like. It was very Tarantino influenced, and he's influenced by anime, and obviously anime and video games go hand in hand. The video references so much because I can't help taking everything that's attractive to me and putting it into stuff. I'm very bad at keeping things minimal.
Pitchfork: Who's the woman with the pink braids, Brooke Candy?
CB: I played a show in L.A. a few months ago, and I saw her at a party. She looked so cool that I was like, "OK, I'm just going to move to L.A. because that person has the best style I've ever seen in my life." So I moved to L.A. for a couple of weeks and I ran into her at a party pretty much on the first day. I was just like, "Dude, you have the most star power of any person I've ever met. I need to make a music video and I need you to drive it as a character."
I don't have any money to hire actors. I just need to get people who are going to do a good job being themselves. Brooke Candy was the first person I found. It was all about her.
Pitchfork: What's her background?
CB: She's like a very contemporary muse: People make outfits for her, do her hair, take pictures with her, have her host things. She's like the Ryan Seacrest of indie culture; she's extremely magnetic. Whenever she's in a room, you just feel everyone being pulled towards her. She's also really comfortable with herself, which is key. Sometimes you find people who are magnetic, but once they get in front of a camera, they freak out and get weird. But she performs all the time. She's super powerful and aggressive, but really warm at the same time. That's a really good line to walk. You might be kind of afraid of her, but you still want to be around her. She's very kind in real life.
Pitchfork: Why did you decide to add the minute-long intro?
CB: We got all this beautiful footage because the light was unbelievable at the end of the second day, but it didn't fit into the storyline. Still, I really wanted to use it-- I felt like it was aggressive and weird, like Beyoncé meets Dune or something. I also wanted to put out more music because I'm very limited in what I'm allowed to put out now because I signed to a record label. It was an excuse to do more stuff without getting in trouble, I guess.
Pitchfork: Did you have a lot of people gawking and wondering what the hell you were doing when you filmed in L.A.?
CB: People didn't talk to us much. But with the limo shots, we were kind of on the side of the road, and people kept staring and accidentally almost driving into us. The limo driver was just laughing at us; he probably thought we were doing a high school art project.
Pitchfork: You seem pretty comfortable holding a python.
CB: It's just an animal. If you're nice to it, it will most likely be nice back. Every once in awhile it would start tightening-- starting to want to kill you-- and the trainer would have to come and calm it down. It's an albino python that we rented from this place that rents out birds and reptiles for movies.
Pitchfork: It looks just like the snake from Britney Spears' performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U" video at the 2001 Video Music Awards. Could it be the same one?
CB: It's actually a different python. I wish it was the same python. I was specifically referencing her performance in this video. That was one of Britney's best moments.
Pitchfork: Were there any safety issues on set with the snake, the car, or any of the weapons?
CB: I was having a really good time driving that Escalade, but it was definitely very illegal-- I don't have a license. [laughs] I actually almost drove the car into another car. And I think some people got hurt with the weapons. I maced myself in the hip and burnt my hand really badly on the sword. There were definitely some close calls with the mace-- you could kill someone in a minute with that thing.
Pitchfork: It's easy to tell when you have direct involvement in making a video and when you don't, like "Nightmusic".
CB: Yes. That's the one that I did not direct. The director was great, but that's when I decided that I can never not direct a music video ever again. I didn't want it to be a fashion ad. I don't want to make things that look nice but don't really do anything else. I'm not criticizing that video, but the concept was a lot bigger than how it turned out. To be completely honest, I think I prefer making videos to making music.
Pitchfork: You've said that you wanted to make a video for every song on Visions. Are you still planning to do that?
CB: Everyone's so overexposed with Grimes right now, and I'm so sick of my own music that I don't know if I can edit another video, which involves hundreds of hours of listening to your own song again and again and again. It becomes so grating after a while. I've moved on; I'm psychologically past this album.
I want Grimes to get a lot less cute and a lot more aggressive. Obviously, I like things that are cute and aggressive at the same time, but I didn't want it to just be mini-bangs and lip-syncing in a dress. I need to get away from that stuff.Category:Interview
Category:2012