STATUS/Interview

===Interviewhttps://issuu.com/statusmagonline/docs/statusmagazine31/80===
﻿BLIGHTS
&
BLOSSOMS
Halfway between pathogenic and photogenic, GRIMES synthesizes psychobabble and fantasy with loops, lisps, synths, and cries to life and destruction. Her third album, Visions, seeds the germ of her music. Weed no filler. Need no filter. This is the kind of overgrowth to snort.
By Kristine Dabbay
The way to her world begins with the way out of it. So prods the escapist 24-year old Grimes aka Claire Boucher. She has already run past the stalks of the wild where her sound sprung from silence to singles. For one, she's influenced by Frank Herbert's Dune alongside Lord of the Rings and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But other times, she's giddy with reality. "I get pretty high on life. But I like ketamine." she says.
Ketamine causes hallucinations and numbness, much like Visions that starts with a bass-heavy affirmation to desire in "Infinite ♡ without Fulfillment" and ends with minimalist track "Know the Way" that glimmers like Satie's "Gymnopedie" mashed with billowing alien vocals.
If these trappings impress the public. her recent trip to a music festival in Mexico didn't fare well with the police. They strip-searched Grimes, accusing her of drug smuggling. She reveals, "Well I don't want to say too much because I'm afraid of that happening again. [Laughs] Mexico was really beautiful, though."
Not always pharmacologically correct. she mixes business, travel, and pleasure to induce sensual, mystical, and cathartic purging. While tripping on acid and the chant-like music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Grimes climbed Montreal's Mount Royal-each of her steps weighing above four feet of snow. Her cuts didn't sting because of the cold. People gawked when she returned. Blood trickled all over her body. Still, Grimes counts this as one of the most intense experiences in her life. Another involves Grimes and her friends traveling in a houseboat (rumored to be filled with chickens, potatoes, a typewriter, and a copy of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) that rafted down Mississippi. If Noah's ark weathered a great storm, Grimes' journey was beset by engine glitches and police chases. She shares. "My reality is a dream world right now. My literal dreams are extremely violent."
Call it halo effect. It's easy to be snared by Grimes' shroud of thought coloring violence with ultraviolets. In "Oblivion," she sings, "See you in the dark night" with half-nude men in a locker room. her pink bangs and soft waves sticking out at tangents. "I don't really see my music and fashion as translating to each other. I think because they come from the same person, there's a strong sense of continuity. weirdly enough. But I don't want to draw metaphors out. I love working with visuals in any way possible, so working with my image is something I care about﻿ a lot, but it's not super linked to my music per se." says Grimes.
Visions' cover art is made by hers truly. Like an etching, it's mostly composed of defined black lines portraying images of a crying alien, a spiked skull, the Eye of Horus, and foreign letters. Creating also led her to curate her exhibit last March with fellow Canadian artists Dan Rocca and Alex Mackenzie at New York City's Audio Visual Arts Gallery. Her rebel-may-scare stance caught the eye of Dazed. Instead of being behind the cover. she transformed into a tribal 21st century cover muse clad in Givenchy. McQueen, and pounds of jewelry-all shot by YSL's Hedi. Slimane. She says, "Yes. I love the idea of building something that is distinctly Grimes and I love changing things, and changing the way I look is something I can do that doesn't necessarily have permanent consequences. I mean, tattoos have permanent consequences, but I think I kind of get off on the adrenaline." When it comes to styling one's bangs, she advises, "Hack at them until you realize you have made a huge mistake, and then try to justify it to people by saying it's art."
Others declare her as another freak off her leash-a one album wonder of 2012-most likely to be remembered as this GarageBand- educated musician whose strange aesthetics magnetized the anti-pop cult. Grimes. however, ignores critics. She says, "I make my music for specific people in my life and for myself too. I don't read reviews because I don't want to know what the critical opinion is. My validation comes from the people who are close to me-those who I trust."
That's why her lyrics are ciphers. It may look like she's baring everything but there are parts of herself that she'd rather hide. Grimes says. "I think it's probably just called a speech impediment. I have a lisp. But I also just try to obscure a bit because while meaning is important, it's more about performance for me, vocally. The lyrics are really personal. so it's good when people can't hear them." Yes, performance entails an audience but Grimes believes "everyone has a feeling of intense isolation." She adds, "It's impossible to ever really know anybody as deeply as you know yourself."
A good way to know Grimes, of course. is through listening to her previous records Geidi Primes and Halfaxa. She wrote Geidi right after breaking up with her boyfriend so she considers it juvenile. Halfaxa, on the other hand. tackles a more ambitious ambience by sculpting surreal landscapes to her sound influenced by Burial, Blawan, Cut Hands, and choral music.
Despite her attraction to the underground, she admits. "I don't feel guilty about liking Mariah Carey. I don't think anyone should ever let other people's opinions of a piece of art dictate their opinion of it. 'We Belong Together' is legitimately super beautiful and emotional." While Grimes' music seems to lack the immediate emotional impact pop ditties offer, a second listen reveals her as a budding songstress whose manic longings and knack for partying result to ethereal sounds.
She's presently doing a "live improv drone techno act" with Tim Lafontaine called Membrain. In the same vein, Grimes injects us with her Visions potent enough to stir psychedelia. Don't worry, it's not poisonous. Consider it DJ Feelgood- prescribed.
grimes-claireboucher.tumblr.com
Category:Interview
Category:2012